Other than the buzzword “engagement,” has there ever been a more talked about word in organizational development circles that the term “leadership.” Right now, you can go to the Amazon.com books section and type in the expression “leadership” and pages of selections appear by authors from everyone from Bill Clinton to Pope Francis.

The reason we tire quickly from the endless assault of our brain by information overload is due to the law of marginal returns. An economic principle that as investment in a particular area increases, the rate of profit from that investment diminishes.

The advertising and marketing industry was born on this principle. They use the law of marginal returns to consistently tweak messages for products so people will keep coming back to them. They understand that your 20th soft drink does not taste as good as your 1st soda. Consequently, they have to manipulate your experience through messages that make your last Coke taste like your first Coke. Or alternatively, make you think that the new Coke is so much better than the old Coke, that you will give it another try.

Here comes Alan Webber, the former Editorial Director and Managing Director of Harvard Business Review and co-founder of the business/technology magazine Fast Company as he provides us with a simple, new and improved way to overcome the law of marginal returns when it comes to leadership.

He claims you can boil leadership down to 3 principles that keeps people coming back for more:

What Do You Stand For
County music star, Aaron Tippin released a song in 1990 entitled, “You Got to Stand For Something or You’ll Fall For Anything.”  Who are you as a person? What are your values and how do you live them each day?
 
What Won’t You Stand Far
Where is your line in the sand? Who and what will you go to war for? What are those things that you would quit your job over? As Aaron Tippin sings, “Whatever you do today you will have to sleep with tonight.”
 
Who Do You Stand With
Do you stand with the powerful or the voiceless? What is that old saying? “Show me who you ride with and I will tell you who you are.”
 
Aaron Tippin says it better than me, when it comes to leadership, “Never compromised what is right. Uphold your family name, you have got to stand for something, or you will fall for anything.”