From good governance to good leadership.
Good governance sets the rules by which an organization is directed and controlled. Good leadership is the same idea carried into the behavior of the people who run it, and that behavior is what makes the rules hold.
What good leadership is
Leading well means exceeding goals by growing people.
2.1 · Definition · CC BY 4.02.2People grow first, and that is why goals get exceeded. Leaders who chase results by wearing their team down get them once and pay for them later; leaders who grow their team get them every year, and go further each time. Putting people first is the shortest path to the goals, and the only one that lasts.
2.3These principles let anyone who leads, and any organization, recognize good leadership, measure themselves against it and commit in public to practicing it. They apply whether you lead six people or six hundred, with or without a board above you.
The Principles of Good Leadership
Seven principles you can observe from the outside. Each one shows up in specific behaviors, and each behavior is a face of the icosahedron.
Principle 1: Purpose
Whoever leads knows why they lead, and their team knows it too.
Behaviors 1 · 2Read the principlePrinciple 2: Preparation
Leading can be learned, and whoever leads never stops preparing.
Behaviors 3 · 4 · 5Read the principlePrinciple 3: Trust
On the team of someone who leads well, people can tell the truth.
Behaviors 6 · 7 · 8Read the principlePrinciple 4: Growth
Whoever leads well grows people until they can take their place.
Behaviors 9 · 10 · 11 · 12Read the principlePrinciple 5: Sustainability
Goals are exceeded with people, and their human cost counts as a result.
Behaviors 13 · 14Read the principlePrinciple 6: Self-awareness
Whoever leads knows themselves, asks for the truth about themselves, and uses it.
Behaviors 15 · 16 · 17Read the principlePrinciple 7: Integrity
Whoever leads the organization lives up, in their behavior, to what the organization declares.
Behaviors 18 · 19 · 20Read the principle
Why it matters
Organizations already have rules of good governance, and they follow them. Even so, what actually happens depends on whoever leads.
of the recommendations in their corporate governance code are followed, on average, by Spanish listed companies.
of the variance in engagement between teams is explained by the person who leads them, at a minimum.
Twenty faces, twenty behaviors
The symbol is an icosahedron: twenty triangles, and from any single point you never see more than ten. Each face is one of the behaviors that show good leadership. Hover, or tap, to see them.
The team explains its priorities in the same words as the person who leads it.
Endorse the Principles
Endorsement is public, free and renewed every year. Endorsers receive the seal for their website, their email signature and their profile.
For anyone who leads people or will soon be called to.
EndorseSigned by the person who leads it, on behalf of the leadership team.
Endorse for my organization
What you might ask us
The toughest objections, answered plainly.
“Why should anyone outside care about this?”
Because it addresses a documented problem: governance rules are being followed, Spanish listed companies comply on average with 88.2% of their governance code, and major failures keep happening at organizations whose structures are fully in order. The framework proposes looking at the behavior of whoever leads, using public criteria that anyone can check. From good governance to good leadership
“It’s backed by a school that makes its living preparing executives. That’s a conflict of interest.”
It is an initiative of Club INUSUAL, that school’s community of practice, and we say so in the legal notice. To keep that link from tipping the scales: the project is nonprofit, everything is free, the texts are free to use, and nothing requires you to go through the school to endorse or to use the seal. Who is behind it
“The underlying research was done by the same organization.”
The reference study was, and we say so. Its figures come from primary sources such as the CNMV (Spain’s securities regulator), Gallup, the ACFE, and ISO, each one linked so you can check it without taking anyone’s word for it. And it separates data from its own reading, such as “leadership debt,” which is presented as an interpretation. The sources
“Is there evidence that people who endorse lead better?”
Not yet: endorsement is a public commitment, and measuring its effect will take time. What does have support is the set of behaviors each principle rests on, with the research cited on each page.
“Growing people is all very well, but I’m accountable for results.”
The definition starts there: leading well means exceeding goals. Growing people is how you get there, and the research backs it up: the person who manages a team accounts for at least 70% of the variance in that team’s engagement. What good leadership is
“I run a small company with no board. Good governance isn’t for me.”
It is for you more than for anyone. In Spain, 99.8% of companies are small and medium-sized businesses, and most have no board or committees: their good governance is simply the behavior of whoever leads them. From good governance to good leadership
How to cite
The texts and the sharing kit are published under a CC BY 4.0 license: you may reproduce and adapt them as long as you credit the source. The symbol and the seal are excluded.
Good Leadership (2026). The Principles of Good Leadership. Version 1.0. buenliderazgo.org/en/. License CC BY 4.0. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23601800