We make leadership way too difficult. We write entire books on it. We teach it in universities and MBA programs. We dedicate entire fields of study to it. We create massive corporate programs to foster it. Here’s the thing: It’s really not that hard.

Sure, we teach leadership at thoughtLEADERS, too (it’s our Leadership Maxims program), but we come at it from the standpoint that leadership is an intensely personal sport. Every leader is different. But what remains the same is that every true leader needs to understand, articulate, and continuously improve their leadership philosophy.

The concept of writing your personal leadership philosophy is the very core of my book, One Piece of Paper: The Simple Approach to Powerful, Personal Leadership (Jossey-Bass, 2011). To give you a sense of how the method works, let’s explore what it means to write a leadership philosophy.

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