Good leadership results in good followers who produce good results. The most important influence you have on people is the example you set. Leadership is really an exercise in “example-ship.” Here are a few guidelines to cultivate and maintain a leadership mentality: • Cure Your Destination Disease – Some think that if you accomplish a [...]

“Leadership is practiced not so much in words as in attitude and in actions” (Harold S. Geneen). Application, or doing, is the essence of leadership. All the character and knowledge in the world aren’t going to make you a leader until you actually do something with these skills. Leaders act. They bring together everything they [...]

Let’s examine the second property a leader needs to possess: knowledge. If character (being) is the engine that drives everything then knowledge, or skill, is the gas that fuels the engine. A leader must have a certain level of knowledge to be competent. Competence links character (knowing the right thing to do) and leadership (doing [...]

Leaders require the interaction of three properties – character, knowledge, and application. This can be summarized as be, know, and do. Character: leadership begins with what a leader must be. What are the values and attributes that shape the leader’s character? Knowledge: a leader’s skills are those things he or she already knows. It includes [...]

“Leadership is not magnetic personality – that can just as well be a glib tongue. It is not ‘making friends and influencing people’ – that is flattery. Leadership is lifting a person’s vision to higher sights, the raising of a person’s performance to a higher standard, the building of a personality beyond its normal limitations.” [...]

My next several blogs will contain a series of messages about developing into a leader, and I am indebted to my friend, Jim R. from Detroit, for many of these ideas. There are two types of leadership. Most of us will think of the collective form, where we lead others, but there is also the [...]

You may have noticed that I put a lot of quotes up on my Twitter feed. I really admire the depth of thought that lies behind seemingly simple, yet concise and profound, statements. Take a quote from Abraham Lincoln, for example: “Be sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm.” Wow, [...]

“A dream is your creative vision for your life in the future. You must break out of your current comfort zone and become comfortable with the unfamiliar and the unknown.” — Denis Waitley, motivational speaker and writer. ‘Fitting in’ may be a path to regret. Leaders don’t fit in, they stand out. People of impact are [...]

So here we are at the beginning of a new year; a time for fresh starts and new resolve. How many resolutions have you made this year, and…are you keeping them? One of my resolutions this year is to be much more consistent in my blogging. Blogging is a simple yet efficient way to reach [...]

Women in the Workforce vs. Work from Home In today’s post-meltdown economy, a woman’s contribution to her family’s finances factors more importantly than ever before. Many women who work in today’s employment-deprived world are grateful for even the crummiest minimum or low wage job. Certainly this is a statement on the times we live in. [...]