First Leaders describes the principles in detail. The book includes the dialogue of my conversations with people when the elements were shared with me. Because my interest is on the practical implications for workplace leaders, each chapter concludes with recommended actions – for individual leaders and for leadership practices across an organisation.

1. Organising Structure

   First Nations societies, universally, had a consistent approach in organising their population. The design principle handles scale and applied irrespective of whether the society is or was organised as hunter-gatherer bands of up to around 25 people or a league of nations of 25,000 people.

2. Nature of Leadership

   The role of the leader in ancestral societies developed as the population grew and the society became more organised. If the nature of leadership didn’t develop, the society couldn’t expand.

3. Attributes of Leadership

   Across cultures and across continents, there is stunning uniformity of the attributes that qualify a person for leadership. Even in a hereditary system, the person next in line will be banned from leadership if they don’t have the required attributes for the role.

4. Selecting Leaders

   As societies become more organisationally complex, great care is taken in selecting the leader. The success rate of traditional societies in choosing leaders sets the benchmark of what’s possible for workplaces.

5. Appointments and Status of Leaders

   When a person is appointed to a leadership role, traditional societies mark the moment with ritual. The ritual signals the obligations of leadership.

6. Checks on Leadership Power

   Given the problems arising from ineffective leadership or from leaders abusing their power, ancestral societies generally have options to fix poor leadership.

7. Cultural Clarity

   First Nation societies are clear on the meaning of membership of their society. There is clarity on the extent to which individual desires are to be conceded in favour of group interests.

8. Individual Identity Through Learning

   Ancestral societies are learning organisations. A key role of the leader – and the elders – is to teach. Teaching helps achieve individual identity within the group and to avoid the anonymity that many people experience in modern organisations.

9. Gender Equity – To Avoid a Feature of Ancestral Life

   The finding from my research that disturbs me is that in ancestral societies there is widespread gender inequity in favour of men. But in identifying this finding, at least if we know the deep-seated source of gender inequity we can choose to take the tangible actions necessary to fix the problem.

10. Inter-Group Harmony – To Avoid a Feature of Ancestral Life

    Almost all ancestral societies had hostile relationships with their neighbours. This finding explains why workplaces can quickly tribalise, and helps leaders watch for the first signs of rivalry so they can take swift remedial action before performance is sabotaged.

11. Initiatives for Group Cohesion

    Ancestral communities generate a strong sense of belonging amongst group members. They devote significant time and resources to bind their community and to reduce tension with their neighbours.

While the principles provide a comprehensive blueprint of workplace leadership, there is no requirement to implement the practices in the order in which I have distilled them. They are fluid. Start anywhere and build from there.