Leadership Lessons From the First Leader

Inspiration in leadership can come from anyone. Mentors, loved ones, business associates. A recent article in Forbes even demonstrated how leadership lessons from George Washington are still prevalent today. So, how can you learn from America’s original leader and what has changed?

1. George Washington held honor and civic virtue over anything. In the same way we can learn to value the good of our employees and business over our own personal interests

2. In battle, George Washington suffered with his men. We must also not hold ourselves above the lower levels of employment, creating a great company environment that relies on communication and equality.

3. George Washington wasn’t always so successful, especially in his early days in battle, but he learnt from his mistakes. We too must foster this culture of failure through which we build success, especially in the creative process.

4. George Washington surrounded himself with talented people, whom he relied on to aid him in leadership. Instead of being intimidated by these talents or fearful of being diminished by them, he worked with them and emulated their successes in his effort to work for the common good. We too must surrounded ourselves with intelligent people and rely on ideas from the whole company, not just ourselves.

Of course, not all these lessons can still be pertinent to us. Surely something has changed in the centuries since then. Well, if anything, leadership is more difficult, with the rapid pace of change and technology also calling for us to be more flexible than the leaders of the past once were.

Ultimately the prevalence of these lessons today shows us that great leadership is timeless and universal. Like George Washington, we can always look to others for inspiration.