Masculinity

The 10 Most Important Principles of Leadership

43 Comments

Leadership: it’s one of the cornerstones of masculinity. It isn’t human resource management, or manipulation.  It isn’t team-building exercises where everyone gets a trophy.  It isn’t being a boss, demanding that your minions perform.  True leadership is the upward pull, creating distinction and achievement.  It is the core nature of hierarchy, understood and embraced by every member, no matter where they are on the totem pole.  It is the divine spark that builds civilization.

Far more than just a strategy to achieve social dominance, leadership is the ethical code which calls out to all Men from deep within.

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1. Achieve professional competence.

Note the phrasing: competence.  As Jack Donovan explores in his book The Way of Men, Mastery is one of the core virtues of masculinity; and yet no man can achieve excellence in all fields.  In a leadership situation you will be tasked with organizing and deploying men who are more skilled than you at their specific trades, but this doesn’t mean that you can remain ignorant of their fields.  A basic understanding of their jobs is necessary. A race car driver doesn’t need to be a great mechanic, but he needs to understand the principles of automotives.

2. Appreciate your own strengths and limitations while pursuing self-improvement.

If you are going to demand more from your men, you need to demand more from yourself. At the same time, a leader has no room for cockiness or ego.  The saying “If you want something done right, you’ve got to do it yourself,” is the antithesis of this: either you’re leading the wrong people, or you’ve failed to lead properly.

There’s an old riddle which asks, “Who’s smarter, a platoon or their Sergeant?” The answer is “The platoon – there’s thirty of them!” If you’re too arrogant to admit your own limitations, you won’t be able to hear the words of your subordinates.  A leader must be humble.

3. Seek and accept responsibility.

Again, note the phrasing: responsibility.  The modern boss seeks glory, while a true leader is the opposite—he is willing to take authorship of himself and the world around him, come what may.  At my old training base this was summed up as “Never pass a fault.” If you see a problem, fix it – don’t just walk on by, assuming somebody else will clean up the mess.

The boss seeks temporal glory and gets trapped in a “Keeping Up With the Joneses” death spiral. By eschewing glory, the true leader winds up with respect and honour.  Accept such rewards gracefully.

4. Lead by example.

You are the upward pull—not the downward push.  To inspire the men beneath you, show them that you work as hard as they do – harder than they do.  Set a standard for them to aspire to. Be the solution; don’t be the problem.

5. Make sure that your followers know your meaning and intent, then lead them to the accomplishment of the mission.

Your men are creative, thinking beings. Let them employ those skills to better the organization as a whole.  You are not the boss, and they are not the minions – you are collaborators, with your hand on the helm of the ship.  If they understand your intent they can improvise, they can bring you information and ideas which you wouldn’t have had time to search out. These aren’t a bunch of cowards who need to be hand-held—these are Men. Let them prove it to you.

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6. Know your soldiers and promote their welfare.

The corporation gives us what we want, not what we need. We are all replaceable cogs.  A leader recognizes his men as individuals, that they aren’t disposable, and he concerns himself with their betterment.  Loyalty is a two-way street. Do what’s best for your soldiers, especially when this involves disciplining them. Honest concern, not manipulation, should be your goal.

7. Develop the leadership potential of your followers.

To be a good leader, you must first be a good follower. To be a good follower, you must think for yourself.  Leadership is not a slave morality, it is the ethos of a Free Man. It is just as critical for your subordinates to embrace these principles as it is for you to embody them.

8. Make sound and timely decisions.

A good decision now is better than the perfect decision later.  You are the head of the organization. Weigh your options carefully, but when it is time to act, act!  Leadership is not a democracy and it is not a group hug session.  To inspire confidence in your followers, have confidence in your decisions.  If you are a subordinate, place faith in your leader, and forgive their mistakes… because one day it’s going to be you who is screwing up.

9. Train your soldiers as a team and employ them up to their capabilities.

Your followers should be a switched-on group of go-getters; and go-getters aren’t going to follow somebody who employs them far beneath their capabilities.  Give them the opportunity for growth, and push them to surpass themselves.  Give them hierarchy and cooperation, capped with a higher goal. Not the “crabs in a bucket” ideology of corporate favouritism and in-fighting.

10. Keep your followers informed of the mission, the changing situation and the overall picture.

Take care of your soldiers, and they’ll take care of you.  Keep them informed, and they’ll be able to think for themselves.  Paint the vision of where the team is heading, and they’ll have something to strive towards.

All men must be leaders at some point in their lives.  Whether it is the Platoon Commander leading his troops into battle, or the techie who says “You’ll need this, this, and this for it to work properly. I won’t sign my name off on bad work.”

Feminine nature is a fine, and wonderful thing, but it is not the ethos of a Man.

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This article was originally published at Stares At The World.

Read More: Leadership Training For Men

43 thoughts on “The 10 Most Important Principles of Leadership”

  1. Too often, I see those who mistake leadership as giving orders. Anyone can give orders. These same people are never prepared. I see this in group collaborations at my school all the time. I have made this mistake myself and have learned from it.
    The leader comes as prepared as anyone of his men. The leader must be the most responsible one in the group. This is what qualifies him for leadership. No true leader is irresponsible.

    1. I also see leadership being confused with just shouting at people. Competent leaders rarely yell at people. Yes, they will yell at people, but that tends to happen after these people have earned it.

        1. Once had female Master Corporal jack me up during morning inspection, during Basic; it took all of my self-control not to pat her on the cheek and say “There, there – it’s okay, sweetie!”

