When you’re tired or pressured, you’ll revert to instinct, and instinct risks being close to the worst managers you’ve survived. Having a written map gives you rails before you derail.

This tool is a single-page framework with three buckets:

• Principles – the core beliefs you want to embody.
• Boundaries – the lines you refuse to cross.
• Anti-patterns – red-flag behaviors you’ve seen in others, inverted into your own “never do this” rules.

How to use it

Make a copy of the following template and date it. Fill it in.

Leadership Canvas Template

Update quarterly. Share it selectively (with your team, not HR).

It will be a north-star document for your leadership. One part compass, one part panic brake, one part reminder not to turn into your worst boss.