Five Leadership Lessons From Leaders You Already Know, for Your First Team

On Saturday night you were a colleague. On Sunday morning you are the person six people look at when something goes wrong. Nobody hands you a manual for that moment, but this region has produced leaders whose stories are written down, and they are a better place to start than most imported case studies.

Most leadership books open with a famous CEO, a turnaround, a product launch. That is useful, but it is far from your desk, your team and your first month.

The five leaders below are closer. You learned about some of them at school, heard about others from your parents, and you may drive past their names every day. One of them lived on the other side of the world and is still read in every language, and one is a Navy SEAL commander whose best advice is about making a bed.

From each we take one practical habit. Read them on the commute, pick one, and try it on Sunday. You do not need all five by the end of the week.

Saladin: be generous with the people across the table

Ibn Shaddad, the man who wrote Saladin's biography, was a close companion who describes his generosity, discipline and sense of justice from direct observation, along with his relations with soldiers, scholars and allies, and his chivalry. The lesson here is to extend that fairness to opponents too.

Your first team may include someone who applied for your job, or someone who simply disagrees with you in meetings. The habit: this week, give that person a fair hearing in front of others, and credit their idea when it is good. Winning a colleague over costs less than winning an argument against them.

King Faisal and Sheikh Mohammed: steady and restless, and you need both

King Faisal's biography describes a ruler of deep faith who came up through his father's campaigns and years as foreign minister before his reign, which was marked by modernization. The lesson a new manager can take is the long apprenticeship. He learned the work before he reigned. Your habit: spend your first two weeks asking each person on the team what slows them down, and write the answers in one notebook. Listen before you announce a plan.

Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid tells a different story in My Story: fifty stories from fifty years of public service, built on lessons from his father Sheikh Rashid and from Sheikh Zayed, and on the growth of Dubai into a global city. The mood is ambition that keeps moving. Your habit: at the end of each month, pick one thing the team does well and ask how to make it better. Good enough is a finish line. Better is not.

Sun Tzu and McRaven: win without fighting, and win the small things first

Sun Tzu wrote more than two thousand years ago that you plan carefully, know yourself and your opponent, and win with the least possible conflict. For a manager, the opponent is rarely a person. It is a deadline, a budget, a misunderstanding. Your habit: before any difficult meeting, write down what you want, what the other side wants, and one outcome that works for both. Most fights are cheaper to avoid than to win.

William McRaven starts from something almost embarrassingly small: make your bed every morning. In Make Your Bed he draws ten lessons from Navy SEAL training and shows how small disciplines, teamwork and perseverance add up. Your habit: pick one tiny thing you do before the team arrives, the same every day. Reply to the overnight messages, or write the day's three priorities. A team trusts a manager who starts every day the same way.

Go deeper: the five summaries

Each takes about 15 minutes, in audio or text, in Arabic or English. Listen to them in this order, one per day, and your first week is covered.

• 
  Make Your BedWilliam H. McRavenYou take away the habit of one small daily discipline, done the same way every day, as the base for everything else you ask of a team.Listen to the summary →
• 
  The Life of SaladinBeha Ed-Din Ibn ShaddadYou take away a picture of leading through justice and generosity, as the way one leader held people together.Listen to the summary →
• 
  King Faisal of Saudi ArabiaAlexei VassilievYou take away how a leader's faith, early experience and years of foreign-ministry work shaped a reign of modernization, a case for learning the work before leading it.Listen to the summary →
• 
  My StoryMohammed bin Rashid Al MaktoumYou take away how lessons from Sheikh Rashid and Sheikh Zayed, and fifty years of service, turned ambition into the growth of Dubai.Listen to the summary →
• 
  The Art of WarSun TzuYou take away a method of planning carefully, knowing yourself and the other side, and winning with the least possible conflict.Listen to the summary →

Your first-week plan

Do not try to become five leaders in a week. Try this instead.

1. Sunday: give one person you disagree with a fair hearing, and name what was good in their idea.
2. Monday to Wednesday: ask each team member one question, what slows you down, and write the answer down without defending yourself.
3. Every morning: do your one small daily discipline before the first meeting, the same one, in the same order.

On Thursday, look at your notebook. You will already know more about your team than most new managers learn in a month.