Attitude is the perspective through which we view and react to our surroundings and circumstances. Our attitude determines how we think and behave; it has a profound affect on our success and the success of those around us.

A leader's attitude is contagious; it infects and affects individuals and entire organizations. As leaders, we have to monitor the attitude we project and its impact on those around us.

Caring is not complicated. It simply means spending time with the people you lead, knowing their names, listening to their ideas and concerns, smiling, sharing a kind word, asking about their health, families, and interests.

Value other people first as human beings and then for what they can contribute to your organization. Remember, your success depends upon how much they care about following you.

Max DePree said, “We cannot become what we need to be by remaining what we are”. Despite this truth, most of us resist change. Change challenges our natural human desire for stability and predictability. In reality, we're either moving ahead or falling behind; there is no status quo.

Real leadership begins with individual character. Whether we're leading an organization or leading our own lives, character defines the quality and capacity of our leadership.

We can develop these attributes by making sure they're present and sufficient in our character today. Then, we can define values that enhance them, and make sure these values drive our behavior every day.

Leaders who build effective organizations and teams consistently promote collaboration instead of competition within their ranks. They understand that the time and energy team members spend competing with one another detracts from the organization's overall success.

Legendary football coach Vince Lombardi said, “The quality of a person's life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence, regardless of their field of endeavor”.

The same can be said for the quality of teams and entire organizations. That means leaders must inspire people to commit to be their best instead of merely complying with minimal performance standards.

In the end, people commit themselves to a team or organization when they believe their leaders value them and the best they have to offer. They have to know that their best matters. The leaders challenge is to show them it does.

Communication is the continual process through which we relate to other people. It is the way we exchange ideas, feelings, knowledge, and information. It is how we build relationships of trust and respect.

A significant percentage of a leader's time should be spent consistently communicating with people to understand, teach, motivate, and reinforce.

Competent leaders are known for the proficiency they've acquired in a field of endeavor. This proficiency typically includes a relatively high degree of technical knowledge. More importantly, they realize that it's their ability to accomplish objectives through the competency of others that defines them as effective leaders.

Composure means keeping a level head, focusing on what needs to be done, and preventing emotions from overwhelming the organization's guiding principles, competence and common sense.

The composed leader projects confidence. Even when he's not feeling confident, he becomes a calming influence. Even when he's unsure, a leader must display faith in his ability and that of his team to succeed. Such composure may very well be the glue that keeps his team together and functioning through the most challenging times.

For some, courage is a trait they must call upon often in their lives. For others, it is a recently discovered characteristic they weren't sure they possessed.

You can develop courage by examining your fears and understanding them. Then put your fears in perspective by measuring them against the value of the goal you seek to lead others to achieve. Courage is not being fearless. Courage is moving forward in spite of our fears.

Credibility is essential to developing a reputation for personal integrity and trustworthiness, fundamental attributes of all effective people and their leaders. We build credibility with others over time by consistently doing what we say we will do. The phrase, “walk the talk”, means we routinely behave in harmony with our stated values and intentions.

Credibility can take time to build, but it can be lost in a moment when our actions don't match our words. Take care to protect your credibility. No one can lead without it.

Sometimes a seemingly endless parade of people, challenges, and tasks vie for our attention and resources. Leaders must focus themselves and their organizations only on the truly important, setting aside the less important and unimportant. Stephen Covey describes this prioritization process as “putting first things first”.

Focus often requires leaders to display the discipline, courage, clarity, and commitment to challenge institutional “sacred cows” and popular notions. This leadership competence is as essential as it is difficult and unpopular. Without focus, individuals and organizations lose their way.

People often debate the most important characteristic of leaders. In their book, The Leadership Challenge, authors James Kouzes and Parry Posner suggest that honesty is the most admired of all leadership characteristics.

The words “influence" and “power" have similar definitions, but very different effects when leading others. Power makes people comply; influence leads them to commit.

Influence suggests persuading, encouraging and reasoning with others to think and behave a particular way. Influencing convinces people to believe in a particular idea or action.

Power based on position, connections or resources may control someone's behavior, but not their thinking or beliefs. People may do what we say because they fear our power over them. Power may make people comply with our wishes, but they are not likely to commit themselves until we influence their hearts and minds.

