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Oct 18, 2021 · Colin Powell, whose decades-long career repeatedly made history and who was for years one of the Republican Party's elder statesmen, often discussed his leadership philosophy, famously saying:...
Discover the leadership lessons and inspiring stories of Colin Powell, a trailblazer known for integrity, empathy, and strategic acumen. Gain insights to elevate your own leadership journey
- It Ain’t as Bad as You Think. It Will Look Better in the Morning. Leaving the office with a positive attitude is crucial, as it influences our mindset and inspires others.
- Get Mad, Then Get Over It. While acknowledging that everyone experiences anger, Powell asserts that holding onto it serves no purpose. He recalls a personal incident involving his fury towards Dominique de Villepin, the French foreign minister, for opposing the US stance on the Second Gulf War.
- Avoid Having Your Ego So Close to Your Position That When Your Position Falls, Your Ego Goes With It. Powell recounts a lesson he learned while working as a staff assistant to Secretary of Defense Harold Brown.
- It Can Be Done. Powell reflects upon the significance of the quote, “It can be done,” inscribed on a desk plaque presented to him by the humorist Art Buchwald.
- Powell’s Thirteen Rules
- Know Yourself, Be Yourself
- Take Care of The Troops
- Fast Times in The Digital World
- Getting to 150 Percent
- Reflections
- Afterward: It’S All About People
Powell’s “rules” were first published in the weekend supplement to the newspaper, Parademagazine, in the early 1990s. Check them out: 1. It ain’t as bad as you think. It will look better in the morning. This rule reflects an attitude and not a prediction. Keep your confidence and optimism up, no matter how difficult the situation. At Infantry Schoo...
Always Do Your Best, Someone is Watching
Powell reflects that his parents didn’t pester him or put too much pressure on him. Their attitude was “Do your best—we’ll accept your best, but nothing less.”Always do your best, no matter how difficult your job, or how much you dislike it, your bosses, the work environment, or your fellow workers. Every job is a learning experience, and we can develop and grow in every one. If you take the pay, earn it. Always do your very best. Even when no one is looking, you always are. Don’t disappoint...
Busy Bastards
Major General Charles M. Gettys said of another general, “He’s one of those ‘busy bastards.’ He always has to be doing things and coming up with new ideas and working absurd hours.” Gettys’s wisdom stayed with Powell, who tried to learn from it. Gettys pointed out to Powell early on (maybe intentionally) a road he was inclined to travel. So, Powell has always done his best to come up with new ideas, and worked hard in all my jobs. But he has tried not to be a “busy bastard.” In every senior j...
Kindness Works
Don’t just show kindness in passing or to be courteous. Show it in depth, show it with passion, and expect nothing in return. Kindness is not just about being nice; it’s about recognizing another human being who deserves care and respect. Every person in an organization has value and wants that value to be recognized. Every human being needs appreciation and reinforcement. There are no trivial jobs in any successful organization. But there are all too many trivial leaders who don’t understand...
Trust Your People
When you first take over a new outfit, start out trusting people there unless you have real evidence not to. If you trust them, they will trust you, and those bonds will strengthen over time. They will work hard to make sure you do well. They will take care of you. Everything you do as a leader has to focus on building trust in the team. Trust among the leaders, trust among the followers, and trust between the leaders and followers. And it begins with selfless, trusting leaders.
Mutual Respect
Respect for leaders by followers must be earned. Leaders must maintain a certain distance; they can’t get too close. Followers want leaders who are selfless, not selfish. They want leaders who have moral and physical courage, who always do the right thing. A leader needs to know his followers, and he must be competent; but he is also an individual; he needs to preserve a zone of privacy, a place for himself that followers can’t enter. They need to be kept at a distance. It might be better sai...
We’re Mammals
Powell observes, “The best advice I ever received did not come in the form of words or aphorisms. I got it from watching my parents. The most valuable advice I got was from their example, how they lived their lives.” All followers need to feel they belong to a team, a tribe, a band. Leaders are leaders because they pass on generations of experience they have amassed.
