I recently read through & discussed James Kouzes & Barry Posner’s book called The Truth About Leadership with a group of guys. Here are some of my nuggets I took away from the book:
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- Before you can lead others, you have to lead yourself and believe that you can have a positive impact on others.
- Before anyone is going to willingly follow you-or any other leader-he or she wants to know that you are honest, forward-thinking, inspiring and competent.
- If you don’t believe in the messenger, you won’t believe the message.
- You cannot fully commit to something that isn’t important to you-no one can.
- People won’t follow you, or even pay much attention to you, if you don’t have any strong beliefs.
- Spend more time in the future. You have to carve out more time each week to peering into the distance and imagining what might be out there.
- Looking backward can actually enable you to see farther than if you stare straight ahead.
- The best leaders take actions that make people strong and capable. They make people feel that they can do more than they thought they could.
- Often, people just lack a little courage and confidence. They blossom when they have a leader who believes in them and gives them support and encouragement
- Tremendous energy is unleashed when constituents trust you!
- To be a leader you need to make something happen. You need to feel a strong sense of commitment, believing that you can find something in whatever you are doing that is interesting, important, or worthwhile.
- You can’t lose focus when there are lots of distractions all around. You can’t hop from one thing to the next without completing what you started. It’s called grit!
- People are always watching you.
- Learning agility…is the ability to reflect on experience and then engage in new behaviors based on those reflections.
- If you want to be the best leader you can be, you will have to attend to your weaknesses.
- Love enlarges lives. Love creates the desire to serve others and to see them grow and become their best.
I hope you can also learn from some of these quotes. It may be a reminder or a new challenge. We are all leaders to some degree whether at home with our families, at work, at church or in your community. I’ve heard this many times and I believe it that everything rises and falls on leadership. Lead On!