Q: In your mind, what are the three most important leadership principles? And why is that?
A: First, leaders fix the environment, not people. When they see a problem they don’t blame their people, but instead look for problems in the area they are responsible for: the environment.
Second, leaders help people feel safe, not stress. Adding stress to humans makes it harder for them to think and be creative.
And three, leaders push authority to information; not information to authority. All organizations have this gap between those with the authority and those with the information. In the 20th century we channeled information to authority (think about all the stop light charts and reports you fill out). In the 21st century, winning organizations will channel authority for making decisions to their people on the front line, who have the information. This will result in more adaptive, more resilient, more responsive organizations.
