in this video i want to give you my five

laws of leadership which is essentially

a framework of leadership that i created

for myself and i've used it my entire

career and i thought you might find it

very helpful so if you're a manager or

business owner or entrepreneur i think

you'll find this extremely helpful to

use in your business some of it you may

even find to be a review which is a good

thing because as a leader or manager's

job it's always a good idea to review

core concepts like this now

if you're just starting out if you're

just stepping into a leadership position

for the first time or management

position you are going to find this

extremely helpful because it's going to

give you a solid platform on which to

build your leadership on now we all know

one of the jobs of a leader is to care

about their people i mean that goes

without saying but at the same time a

leader needs to be focused on creating

outcomes while steering the company

towards profitability i mean it doesn't

have to be profitability it could be

anything but it usually is because the

company is in business to make money and

your job as a leader is to create those

outcomes which drive profitability now

another thing a leader needs to do is

they need to find balance they need to

push their team

with but without pushing them too hard

because you push them too hard you drive

them into the ground they quit they lose

the respect of the team and or they lose

the respect of you and then you really

never create those outcomes but at the

same time if you're too soft you don't

drive them hard enough they're going to

walk all over you they're not going to

be focused on what they're doing and

again you're not going to be able to

create those outcomes so let's dive

right into don's five laws of leadership

the first one is growth it's the job of

every leader to grow but what i mean is

it's part of the leader's job to grow

their team and that means putting junior

leaders junior managers in charge of

things and giving them an opportunity

to lead the team

and essentially i mean it's the job of a

leader to kind of work themselves out of

a job i mean that essentially never

happens but you're always aiming for

that because you want to be able to put

your people in charge so that you can

essentially step away and if you're not

there for a week and things still get

done the way they're supposed to

that means you are doing a great job but

if you have to be there

for things to get done

then you're an ineffective leader

so it's your job to constantly

train and put people in charge

essentially working yourself out of a

job and through this process

some of those leaders that you put in

charge some of those junior leaders

might actually do very well and you

might even find that they're better than

you and that's your job to move them on

promote them and they might even get

into positions that are higher than you

they might outpace you now for an

insecure leader that really bothers them

so that's why you have some managers who

never really like to put people in

charge because they're afraid that that

person is going to do well and that

they're going to outpace them and

they'll get promoted from underneath

them

that's a poor leader that's a weak

leader that's an insecure leader and

we're not like that we want the best for

the company and we want the best for

ourselves we want the best for our team

so that means taking those junior

managers

putting them in charge of things and

getting them to exercise their own

leadership abilities getting them to

make decisions on their own without you

having to be there and you grow your

team and then you essentially get

leadership at every level of your team

and that's how you drive profitability

and growth and create those outcomes so

moving on to number two is ownership

it's the job of every manager every

leader

to own their mistakes

and when i mean own them i mean take

full responsibility if you have a team

of people team of 20 people underneath

you and one of those people screw up and

cause the whole team the whole project

to fail it's not their fault

it's your fault and you have to accept

that you have to own that and you have

to have their back and i've been in

meetings before where i've sat down

in front of my boss with my team behind

me and my boss is telling me that you

know we didn't hit these objectives we

failed here and here and i get up and i

say you know what boss that's my fault

i'm taking full responsibility for that

and when i do that

and those other people out there those

other guys

are looking at me seeing me take the

fall for their mistake because they know

where they failed but when they see me

step into that position and own it

the respect that they have for me just

goes off the charts and it will for you

too but some leaders are very insecure

and they like to play the blame game

they'll be like you know what i was in

charge of the project but you know it

was that guy over there you know he he

was having a hard time he failed

he didn't come through when we needed

him to and they they place blame or they

place blame on other things to blame the

weather they'll blame the time of day

they'll blame

third party external resources

and to me

all that really says is you didn't have

enough contingency plans in place so

again

that's my fault that's the leader's

fault that's your fault so if you make

mistakes it's your job to own them and

that will create strong leadership

backbone in you when you're not afraid

to step in

to the light and say you know what it's

my fault i did it i'm wrong i take full

responsibility then it's your job to

also learn from that educate your team

and prepare for that so that it doesn't

happen again i mean it's okay to fail

it's okay to make mistakes

but when you make that same mistake over

and over and over again you know that's

failed leadership you're not learning

from the experience so moving on to

number three is teamwork it's the job of

every manager every leader to get

everybody working together and so that

they're clear

on what the goal is what the objective

is you know what are we doing and why

are we doing it some people

they get in there and they kind of know

what they're doing but they don't know

why they don't know what the final

outcome is and when they don't

understand

why we're doing something

their motivation isn't as high it's like

you know they just feel like they're

showing up for a job and they're not

they're not totally vested in it but

that's your job as a manager as a leader

to make it clear to the team what

they're doing why they're doing it and

make sure everyone is on the same page

so you could go down so your boss could

essentially go down to any one of the

people on your team and say you know

what are you guys doing today why are

you doing it and if some of your people

are like well i'm not sure

then that's your fault that's your fault

for not clearly communicating that and

it's one thing to get up there and tell

your team you know what you're doing why

you're doing it

but if they don't absorb that if they

don't grasp that then then that's your

fault

so you need to go out to your team and

you need to talk to them individually

and

question them challenge them what we're

doing why we're doing it make sure

that they're on board because we all

know a lot of people when we ask him a

question hey does everybody know what

we're doing why we're doing it raise

your hand if you're not sure

nobody's going to raise their hand

they're going to look around and say

well looks like you know

everybody's kind of on the same page

there i'm not going to raise my hand i'm

not going to i'm not going to look

stupid

so again your job as a leader make sure

everybody

is on the same page and make sure that

the right people

are in the right places in the right

positions and doing the right things

make sure that their talents are aligned

to the type of work that we're doing if

there's somebody better suited for that

position then then move some people

around but put the best people

doing the things that they are best at

doing and that's how you're going to

move your team forward all right moving

on to number four is simplicity

and it's your job as a manager as a

leader to simplify

everything so that it is crystal clear

you don't want to have people going

through you know five or ten different

steps to

create the outcome when it can be done

in you know three or whatever it is

but it's your job to make sure that it's

very simple to get from here to here to

here without having to bounce all over

the place and that's that's why projects

fail is because it's not clear it's not

simple enough i mean just remember

simple

clear

and concise

i mean it can be

too simple also you can have a plan

that's so simple that it doesn't take

into account any contingencies and thus

it's destined to fail so it can't be so

simple that it's just one or two steps

you have to

create the whole what i like to do is

create the whole plan and it might be

long and it might be complex on the