President Bill Clinton’s Leadership Strategies: 4 Tips for Leaders

Throughout his career, President Clinton has come to deeply understand what makes a leader successful. “My brand of leadership is inclusive, action-oriented, and people-centered,” he says. President Clinton suggests four ways to grow as a leader:

1. 1. Commit to a clear goal. When it comes to achieving the outcome of your dreams, getting every one of your team members on the same page is essential. When teams that President Clinton has put together weren’t as effective as he’d hoped, it was usually because he didn’t devote enough time to “clarify the mission, the responsibilities, and the priorities” of everyone involved. Consider this the biggest downfall of group management: Without a framework for achieving a clear goal, every other decision is bound to veer off target. A shared goal will “enable you to explain and act on all of the things happening in the world,” President Clinton says.
2. 2. Empower people to disagree. If the people you’ve hired are reluctant to challenge your opinions, “then you may be losing their most creative contributions,” President Clinton says. He recommends making it clear to your team that they won’t face retaliation for speaking their mind. Consider President Clinton’s very first staff meeting at the start of his presidency in 1993: He remembers sitting down with his team and telling them, “I want you to know that you will never be fired, transferred, iced out, [or] in any way hurt by disagreeing with me or anybody else.” In fact, President Clinton sees good-spirited debate as key to a team’s success. “If you don’t want that,” he says, “then you might as well run your operation with a computer and artificial intelligence.”
3. 3. Give credit where credit is due. Modeling generous behavior isn’t just about being viewed as altruistic. In the workplace, as in life, who gets credit (and for what) matters. “A good leader will share credit when something good happens,” President Clinton says. Giving credit where credit is due contributes to the impression among colleagues that an organization is fair and rewards hard work. (On the other hand, leaders who claim other ideas as their own create an atmosphere of jealousy, desperate striving, and dysfunction.) To ensure a healthy workplace culture, encourage your colleagues to credit others; elevate the quiet, diligent performers; and remember that credit is not a zero-sum game—there’s plenty to go around.
4. 4. Step back and look at the bigger picture. Showing others how their efforts fit into a larger context can help them appreciate the work they’re doing. (It’s also important to acknowledge the labor behind their significant contributions.) President Clinton recommends making people feel like they’re on a “special mission”—one that can tie them together. “When you do that, then you’ve got everybody looking for ways to knit the cooperation together tighter,” he says. By emphasizing the impact your work will have on the world, you can also make that work more meaningful, memorable, and fun.

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