Successful leaders – fathers, business owners, military men, champion athletes, pastors, and so forth all have attributes they share in common.
1. They take little credit for the success of their organization, group, team, family, etc. but rather heap praise upon the people who follow them.
2. When they look at their organization, group, team, family, etc. and observe deficiencies, gaps, mediocrity or failure; they don’t cast blame at or on people, things, or events instead they opt to take full responsibility
3. They never ask their followers to do something that they themselves are not doing.
4. They with quiet determination and clear vision lead by Example
5. Excellence not perfection is their goal and accountability with tough love is how they achieve it.
6. They are held accountable by themselves, a peer group or board of advisors and not their followers
7. They are steadfast, never wavering or contradicting and they utilize others to ensure that steadfastness is maintained
8. Decisive is next to their name and business decisions are based on priorities that accomplish three primary objectives – 1. Exceed Customer Expectations, no matter how contrary or incongruent it might be with their opinion of how something should be done. 2. Exceed Employee Expectations, no matter what the state of the business, employees are built up, loved, measured and held accountable and incrementally challenged to stretch and develop into the best employee/person they can be. They extend the olive branch and as long as the follower is moving towards them they continue their support and or they assist them with making a transition to another position or profession. 3. Exceed partner expectations, vendors, suppliers, sub-contractors, etc.
The common thread is that they are focused on people – God’s #1 priority
9. They have exceptional sensory acuity.
They watch when they listen to hear what’s being said without words. Always looking for the Truth in every situation. When conversing with a follower, vendor, customer, etc. they observe the 80/20 rule saying little and asking tough questions to discover the truth. They know their followers better than their followers know them; because they ask questions and let them share their hearts, stories, insights, wisdom, heartaches and fears
10. They are quick to celebrate even the smallest of victories, even when inside they know it’s not enough
