Leadership Principles - The Golden Rule

At a young age most of us learn the golden rule, "do onto others as you want them to do onto you." This age old principle works not only in your personal relationships but also in leadership. There is never a drought of leadership experts, conferences and books promoting theory after theory of how to become an effective leader. There are a dizzying amount of articles on LinkedIn's Leadership and Management channel. How can anyone act on all of these thoughts and theories?

I believe leadership can be as simple as applying the Golden Rule.

If you believe in the golden rule (as I do), your leadership will show itself naturally because you have it deep in your heart. You were fortunate (as I was) to have great role models (parents, grandparents). You won't need a book or checklist of 21 traits of a great leader to become one.

It shouldn't take a management consultant to tell you that giving credit to others is a great way to show respect. Likewise, saying thank you acknowledges another person's worth (tusen takk for you Norwegians). Asking others for their input and feedback is easy because you like it when others ask it of you. Providing insight and guidance is welcome because you want the same from your superiors. Being honest easily flows from you because you like others to be honest with you.

Gift receiving is much harder than gift giving. Your subordinates may not know how to handle repeated thank yous, request for input/feedback, getting credit for work accomplished, honesty and constructive criticism. Your team may not realize the gift they are receiving from you but with repeated behavior, your team will start passing these gifts onto others. The golden rule is contagious.

Does leadership really have to be more difficult than applying the principle of The Golden Rule?