Leaders are effective because of who they are on the inside—in the qualities that make them up as people. And to go to the highest level of leadership, people have to develop these traits from the inside out.

Everything rises and falls on leadership. And leadership truly develops from the ...

How a leader deals with the circumstances of life tells you many things about his character. Crisis doesn’t necessarily make character, but it certainly does reveal it. Adversity is a crossroads that makes a person choose one of two paths: character or compromise. Every time he chooses character,...

• Search for the cracks. Spend some time looking at the major areas of your life (work, marriage, family, service, etc.), and identify anywhere you might have cut corners, compromised, or let people down.

• Look for patterns. Examine the responses that you ...

Roadblocks to charisma:

Pride. Nobody wants to follow a leader who thinks he is better than everyone else.

Insecurity. If you are uncomfortable with who you are, others will be too.

Moodiness. If people never know what to expect...

If you want to be an effective leader, you have to be committed. True commitment inspires and attracts people. It shows them that you have conviction. They will believe in you only if you believe in your cause.

When it comes to commitment, there are really only four types of people:

...

To improve your communication, do the following:

Be clear as a bell. Examine a letter, memo, or other items you’ve recently written.

To be a communicator, your best friends are simplicity and clarity. Write your next piece of communication keeping bot...

When you think about people who are competent, you’re really considering only three types of people:

1. Those who can see what needs to happen.

2. Those who can make it happen.

3. Those who can make things happen when it really counts.

You’re only as good as your priva...

Face the music.

Go out and do something stretching simply for the sake of growing in courage. Skydive. Speak in front of an audience (most people’s greatest fear).  It doesn’t matter what you do as long as it causes you to face a genuine fear.

Talk to that per...

Discernment can be described as the ability to find the root of the matter, and it relies on intuition as well as rational thought. Effective leaders need discernment, although even good leaders don’t display it all the time.

Never ignore a gut feeling, but never believe that it’s enoug...

A leader who knows his priorities but lacks concentration knows what to do but never gets it done. If he has concentration but no priorities, he has excellence without progress. But when he harnesses both, he has the potential to achieve great things.

To get back on track with your focus, d...

•Give something away. Find out what kind of hold your possessions have on you. Take something you truly value, think of someone you care about who could benefit from it, and give it to him.  

•Put your money to work. If you know someone with the vision to d...

Don’t wait for opportunity to knock.

 Opportunity doesn’t come to the door knocking. You’ve got to go out and look for it. Take stock of your assets, talents, and resources. Doing that will give you an idea of your potential. Now, spend every day for a week looking for opportunities. Where ...

Keep your ear open to these people:

1. Your Followers

Good leaders, the kind that people want to follow, do more than conduct business when they interact with followers.  

2. Your Customers

Good leaders always make it a priority to keep in contact with the people they’re s...

If you look at the lives of effective leaders, you will find that they often don’t fit into a stereotypical mold. For example, more than 50 percent of all CEOs of Fortune 500 companies had C or C– averages in college. Nearly 75 percent of all U.S. presidents were in the bottom half of their schoo...

If you desire to be an effective leader, having a positive attitude is essential. It not only determines your level of contentment as a person, but it also has an impact on how others interact with you.

The greatest discovery of this generation is that human beings can alter their l...

No leader can simultaneously have his head in the sand and navigate his people through troubled waters. Effective leaders face up to the reality of a situation.

The ability to solve problems effectively comes from experience facing and overcoming obstacles. Each time you solve another probl...

• TIME—spend time to discover the real issue.
• EXPOSURE—find out what others have done.
• ASSISTANCE—have your team study all angles.
• CREATIVITY —brainstorm multiple solutions.
• HIT IT —implement the best solution

The first quality of a relational leader is the ability to understand how people feel and think. As you work with others, recognize that all people, whether leaders or followers, have some things in common:

• They like to feel special, so sincerely compliment them.
• T...

Good leaders never embrace a victim mentality.

They recognize that who and where they are, remain their responsibility— not that of their parents, their spouses, their children, the government, their bosses, or their coworkers.

They face whatever life throws at them and give it thei...

No one can live on a level inconsistent with the way he sees himself. You may have observed that in people. If someone sees himself as a loser, he finds a way to lose. Anytime his success surpasses his security, the result is self-destruction. That’s not only true for followers, but it’s also tru...

As a leader, you already have too little time. Now all you need is a plan. If you can determine what’s really a priority and release yourself from everything else, it’s a lot easier to follow through on what’s important. And that’s the essence of self-discipline.

The first and best ...

Servanthood is not about position or skill. It’s about attitude. You have undoubtedly met people in service positions who have poor attitudes toward servanthood: the rude worker at the government agency, the waiter who can’t be bothered with taking your order, the store clerk who talks on the pho...

Leaders face the danger of contentment with the status quo. After all, if a leader already possesses influence and has achieved a level of respect, why should he keep growing? The answer is simple:

• Your growth determines who you are.
• Who you are determines who you attract.
...

To improve your vision, do the following:

•Measure yourself. If you have previously thought about the vision for your life and articulated it, measure how well you are carrying it out.

•Write it down. If you’ve thought about your visi...

1. What makes you cry?
2. What makes you dream?
3. What gives you energy?

Also think about what you’d like to see change in the world around you. What do you see that isn’t—but could be? Once your ideas start to become clearer, write t...