General Principles Of A Leader - 1298 Words

There can never be a step-by-step guide for how to be a leader. The world is so varied and the situations that call for leadership so wide-ranging that one approach can never work in all cases. This means that a leader must be able to adjust his or her approach based on the circumstances. However, despite the lack of a universal â€Å"right way† to be a leader, there are general principles of leadership that have broad applicability and will make a leader more successful in any situation. The most important of these principles are for the leader to understand the domain, respect people, and set and maintain focus even in the face of obstacles. One quality that makes a leader effective understanding of domain. A domain is the context in which†¦show more content†¦A good Facility Manager should also understand what the collected data means and what it conveys to others who will look at it. To reach this level of understanding the leader must always be learning. He or she must make a habit of knowing about everything and its context. The small, the big, and the merely tangential things that affect every aspect of the domain must be areas of study for a good leader. This is an example of systems thinking as described by Daft (2015, p. 144). At the Facility Manager level, this field of inquiry might range from understanding how a custodian cleans a particular building, to what the new NPS policy regarding Recreation Fee projects means, to what the political implications of closing a particular facility are. A superb Facility Manager will understand how all of the divisions of their park operate and the outward rippling implications of the actions and decisions of each. It is an impossible task for any leader to have all of this knowledge all of the time. As a result, just as important as â€Å"knowing† is knowing when one does not know. A good leader is always able to admit a lack of expertise, will know where to go for the answer, and will not hesitate to go there and get it. Admitting lack of understanding is the first step on the road to full comprehension and a good leader will not claim more knowledge than he or she possesses. Even if it were possible to know everything about his or her domain, doing so would not be enough by