The challenge is to make sure we are not using power when influence would be more effective leadership strategy.

A leader's reputation for personal integrity is defined by the extent to which he behaves in concert with his stated values and beliefs. It's our willingness to do “the right thing” even when no one is watching.

Our integrity is largely within our control; behaving with integrity is a choice we each make.

Closely guard your integrity. No matter how enticing, allow no temptation to undermine it.

Without integrity, we have no foundation from which to lead regardless of our other attributes and assets.

You may have heard it said that God gave us two ears and one mouth because He expects us to listen twice as much as we talk.

Listening is an essential leadership skill. People truly follow you only if they believe you respect and care about them. Nothing demonstrates greater respect and genuine interest in others than listening to understand their needs, concerns and views.

Dwight Eisenhower said, “Motivation is the art of getting people to do what you want them to do because they want to do it”.

Effective leaders positively motivate others to achieve goals, overcome obstacles and develop capabilities.

They motivate by consistently demonstrating positive inspiration in their own words and actions, setting an example others want to emulate.

Winston Churchill said, “Never, never, never, never quit”.

Perseverance is a trait of all great leaders. Leadership is as much about tenacity as it is about talent. Leaders who create a legacy are not those whose paths are uncluttered. Just the opposite, the best leaders have completed quests replete with trials and tribulations.

Whether you were born a leader or learned to be one, consistently exude the will to go around, through, over or under obstacles in your path. No matter how many or how daunting the challenges between you and a worthy goal, great leaders never quit.

Whether you are leading an entire organization, a team, your family or your own life, make perseverance a defining quality of your leadership.

Purpose is our ultimate reason for existing, as individuals and organizations. A meaningful and motivational purpose, clearly articulated, can inspire people to realize their full potential. It can inspire an organization to commit its individual and collective efforts toward a valuable ideal.

As leaders, our challenge is to help our organizations collaboratively develop, clearly communicate and consistently pursue a purpose worthy of people's hearts and minds.

Realistic self-awareness is essential to leading organizations and our own lives. Self-awareness is how we see ourselves, and realizing how others view us. Accepting and comprehending these often differing perspectives can result in opportunities for real growth and development.

Reflect on weaknesses that may be undermining your leadership potential. Seek constructive criticism. What you learn will enhance your self-awareness, focus your personal improvement efforts and open lines of communication; important goals for any effective leader.

Initially, we may aspire to leadership because of what we expect to get from the role, particularly the power to have others do things our way.

In reality, true leadership means serving others, not others serving us. Becoming an effective leader requires routinely finding ways to help individuals and teams successfully pursue shared goals.

All productive relationships are based on trust. With it, relationships develop and grow. Without it, individuals and institutions alike are doomed.

When people operate in a trusting environment - where they trust and are trusted - they're usually more open to new ideas, more willing to give of themselves, and more likely to stick with someone or something longer when the going gets tough.

Values that serve us well are enduring principles that enable us to maintain our integrity and self-respect; no matter the circumstances. Effective leaders routinely exhibit positive, constructive values in their words and deeds, even under difficult circumstances.

Stephen Covey described vision as “seeing the end from the beginning”. Vision is a clear statement of what an organization seeks to become over time through the collective efforts of its members.

Many leaders mistakenly believe that everyone expects them to determine the vision alone. In fact, very few leaders single-handedly envision their organization's future.

As a leader, your job is to work with your team to collectively determine this future state of being. Creating the vision together develops unity and commitment.

Wisdom is an important leadership characteristic, but one that we may not sufficiently recognize or value. The mere mention of the word can conjure up images of white-haired old men telling tales to bored faces. However, cultivating wisdom is essential to productive living and leading.

Wisdom is applying our accumulated knowledge to life. We become wiser over time as we learn to discern reality from fantasy, and what works from what doesn't. People who learn from their failures and successes develop wisdom.

We all tend to follow individuals we believe to be wise. The wise leader demonstrates thinking that is simple, practical common sense. The wise leader cuts through the noise and gets to what really matters in dealing with life's challenges.