1. Love your employers: Having a genuine love for employees allows a leader to show an interest and investment in their employees.

2. Connect peers with purpose: When employees are given the opportunity to interact and build upon each other strengths it has the ability to be an optimal learning experience for the organization 

3. Capacity Building Prevails: We cannot manage through fear or intimidation, employees develop more from positive pressure and learning from failures

4. Learning is the work: Leaders should provide an environment where learning on the job is the focal point.

5. Transparency Rules: Leaders need to open with their employees, giving employees information on the who, what, when, where and why.

6. Systems Learn: Leaders focus on developing other leaders that move around in various positions within the organization. They should advise and be integrative when information given instead of choosing one over the other.

A change leader must have a genuine respect and appreciation for others. Stewart (2009) states this so very well: “A good manager is someone…with a wide knowledge of the world and an even better knowledge of the way people work; someone who knows how to treat people with respect”.   

When employees and managers are given the opportunity to interact and build upon each other strengths it has the ability to be an optimal learning experience for the organization. Many of us live and work very well within our comfort zone. We tend to show little interest in things that do not immediately affect us but once we get a view of systems outside of our small circle and learn from others, our thinking changes (Senge, Smith, Kruschwitz, Laur, & Schley, 2010). Constant learning is optimal for everyone in an organization. 

​Keeping it simple can be as easy looking at how many times a day we make decisions based on our natural abilities. According to Fullan (2009) leadership has to be returned to its natural habitat-what do people do every day and how can what can be done to improve upon it. We don’t have to always reinvent the wheel sometimes we just have to go with what we already know.

​Leaders need to be open with their employees, giving them information on the who, what, when, where and why. In the language of Fullan (2009) “…climate is crucial. Norms thatencourage and value critical feedback from all team members, especially from those with less status, are essential”.  

Leaders should provide an environment where learning on the job and fostering growth are focal points. Heifetz, Grashow and Linsky (2009) believes, “Building a leadership pipeline is essential to long-term adaptability because the key bottleneck to growth is so often the quantity and quality of leadership available in the organization”. 

The five principles mentioned provide a foundation for my newly created theory of change. As a leader I had not given much thought to what guides my thoughts and behaviors but putting it on paper has allowed for self-exploration.