My fellow Marines, Associate Members, and friends of the South Lake Detachment are you an inspired leader? Did you know there are eight (8) key leadership principles that every leader at every level should know? Each month I will publish two (2) of these principles for everyone to read. Thank you, Sgt. Maj. Collin Cotterell, USMC (Ret), Detachment Commandant.
Principle 3
Great leaders are as good at listening as they are at communicating. People want their leaders to listen. Leaders don't have to agree, but they do need to listen and seek to understand. People want to be understood at two levels: intellectual and emotional. At the intellectual level people want the leader to understand what they are saying. At the emotional level people want the leader to understand what they are feeling. Again listening is not about agreeing with people. It is about respecting them and paying attention to them. People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care about them.
Principle 4
Great leadership is about wisdom, not intelligence. There are plenty of smart people in positions of leadership. What we need are wise leaders. Our world has an overabundance of information, but we have a scarcity of real wisdom. Wise leaders have insight that is, they see beyond the obvious. Why? Because they are looking.
