Those that had been in a leadership position, what's one thing you done that you thought worked well?

Others in this thread have identified things I tried to do myself, with some success I believe. One particular approach I had to management was allocating vacation time. Time-off was subject to my permission (to ensure we could always operate) and had to be recorded into HR's IT system. But I always allowed my team to take extra time off, unrecorded, where circumstances demanded. Examples: my five-year-old is in the school play; my mum has fallen, I'm at the hospital; my boiler leaked, I'm waiting for the boiler guy; etc. Officially, these should have gone down as holiday-allocation but I never recorded them. I didn't want my team wasting holiday on such things. My rule which I always explained to new team members: "Take what you need, just don't take the piss". The loyalty this generated from my team was worth it. If we ever needed to work late or weekends, I always had willing volunteers. Many times I had team members telling me, "I owe you one". In all my years of managing teams, I only had one that took the piss. He didn't last long. Management can be hard, and I sometimes got things wrong, but I found that leaders/managers only need to do three things: treat your people how you would like to be treated; fight for the resources your team needs; always protect them from complaints/attack (even if they have accidentally ballsed-up).