In my February 2010 blog on leadership, I spoke about creating direction, a true north, for the people you lead. This is the first rule of leadership.

The second rule of leadership is to be the emotional guide for the journey. As the emotional guide, the leader helps followers process and emotionally handle what happens on the journey. It is being empathetic at the same time portraying a perspective that assists the followers into moving forward positively.

On a compass, true north provides an absolute direction, a truth on which you can build and follow a map. A person knows which path to follow if they know true north.

The first rule of leadership is a leader must create true north for his/her followers. By creating true north, the leader provides direction for the followers, a direction that is true in bad weather, fog or full sun. This direction allows followers to make decisions with assurance, to stride forward with confidence without a need for the day to day presence, involvement and reassurance of the leader as the true north created by the leader is always there.