It is critical to help good leaders succeed and to know how to detect and correct poor leaders. Here are some guidelines based on twenty years thinking about these issues:
- Use your gifts generously to help leaders succeed; resist cynicism.
- Know the purpose of the activity and the positive values that guide it.
- Give great support to leaders who advance this purpose and act true to its values.
- Stay conscious of speech and actions that diverge from the purpose and values.
- Call divergences and discrepancies to the attention of the leader and group.
- Help the leader and group remedy or resolve discrepancies that endanger the group purpose and values.
- Develop consciousness of your own internal rules regarding authority.
- Draw on the sources of courage you possess to speak with clarity, candor and impact to authority.
- Help leaders who are working to become better leaders and human beings despite their inevitable flaws.
- Let others help you become better as a leader, follower, collaborator and human being.
