A FEW GUIDING PRINCIPLES TO HELP YOU NAVIGATE THE ROUGH WATERS OF LEADERSHIP When you are in a position of leadership, it helps to have a few guiding principles to assist you in navigating the difficulties you will inevitably have to endure. Here are a few thoughts to meditate on: • Think about your ordinary interactions with your peers, colleagues and staff members. When you are in a meeting, at the water cooler or in the lunchroom, it is wise to remember that each interaction is an opportunity for you to take a risk in the realm of openness—and when you do, you open yourself up to growth and happiness. • To understand your work world, you must simultaneously examine the work environment and examine yourself for biases and influences you are not aware of. Otherwise, it will be difficult to render the good judgment that will be required of you. • One of the most powerful ideas to remember in the workplace or in life is that no problem will be solved unless someone takes responsibility for solving it. TIPS TO KEEP YOUR WORK LIFE RUNNING SMOOTHLY Sometimes our workplaces can seem so out of control that we feel like there is nothing we can do to slow things down and bring some sense of calm to situations that seem like pure chaos and pandemonium. But the truth is that there are lots of preventative steps to keep you out of that emergency zone. Here are a few tips for keeping the pressure down to a minimum as you try to do your job: • When you make a mistake—admit it. Why spend the time and energy doing a song and dance that won’t serve you well in the end anyway? • Schedule regular staff meetings every week and keep them as short as possible. Doing so should cut down on the number of interruptions you have each week to answer “quick questions.” • Learn one of the hardest lessons for leaders to comprehend: You don’t have to know EVERYTHING to make a sound decision. Gather your facts, assess your situation and make your decision. Good leaders learn to trust this process rather than drowning themselves in too much information. • Don’t let your people-pleasing desire get you into trouble. Before you agree to do something—look at your schedule. Is what you’re considering feasible, reasonable or even possible? Once you answer this question honestly for yourself then get back to the person needing you and let him or her know your answer in a straightforward but kind manner. • If you go in early or stay late to get work done and the phone rings—let it go. Focus on what you stayed past regular business hours to accomplish. • Instruct all of your employees to write their own job descriptions—that is what they actually spend their time doing. Then ask them to write down detailed instructions for frequently used procedures or processes important to their jobs. This will help new employees when they come on board and will save everyone time if someone has to take extended time off and his or her workload needs to be covered by other staff.