Great post on leadership

by Timothy Saint and Nicholas Smith, a couple of Marine platoon commanders, each of whom have completed 2 tours in Iraq. Here's the summary:

• Respect your subordinates, and make sure they know you respect them.

• Honor success. Making it clear that you know who is doing the best work isn't the same as playing favorites -- anyone can get that same respect and honor by doing better work.

• Listen to your subordinates. Let them do things their way whenever possible.

• Ask before you reprimand. If you start screaming as soon as things go badly, you will look foolish and weak when your team has an explanation.

• Make your orders clear and concise.

• Leading is frightening; don't give in to that fear or overcompensate for it.

• Follow up. If a task is important enough for you to assign, it should be important enough for you to follow-up on. Inspecting the results of the least glamorous tasks shows you aren't above them.

• Make your expectations crystal clear from day one.

• Get over yourself.

• Once you make a decision, stick to it, and make sure everyone falls in line.

• Teach these lessons to your subordinates. If they can't or won't learn them, fire them.