5 Must-have Frameworks for Best Leadership Practices

People need to have a voice, predictable laws and authority that's fair. Read on to learn about 5 frameworks for stellar leadership practices.

Mar 17, 2025

People aren’t complicated. Human nature is fairly predictable. And we don’t need a plethora of rules and regulations to define every possible way a person might step out of line. Typically we can boil it all down to the basics — a few simple things most people want and the five ways leaders can knock it out of the park.

The Principle of Legitimacy in Leadership

At the 1814 Congress of Vienna, an idea was proposed to help restore power to the lawful monarchs from royal families who ruled before Napoleon. Titled the Principle of Legitimacy, it was a governance guideline to ensure peace and order. It included five common-sense concepts that most of us would agree should form the basis of sound leadership:

Rules don’t change: people like to know what they can count on. No one likes to be evaluated against a moving target. Some say a sense of certainty is one of the greatest human needs. But when rules do need to change, it will be accepted much better if you explain “why.”
Authority is fair: remember when you were a kid and got punished for something your sibling did? We didn’t like it then, and now that we’re grown up, fairness is even more important. However, fair doesn’t always mean equal. People need different things and deserve to have their individual circumstances take into consideration.
Things make sense: the reasonable person wants to see a pattern, cause of action, greater purpose and ends that justify the means. Nobody likes to feel like they fell down the rabbit hole. Too often policies are established that work for one team but are totally nonsensical for another.
People must have a voice: they want the opportunity to raise issues, express concerns, identify gaps. Freedom of speech is a bedrock right of the people of our nation. Many organizations do themselves in when people don’t feel free to speak up. Too many problems go unsolved because people don’t want to be labeled, “not a team player.”
People need to be heard: some say humans are one big “walking ear.” In over 35 studies, listening was identified as a top skill needed in business today. Yet, fewer than 2% of us receive training in listening skills. One way to show you are listening to someone is to say, “Tell me more” or “How did that work for you?” or “What would you do different?”

Ensure the above needs are addressed in every training, such as internal and external customer service, sales, employee engagement, job satisfaction, harassment prevention, teamwork, communication skills and leadership. Most definitely leadership. Then embed them in performance reviews for frontline supervisors, team-leads or anyone managing a group of people for whatever purpose.

Say What You Won’t Do to Shrink Regulations

Sometimes it’s easier to say what people won’t do versus what they shall do. Otherwise you have an increasingly long and complicated set of rules to manage every possible way people can mess up. (If you’ve been a supervisor, project lead, parent or teacher you know how creative people can be!)

You could define the rules of the road simply by stating, “We all agree to do nothing to embarrass each other, our customers, co-workers, or the boss, compromises our values or (the best one of all) requires a lawyer.”

Or, “We agree to do nothing that is disrespectful to one another and requires an intervention from mom, dad, the principal or the HR Department.”

Can you see how those simple statements can benefit a team, family or classroom when trying to establish norms of behavior? They define what people will NOT do versus what they SHOULD do. This limits the parameters greatly. You can start broad and then, if necessary, narrow the scope.

Comment: Let us know in the comments below how this idea might work for your business, team, family or classroom.

Laura’s Leadership Letters

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