  2. Here is the number one most important principle of leadership
    Treat women as subhumans and you will be the perfect leader.
    Remember, women want to be treated as subhumans. Treat women like the subhuman filth that they are and they will WORSHIP your cock.

    1. Women are quite capable of letting men know how they wish to be treated.
      Little idiots like yourself DO need to be treated as subhumans. If you can show evidence of sentience, we will consider upgrading your status to “slow child”.

      1. OH HOW CUTE!! POOR WITTLE BABY GOT HER WITTLE FEELINGS HURT! BWAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
        Are you stuffing your face full of brownies and ice cream right now, sweetie?

  3. Wonderful article and something that is never far from the mind of any who have or do serve.
    Take heed of the advice given here gents and take the time to enact it in your lives.

  5. This is a great guideline for leadership. Some leaders are natural born, others learn to be leaders from being groomed. All future leaders can learn great things from good and bad leaders of today and yesterday. What to do and what not to do.

    1. A good First Sergent told me once “You learn from all of your supervisors, and more from the bad ones” while talking about my NCO trying to screw me over.

  6. am I the only one thats currently offended by the picture of what appears to be David Beckham as the photo for “10 Reasons Why You Should Live Without Apology” on the main ROK home page..if so this, useful idiot (DB) has IMO been the main instigator of useless and horrible tatooing that has been taken up by the beta masses and herd females for the last dozen years…and as for 10RWYSLWA – DB has and will never be one of those kinds of men…a useful idiot for TPTB

    1. Tattooing is manly, hardcore and cool. Men of our race have adorned their body in powerful tattoos since at least the Ice Age (~15,000 years ago), if not before-hand. In my opinion, the tattoo-haters are the real betas.

      1. bravo to you omega…you found your tiny little gripe to tell the whole internet about…while courageously missing all the other points

        1. Lol, what? I also happen to have enjoyed David Beckham’s soccer skills when he was a player.

      2. Tatts were a tribal symbol since antiquity( of group symbolism or coming of age symbol) then during the imperial age they symbolised wealth by merchants and royalty. Then during the 50s they symbolised rebelluon against the man now they symbolise conformity. Go figure

      3. you are 100% correct. i have a creeping suspicion that most of those who hate tattoos lack the courage to get one and therefore have a huge chip on their shoulder and/or are dying inside with envy whenever they see a truly amazing tattoo (although there is an awful lot of shitty tattoos around as well)

    2. Once a lot of the guys here start getting into the corporate world — see how far those cool tatts get you.

  7. Ho hum, how much a very trite article this is. For better, I recommend to read “The 48 Laws of Power”, by Robert Greene.

  8. This article has taught me a lot on what it takes to be a leader. How you have to be better, in what ways you don’t. Has helped me get a better picture of the whats and whys of authority and submission.

  10. Interesting list Davis. From my over 30 years of managing/leading people, the first 12 doing it wrong, I offer the wisdom of Admiral Chester W. Nimitz.
    “Leadership consists of picking good men and helping them do their best.” When I did that and I mean really did that, my people achieved the 500% performance gains said to be possible by Stephen Covey senior.

  11. This was a very good read.Having recently become a crew leader at work it’s nice to read sometthing as inspiring as this.

  12. Nothing worse than a bad leader… ok, maybe ebola. The manager I work with is lazy and incompetent; however, he made the most noise and got promoted. Such is life, I guess.

  13. Those who should be leader are the ones who don’t want the job. They are the managers who able to keep their ego out of the decision making.

    1. Not true…..not true at all. With proper grooming and mentoring, fine leaders can be cultivated and trained.

  16. Excellent article. However, knowing these traits, and parading them, esp. in the modern U.S., earns you more scorn nowadays than success. You will find that “management” knows very little and strives to know even less. Most will do better to act like Emperor Claudius until they get into a place where they can exercise these traits. A good reading of The Prince is also encouraged.

    1. They’re from an old CF document; since then, they’ve been changed to “The 12 Principles of Middle Management.” Basically, dumbed down, with feminine language and phrasings added…

      2. well, you aren’t the first, nor will you be the last that will do this, aurini. i guess it counts for something that you can admit it.

  18. Is true leadership even possible anymore? There is so much mistrust of authority and so many people live to undermine it.

    1. …and so much bad authority that can’t be trusted, I know. This is why understanding what Leadership actually is has become so vital to us.

  19. Its such a pleasure to find someone who’s not completely full of shit. Mr. Aurini is pushing the bar back up, actively putting into practice these ideas has inspired me to join him. I don’t care how many degenerate pussies try to keep pushing it down, this fuckers going back up. Try to stop us, or try to help us, either way, this fuckers going back up.
    -Darvatron

  20. Hey, I found this website through stumbleupon and I’m amazed by it!
    I can’t believe that there are still people like you guys who’ve survived from the good old days of misogyny and periodic outbreaks of infectious diseases that made this country great!
    Seriously though, you people haven’t got two brain cells to rub together, but seeing as you haven’t advanced from cavemen, bless you all, you’d sure try!
    If you were actually so sure that manliness is the way forward, you’d maybe have the courage to not censor comments from women or homosexuals, but hey-ho, they might come up with valid arguments that would provoke you to pick your knuckles off the ground to scratch your large, sloping foreheads.
    Good people, men and women, show respect. This page is disrespectful to humanity.

    1. Um, we don’t, in fact, censor comments from women or homosexuals. You’re clearly in both categories, we haven’t touched yours.

  21. What are the names of the first painting and the sculpture?

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