The Principles of Leadership I learned in the Canadian Army

Leadership Lessons From The Canadian Armed Forces

I was very fortunate to serve as a member of the Canadian Armed Forces from when I was 18 years old to late into my twenties.  I look back on my military career and reflect on the great things that occurred in my life.

I wouldn’t be in the MSP business if it wasn’t for Mike Haley, who urged me to seek an IT career outside of the Army while we were posted together in Calgary.

I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to live in one of Canada’s greatest cities, Calgary, Alberta.

I would have never got to drive an M109 155mm self-propelled howitzer and fire 5 rounds FFE in Wainwright, AB.

I would have never had the opportunity to wear a blue beret and serve in Cyprus as part of a great peacekeeping mission and do good in the world.

And…

I would have never met my beautiful wife!

Canada’s Military Develops Strong Business Leaders

Here are the best leadership principles ever!  I learned these when I was a young Master Corporal in the Canadian Armed Forces.  Forgot them for a while, but really need to start living these once again.

1. Achieve professional competence.
2. Appreciate your own strengths and limitations and pursue self-improvement.
3. Seek and accept responsibility
4. Lead by example.
5. Make sure that your followers know your meaning and intent, then lead them to the accomplishment of the mission.
6. Know your soldiers and promote their welfare.
7. Develop the leadership potential of your followers.
8. Make sound and timely decisions.
9. Train your soldiers as a team and employ them up to their capabilities.
10. Keep your followers informed of the mission, the changing situation and the overall picture.

These principles of leadership are what every member of the Canadian Armed Forces lives by.  I continue to stop and revisit these every so often just to remind myself on how important it is to develop the young talent and new talent around us.  The Ulistic Sebring office is a hot be of great new talent and we’ll continue to develop the leadership skills of our entire team.

I ask this question?  There are many MSP marketing agencies out there.  Many of which continue to boast about themselves and forget about the MSPs they serve.  After all, without healthy MSPs out there, they wouldn’t have a business to brag about.  But, is that serving the MSP community well?

It would be awesome if these principles of leadership were also part of the civilian world.  Well, Ulistic will incorporate these principles in our MSP Marketing business.

Stuart R. Crawford

Stuart Crawford serves as Creative Director and CEO with Sebring, FL Ulistic, a specialty MSP Marketing firm focused on information technology marketing and business development. He brings a wealth of knowledge and experience pertaining to how technology business owners and IT firms can use marketing as a vehicle to obtain success.