Many people are born leaders, yet the ability to lead is actually an art and an amazing collection of skills which can be learned and sharpened. The following top ten daily habits will help you and/or your clients grow as a leader personally, professionally, and spiritually.
1. Spend 30 minutes each morning looking for "cracks" in the major areas of your life.
Your depth of character is key to determining your success as a leader. It is easy for us to say that we are "in integrity," but your actions are the real indicators of strength of character. Spend 30 minutes each morning looking at the major areas of your life: career, marriage, family, community, and spirituality. Write down any instances where you see "cracks" (you have cut corners, something is inconsistent, you have not kept your word, you have been dishonest, etc.) Do all in your power to repair those cracks by apologizing and dealing with the consequences of your actions. After facing up to past actions, begin a plan that will rebuild you and prevent you from making further mistakes.
2. Show up and be ten minutes early for every appointment.
Great leaders show up for every appointment, and they are always on time. Each day, practice not only showing up but being ten minutes early for each and every appointment. "The early bird gets the worm" has never been so true than when it applies to becoming a great leader that others want to follow.
3. Be dedicated to a high level of learning.
Great leaders are highly competent, because they are dedicated to a high level of learning, growth, and improvement. Spend 15-30 minutes each day devoted to learning something new. Do not settle for knowing "how" to do something. Dig deeper by asking the question "why" and then, go find the answer. Search the internet, interview an expert, or take a day trip to find the answer to a question that is on your mind or the minds of those who follow you.
4. Be simple and crystal clear in all communication.
As a leader, your communication should be simple, clean, and clear as a bell. Examine both written and verbal communication for simplicity and clarity. Use as few words as possible, and eliminate jargon and "big words" from your vocabulary. Express yourself in a way that your listeners can understand.
5. Surround yourself with A Players.
One of the secrets of a great leader is great people. Hire the right staff, surround yourself with a strong inner circle, and spend time daily with people who have a variety of gifts. With the support of a strong circle of men, women and children, you will be ready for anything that comes your way.
6. Develop a sense of commitment and responsibility.
People do not follow leaders who are not committed and responsible. Commitment and responsibility can be measured by the hours you spend and how you spend them, the money you spend and how you spend it, and by what you do for others. Spend 15 minutes each day analyzing your time, your checkbook, and your volunteer work. Look closely at how much time you spend with family and friends as compared to work, how you spend your money, and how you give back to the community. You may be very surprised at what you find.
7. Develop a positive attitude by altering your mind.
It is very possible to alter your attitude by altering your mind. Saturate yourself daily with motivational literature, positive people, and inspiring music/art. By conditioning your mind to be more positive on a daily basis, you will find that winning will be a daily reward of your life.
8. Accept responsibility.
Great leaders never play the role of a victim. They recognize that part of being a great leader is being ultimately responsible for all successes and failures. On a daily basis, analyze your current projects, and ask yourself "Have I done all that needs to be done? What have I not done that I should?" Once you have analyzed each project, if you find a weakness, go the extra mile by working extra hours, hiring an outside expert, or getting really creative to repair the weakness or to turn it into a success!
9. Make self-discipline a part of your lifestyle.
What do you need to develop self-discipline? Following a better diet or exercise routine? Getting up one hour earlier? Being rigorous with your spending? Learning something new every day? Eliminate excuse-making from your life, and begin to develop habits that will invite self-discipline to become the foundation of your life. Hire a coach to support you during the development of a routine of self-discipline, and remove rewards until the job is done!
10. Develop courage by facing fear.
By a show of courage, you will inspire others to follow and to walk in your footsteps. Spend 15-30 minutes each day doing something simply for the sake of developing courage: speak to an audience, make a difficult phone call, learn a new skill, write an article or a top ten, or visit someone you have always wanted to meet. As Eleanor Roosevelt acknowledged: "You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, 'I lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.' You must do the thing you think you cannot do."
Related Stories: | Topics:Innovation, Leadership, Management, Design, Trailblazers, pioneers, Innovators, leadership coaching, Rebels, Eleanor Roosevelt |
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Recent Comments | 8 Total
August 21, 2008 at 2:48pm by Chris Banescu
These are very good strategies and skills for leaders to rely on and help them start on the road towards becoming a great leader. The advice given is indeed key in building character, integrity, and increaseing their effectiveness as leaders.
There are a couple of articles I have written that summarize some of the important characteristics of great leaders. It's uncanny to see how similar many of the issues covered are. Here are the two articles I would like to share with your readers:
Key Characteristics of Great Leaders - Part I
http://chrisbanescu.com/blog/2007/12/31/key-characteristics-of-great-lea...
Key Characteristics of Great Leaders - Part II
http://chrisbanescu.com/blog/2008/06/21/key-characteristics-of-great-lea...
August 21, 2008 at 2:49pm by Chris Banescu
These are very good strategies and skills for leaders to rely on and help them start on the road towards becoming a great leader. The advice given is indeed key in building character, integrity, and confidence, and increasing their effectiveness as leaders.
