What's the best advice on leadership you ever received from a leader?

Mine came from my Bn Cdr, LTC Spigelmire, later a LTG. He told us to do our jobs as we were trained, take care of our troopers, KNOW you WILL make mistakes, learn from them and never repeat them. Do not let your boss get blindsided by one of your mistakes, tell them before they get that call about your mistake. Learn from it, do not repeat it and take care of your troops. If you are not making mistakes then you are not doing your job.

"You do really good work when you want to do the work. You should learn to do the work you don't want to do just as well". From one of the best leaders (commander) I ever knew, to me. It did sink in. He probably never realized what an effect that had.

Don't ask people to do something you won't do yourself. They will respect you more and be more responsive to you

"Don't expect what you don't inspect"

Never be afraid to ask for advice from both superiors, and subordinates

I had a CSM in 3rd Brigade (Broncos)/25th Infantry say that you are always being watched, when you decide to bend or break laws, regulations, or policies, you are giving your subordinates the same liberty but you cannot control which law, regulation, or policy they decide to bend or break. Simply put do at all times what you expect from others as others are watch at all times.

As an E-4 (2008) I was contantly failing my APFT. Some E-6 not in my chain told me: "PT is the only time of the day you're doing something for you. Everything else during your day, you're doing something for someone else". Never fail a PT test since.

Leadership is not about wielding authority, it is all about empowering people. Real leadership is about leaders recognizing that they serve the people they lead. Leadership is about action, not position. If you take xare of your people and ket them know (by your actions) that you truly care, you are on the right path of leadership.

"Make a decision!" Worry about it being right or wrong later.

The best advise I can give, is that if it;s going to sound stupid coming out of your mouth tomorrow morning, while you're explaining it to your commander, then you probably shouldn't be doing it tonight.

As simple as it sounds, just take care of your people. It applies to every situation as a leader and this advice has helped me more than anything else.