COLIN POWELL SEVEN LAWS OF POWER

He has commanded armies and headed government agencies--and now, as U.S. Secretary of State, Colin Powell is in every sense a world leader. Through the years, in each position of growing authority, he has followed a code of leadership that inspires confidence, trust and admiration. Colin Powell seven laws of power give clues to good leadership.

Seven laws of power

1. Dare to be the skunk:
"Every organization should tolerate rebels who tell the emperor he has no clothes--and in some cases that he's naked."

2. To get the real dirt, head for the trenches:
"The people in the field are closest to the problem," Powell says. "Therefore, that's where the real wisdom is."

3. Share the power:
"Plans don't accomplish work," says Powell. "It's people who get things done."

4. Know when to ignore your advisers:
Experts, advisers and consultants will only get you so far. Eventually, the leader must make the final decision.

5. Develop selective amnesia:
Too many leaders get so trapped in fixed ways of seeing things that they can't cope when the world changes.

6. Come up for air:
Powell demands excellence from his staff members, but he also insists that they have lives outside the office.

7. Declare victory and quit:
"Command is lonely," says Powell. And so is the decision to withdraw from the position of authority.


By: Oren Harari
2007 Shaques Publishing Inc.