Brainware
It’s one thing to install new hardware and software. It’s far more difficult to change people’s brainware. The leader starts to change institutional brainware by setting the example and changing his own. Major change only works when followers realize your change has made their lives better and improved their productivity and performance. You only know you’ve succeeded in implementing change when your followers believe in the change and will pass their belief on to the next generation of follo...
Tell Me What You Know
As Secretary of State, Powell developed a set of four rules for his intelligence staffs to ensure everyone saw the process from the same perspective: 1. Tell me what you know. This is that you’re reasonably sure that your facts are corroborated. 2. Tell me what you don’t know. This is just as important. There is nothing worse than a leader believing he has accurate information when folks who know he doesn’t don’t tell him he doesn’t (like Powell’s infamous speech at the UN in 2003). 3. Then t...
Tell Me Early
Staffs try like the devil to delay as long as possible passing bad news to the boss. Powell always had a standing rule for his staffs: “Let me know about a problem as soon as you know about it.” Everyone knows the old adage: bad news, unlike wine, doesn’t get better over time. With early notification, we can all gang up on the problem from our different perspectives and not lose time.
Powell’s Advice to His New Aides
Don’t ever hesitate to ask what to do if uncertain. Don’t ever sign for your leader. Never use money on behalf of your leader. Always gave your personal assistants a petty-cash fund to pay for daily incidentals. Avoid “The General Wants” syndrome—unless he really does. Provide feedback, but be tactful to those who ask—talks between the leader and you are private and confidential. Never keep anybody waiting on the phone—call back. Keep meetings generally uninterrupted because Powell asks a lot...
One Team, One Fight
It was a good idea—worth taking to heart—a constant reminder to his command that everyone had to come together as a team to prosecute a fight that everyone agreed had to be won. Every good leader understands instinctively the need to communicate to followers a common purpose, a purpose that comes down from the leader and is internalized by the entire team.
Compete to Win
We will never throw our soldiers into a competition or battle without preparing them and taking the necessary time to get them ready to win. That’s what leaders do; we prepare our troops. Without competition, we all become dull, unfocused, and flabby—mentally and physically.
The Powell Doctrine
Commentators have called the Powell Doctrine’s most essential element “overwhelming force,” but Powell always preferred the term “decisive.” A force that achieves a decisive result does not necessarily have to be overwhelming. Or, to put it another way, overwhelming force may be too much force. Powell’s own concept of the Powell Doctrine begins with the premise that war is to be avoided. Use all available political, diplomatic, economic, and financial means to try to solve the problem and ach...
The Pottery Barn Rule
The Media dubbed “The Pottery Barn Rule”: “If you break it, you own it.” This rule is all about personal responsibility; when you are in charge, you have to take charge. “Taking charge” is one of the first things a young Army recruit learns. Every recruit memorizes a set of rules known as “General Orders.” One of those guard duty General Orders is to “take charge of this post and all government property in view.” The General Order immediately following that one tells you to call someone whene...
February 5, 2003: The United Nations
Colin Powell’s presentation became thecase against Iraq. Yet seldom is it mentioned that every senior U.S. official would have made the exact same case, or that many of them were in fact making that case on television and in other public appearances. They were all convinced by the same evidence. If they had known there were no WMDs, there would have been no war… And yes, a blot, a failure, will always be attached to Powell and his UN presentation. It was by no means his first, but it was one...
Life and leadership can’t be about me. They have to be about us. They have to be about people. In an office promotion ceremony in the 1970s, Admiral Human G. Rickover, the father of the nuclear Navy, said, “Organizations don’t get things done. Plans and programs don’t get things done. Only people get things done. Organizations, plans, and programs ...
Oct 18, 2021 · After his experience with America's failure in Vietnam, and with the Cold War coming to a close during his time as national security adviser and joint chiefs chairman, Powell developed an...
Feb 18, 2021 · “Be careful what you choose: you may get it” — If possible, take time to reach decisions. Make reasoned choices “in the light of day and the darkness of night.”
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Oct 21, 2021 · Mr. Powell was put forward as a pre-emptive rejoinder to the strongest critiques of the nation and its rationale for going to war. How could critics say that the decision was impulsive when the...
