A manifesto is a declaration of intentions. Sounds pretty complex but I think sometimes simple lists can offer the quick regrouping you need when trying to stay on track and stay the course. Whether you are a CEO, a teacher, a politician, a parent or community activist, you are a leader and leadership rarely happens well without intent, an understood aim or purpose. So I think of a manifesto is things you want to keep in mind or remember on purpose.
More often than not, the most effective leaders have an intention and purpose that drive them forward. There are the big things and there are the smaller things, but they all matter and move you in the right direction. And unlike other official documents, your manifesto doesn’t have to be carved in stone, a lengthy tome for the ages. I actually prefer to focus my intentions on areas I need to work on based upon my own evolution as a leader, areas of my organization that really need my attention and especially what I see the people around me need. So today, it’s Today’s Leadership Manifesto, tomorrow it might be the Summer Fun Manifesto or Things I Mean To Do But Haven’t Manifesto. You are only limited by your imagination.
Where in your life as a leader might you benefit from taking pen to paper or fingertips to keyboard and writing the ideas that are important to your progress and that of the group you lead? Here’s my Today’s Manifesto, it might spark some ideas of your own. It’s not necessarily life changing stuff or even things you or I haven’t heard before, just the stuff worth keeping in my mind as I go through my day.
1. You get what you reward.
2. Do the hardest stuff first.
3. Say both thank you and no liberally.
4. Inspiring people requires that you set an example they’ll want to follow.
5. People always come first.
6. Hard work always pays off.
7. People crave purpose, give them one.
8. The best tools make the job easier.
9. If you cannot measure performance, you cannot manage it.
10. Make a list.
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