There are a couple of articles I have written that summarize some of the important characteristics of great leaders. It's uncanny to see how similar many of the issues covered are. Here are the two articles I would like to share with your readers:
Key Characteristics of Great Leaders - Part I
http://chrisbanescu.com/blog/2007/12/31/key-characteristics-of-great-lea...
Key Characteristics of Great Leaders - Part II
http://chrisbanescu.com/blog/2008/06/21/key-characteristics-of-great-lea...
August 22, 2008 at 10:21am by John Agno
Copycat or born leader?
There has always been pressure on corporate leaders to perform well. Some have stretched and improved their competencies by learning more about themselves. Most have chosen to adopt best practices of those whom they respect to improve their own leadership style.
So, which is the better method to develop leadership skills---improve your innate signature talents or copy what others have developed and used successfully?
The short answer is don't jump from one leadership fad to another but do engage in authentic conversations and self-assessments to know yourself better.
Throw out the Cookbook. Cookbookish leadership doesn't work when you are following someone else's recipe.
Can we really train leaders? Which types of developmental activities will have the greatest impact on increasing executives’ effectiveness? How can leaders achieve positive long-term changes in behavior?
Lured by the promise of instant success, many companies are writing checks without asking critical questions about program design and actual accomplishments.
Leadership programs work very well if they use a multi-tiered approach. Most fall into one of four types:
Personal growth programs
Skill-building programs
Feedback programs
Conceptual awareness programs
August 22, 2008 at 10:54am by Bea Fields
Thank-you for your comments. I also don't believe in cookbook recipe approaches to leadership development, but the above strategies are what over 800 or so people have told me are important to a leader's ability to develop the credibility needed to get others to follow. I hope that by sharing, we can all get a little bit closer to improving our local and greater communities.
August 22, 2008 at 2:30pm by Bennet Simonton
Most executives do not realize the great importance of proper leadership. Most use the traditional top-down command and control approach to managing people. But top-down by it nature demeans and disrespects employees "leading" them to become demotivated and demoralized. They are thus led to treat their work, their customers and their bosses with the same level of disrespect.
The opposite approach can "lead" people to the opposite result and release huge amounts of productivity, creativity, innovation, motivation and commitment.
To understand the right way and the wrong way to manage people, please read the article "Leadership, Good or Bad".
http://www.bensimonton.com/Leadership,%20Good%20or%20Bad.htm
Best regards, Ben Simonton
Author "Leading People to be Highly Motivated and Committed"
August 29, 2008 at 8:53am by John Agno
Copycat or born leader?
There has always been pressure on corporate leaders to perform well. Some have stretched and improved their competencies by learning more about themselves. Most have chosen to adopt best practices of those whom they respect to improve their own leadership style.
So, which is the better method to develop leadership skills---improve your innate signature talents or copy what others have developed and used successfully?
The short answer is don't jump from one leadership fad to another but do engage in authentic conversations and self-assessments to know yourself better.
Throw out the Cookbook.
Cookbookish leadership doesn't work when you are following someone else's recipe. Perhaps, the quote from Dr. Maxwell Maltz of the Psycho-Cybernetic Foundation, about the need to focus our internal energy to make the changes we desire, says it best… "Trying to implant a goal that is incongruent with the self-image is like trying to plant grain by dropping seeds on rock hard bone-dry ground.
No one can consistently out perform his or her self-image. No one can overcome it with willpower. No one can sneak past it and perform in an incongruent manner. The bottom line is that you cannot 'do' things without 'being' the kind of person who does those things. You must 'be' to 'do.'"
Bottom Line: Something that works well for a leader in one company is not easily replicated in another.
August 29, 2008 at 2:32pm by Chris Banescu
I beg to disagree with most of this assertion: "Bottom Line: Something that works well for a leader in one company is not easily replicated in another." While minor adjustments must be made to accommodate the unique culture of a company, a vast majority of management and leadership principles, especially the core values and approaches, apply universally.
Treating employees ethically and fairly is universal. Being truthful, walking the talk, and an example to individuals must be the standard. Getting rid of lazy and unproductive employees, while simultaneously rewarding, recognizing, and promoting the responsible, ethical, loyal, and productive employees and managers can be replicated. Proportionally rewarding employees for their individual contributions to the success of a company is absolutely required. Staying grounded in reality and focused on the long-term strategic concerns of an organization must be replicated.
Learning to be a real leader in any type of organization and striving to match the 10 characteristics I mentioned in my 2 articles will indeed raise the bar for all managers and executives regardless of the type of organization or company they lead. They are ultimately dealing with human beings and human nature which does not change from enterprise to enterprise, be it small, medium or large company, corporation, government, public institution, charity, etc...
The fact that we have created these artificial barriers and different way of managing people evidences the massive incompetence, inefficiencies, and disasters we're seeing across so many organizations.