Leadership Principles for Your Company and Your Life

Not values, but “leadership principles” is what I like to call it. Every person in your organization should be a leader, irrespective of title. Leaders operate without titles and don’t use authority to drive. They bring people along and using the power of inclusiveness, inspire and take people to the promised land. You should want to build a company of leaders, not managers. In fact, that is the primary difference between managers and leaders. Managers use authority to drive; leaders use the power of influence.

So, what defines a leader in your company? What behaviors do you expect from your people? What behaviors define how people should work every day? What defines your culture? What behaviors are critical for you to execute your strategy? The answer to all of these: Leadership Principles.

Your “leadership principles” are your culture. When people ask me, what culture is? My answer is that culture is nothing but “how we work”. But “how we work” are not just statements on a wall. I’ve seen many of those as well in the companies I’ve been associated with overtime. Your leadership principles should be embedded into everything you do.

Your interview process should judge for your leadership principles.

Your rewards and recognition process should discuss leadership principles.

The talent management and/or performance review process should discuss leadership principles.

The decision-making process should consider leadership principles.

You get the point. Your principles should define how everything is done around your company.

Your leadership principles can change as your company evolves. When you startup, you might have certain principles that align better with your company’s strategy at the time. Over time, you might pivot, your company strategy might change, and your principles might have to evolve as well. So, keep an open mind.

When I was a mentor to startups during my time at Techstars, there was only one company among the 10 in the batch that we had, that clearly took the effort to outline the company’s vision, purpose, and leadership principles. The others said, “This is big company stuff”. I don’t care how big or small your company is. You can’t go wrong by starting by having a vision, by defining a purpose, putting your strategy in place, and then defining the kind of behaviors you expect from people – including yourself. Set the bar from day 1 on the kind of people you want in your company. Hire, fire, and grow people based on this bar.

Resist the temptation to not put a lot of attention on your leadership principles. These are critical. As a CEO, a big part of your job is to create the culture that will be critical to executing your strategy. Like I’ve said before, people are going to eventually execute your strategy. Your job is to create a culture that will bring the best out in your people – maximize the value that they bring to the organization. Maximizing their output will come through the behaviors you define and expect everyone to adhere to.

When creating principles, I believe it's best to conduct a more democratic process. Involve people from various parts of the organization, specifically leaders who have been successful and interview them either one or one or in a focus group-like setting to glean from them why they were successful at your company – what behaviors did they show? You’ll want everyone else to replicate those behaviors. Do what the best do and you’re on your way to victory. Of course, this might not apply when you are small, and you don’t have too many A+ employees to glean from. For example, if you’re in a struggling company or need to do a complete turnaround. In that case, you can use other companies from your industry or parallel industries to see what they did best. Keep an open mind, learn from all around you, your own employees, other success stories, align everything back to your strategy and you should have a good list that makes sense for your company. And guess what, if they change in a year or so, that’s fine. These are not sketched onto a stone tablet forever. Start with a list, embed it fully into your culture, and refine as you grow and as you evolve.

When Kaspien started off the company had a different set of leadership principles. When I came in as the CEO, I pivoted the company to a new strategy. As part of that came a new set of leadership principles. We had 6. Then over time, we realized that we needed one more, so we added a 7th. This is not uncommon. As of this writing, Amazon, who pioneered the whole concept of leadership principles, just added 2 new leadership principles. They used to have 14 and now have 16. As they evolved, so has the behaviors that they expect from their people.

When writing your principles, my preference is to use the first person. Writing in the first person makes it real for you and your people E.g., at Kaspien we have seven leadership principles as follows:

Principle # 1 – We are Partner Obsessed

Our customers are our partners. Every decision we make is centered around building and investing in mutually beneficial partnerships.

Principle # 2 – We are Insights Driven

Nothing matters more than insights. We use data to glean insights and to make strong business decisions. Insights are the ultimate decision-maker.?

Principle # 3 – We are Simple in our Approach

We take the complicated and simplify it. Simplification keeps us aligned and focused.?

Principle # 4 – We Innovate on behalf of our Partners

We are ahead of the innovation curve at every stage. We are our partners’ incubator.?

Principle # 5 – We Deliver Results for our Partners

We set goals, we define targets and measures of success, we launch initiatives, we measure our progress, we mitigate risk, and we deliver results for our partners.?

Principle # 6 – We are Owners

We are entrepreneurial-minded. We make things happen. We know what’s needed to build our business and we execute. We operate with agility and urgency.?

Principle # 7 - We Believe in the Power of Diversity and Teamwork

We value diversity in every way, and we collaborate as a team to drive the best results for our business and our partners.

When you write your principles in the first person, especially using “We”, not only do you signify inclusiveness, but there is a level of automatic enforcement. Imagine if you’re sitting in a meeting and someone says “But, Kunal, we’re not being partner obsessed”. There you go. That’s the behavior you want from your people.

So, in conclusion, however big or small you are as a company, define your leadership principles, but don’t just make them writings on the wall. Really think through them and enforce them through every person you have in your company.

Define Your Personal Leadership Principles

What behaviors do you have to portray for you to achieve your vision and your life’s purpose? Have you thought about your own leadership principles outside of what you’ve put in at your company? If not, this is the time to do so. Just like you are disciplined when it comes to creating a culture for your company, you should be creating a culture for yourself and your life. What values drive you every day? Do you have that list? Then you can measure your list against your company’s list and see whether they align. When you can find alignment between your personal principles and your work principles, you’ll find ultimate satisfaction. That’s when work won’t feel like work and your work will become your life’s mission. On a personal note, here are the 5 values that I live by:

1.?????Share ownership with others around you. Work as a team.

2.?????Always strive to do your best and forget the rest

3.?????Have grit

4.?????Think BIG

5.?????Invest in getting better

These principles have facilitated a lot of growth for me personally and professionally but have also uplifted me during times when I was down and ready to give up. These principles are well aligned to my work at Kaspien, thereby making my work, not work, but just my life. When we think about work and play as really one thing – living and we don’t draw lines between the two, we can all achieve personal satisfaction, growth and bring our best to whatever we do every day.?

Till next time,

Kunal

P.S. Don't forget to "execute" every day with passion.