Fourteen Principles of Leadership

Editor’s note: This essay forms part of Cultivated’s leadership canon — a collection of principles on influence, behaviour, and the craft of leading well.

Fourteen Principles of Leadership

One of the questions I’m asked most often in my work is simple:

“How do I become a leader?”

There is no single answer. But over the years I’ve developed a set of principles that guide how I try to lead. I keep them in a notebook. I return to them often. I test myself against them in every role, every engagement, and increasingly, in life.

Before we begin, one distinction matters.

Management is not leadership.

Peter Drucker put it neatly:

“A manager focuses on doing things right. A leader focuses on doing the right things.”

Managers ensure work is done well. Leaders ensure the work matters.

Often the same person must do both — but leadership itself is about influence, not authority.

With that in mind, here are the principles I try to live by.

1. Lead yourself first

You cannot lead others until you can lead yourself.

Leadership begins with self-awareness, discipline, and personal standards. Your health, energy, judgement, and behaviour are always on display.

One rule in my notebook reads:

“Don’t tell others who I am — show them.”

People learn who you are not from your words, but from your consistency under pressure.

2. Leadership is influence, not authority

Good leaders do not command loyalty. They earn it.

Influence comes from example, clarity, and trust. People follow those whose behaviour they respect — not those who merely hold power.

3. Leadership is earned daily

A title grants a role, not respect.

People decide whether to follow you based on what you do, not what sits on your business card. Leadership is demonstrated quietly, every day, through judgement and conduct.

4. Focus relentlessly on behaviour

Your team watches everything.

Your language, tone, decisions, and reactions are copied more faithfully than any policy document. Culture spreads through imitation.

If you want high standards, live them first.

5. Care about something that matters

You cannot inspire indifference.

People are drawn to leaders who visibly care — about the work, the mission, the future. When leaders lose that spark, teams feel it immediately.

Care is not sentimentality. It is commitment. It is the fuel for the engine of the business.

6. Care about people, not approval

Leadership is a balance.

Care deeply for your team — but do not lead by popularity. Difficult decisions are unavoidable. The test is not whether everyone agrees, but whether you act with evidence, fairness, and respect.

7. Focus on what you can control

You cannot control markets, politics, or personalities.

You can control your behaviour, preparation, and response.

Effective leaders invest their energy where they can actually make a difference.

8. Study the system you lead

Leadership is not just about people — it is about the system they are part of.

Broken processes create bad behaviour. Before blaming individuals, understand the structure they operate within.

Great leaders fix environments, not just symptoms.

9. Assume people want to do good work

Most people are not lazy. They are unclear, blocked, or poorly supported.

Give people purpose, clarity, and the right conditions, and performance usually follows.

10. Have the discipline to do the hard work

Leadership is sustained effort.

It means preparing properly, holding difficult conversations, and doing the unglamorous work consistently. Discipline creates trust. Trust creates momentum.

11. Know the work you lead

You do not need to be the best technician — but you must understand the work well enough to guide it.

Credibility comes from comprehension. People trust leaders who understand reality.

12. Don’t do or say what requires repair later

Temper, gossip, and careless words always return with interest.

Lead calmly. Disagree with respect. Decide without theatre.

Aim to lead in a way that rarely requires apology.

13. Communicate clearly and steadily

Leadership without positive communication is invisible.

Clarity prevents confusion. Calm prevents escalation. Most organisational problems begin as communication failures.

This is not a soft skill. It is a core one. Communication is infrastructure.

14. Give credit away

Leadership is not about personal elevation.

Celebrate others publicly. Take responsibility privately. Never steal credit.

Strong leaders create more leaders, not more followers.

Final reflection

Leadership is not a title. It is a practice.

It is built from self-mastery, example, discipline, and care — repeated daily, often quietly, rarely perfectly.

If you live these principles, you may not always be popular.

But you will be trusted.

And trust is the foundation on which real leadership rests.

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Editor’s note: This essay grows from an earlier exploration in another medium. The thinking remains central, even as the format has changed.