The 21 Indispensable Qualities of A Leader: Becoming the Person Others Will Want to Follow

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3 Sentence Summary

Your character is the difference between knowing how leadership works and becoming a successful leader in the real world. This book is concise and distilled with one lesson on leadership per chapter. John helps you navigate topics like commitment, discernment, initiative, relationships, and servanthood with practical advice for applying these core principles in your everyday life.

5 Key Takeaways

1. Leadership is learned through continuous self reflection and intentional application of core principles.
2. The key to transforming yourself from someone who understands leadership to a person who successfully leads in the real world is character.
3. If you can become the leader you ought to be on the inside, you will be able to become the leader you want to be on the outside.
4. You must learn how to lead yourself before you can lead others.
5. Leadership is loving others with generous servanthood.

The 21 Indispensable Qualities of A Leader Summary

1. Character: Be A Piece of the Rock

• How a leader deals with the circumstances of life tells you many things about his character.
• Adversity is a crossroads that makes a person choose one of two paths: character or compromise.
• Every time he chooses character, he becomes stronger, even if that choice brings negative consequences.
• You can never separate a leader’s character from his actions.
• Talent is a gift, but character is a choice.
• You cannot rise above the limitations of your character.

Reflect

• Weak character manifests itself in the four A’s: arrogance, painful feelings of aloneness, destructive adventure-seeking, or adultery.
• Ask yourself if your words and actions match – all the time.
• Can other people trust you to follow through on your word?
• Are you staying clear of the “gray areas?”

Act

• Write down instances in the past two months where you have cut corners, compromised, or let people down.
• Look for patterns of problems that keep surfacing.
• Face your flaws, apologize, and deal with the consequences of your actions.
• Create a plan to keep you from making the same mistakes again.

2. Charisma: The First Impression Can Seal the Deal

• Charisma is the ability to draw people to you.
• People enjoy leaders who enjoy life. Be a celebrator, not a complainer.
• You attract people by being the type of person you enjoy being with.
• Always expect the best of other people. Encourage them and help them reach their potential.
• Charismatic leaders are “dealers in hope.”
• Share yourself. Who you are, where you’ve been, your wisdom, and even special occasions.

Reflect

• Pride, insecurity, moodiness, perfectionism and cynicism are all roadblocks to charisma. Stay away from these qualities.

Act

• Pay attention to your conversations. How much is focused on you verses on the other person? Tip the balance in favor of focusing on others.
• Be conscious of making a good first impression. Learn the person’s name, focus on their interests, and be positive.
• Share your resources with other people. Add value to the lives of others.

3. Commitment: It Separates Doers From Dreamers

• Other people will believe in you only if you believe in your cause.
• Commitment always precedes achievement.
• The only real measure of commitment is action.
• Commitment opens the door to achievement because it carries you forward through obstacles and oppositions.

Reflect

What type of person are you?

1. Cop-outs. People who have no goals and do not commit.
2. Holdouts. People who don’t know if they can reach their goals, so they’re afraid to commit.
3. Dropouts. People who start toward a goal but quit when the going gets tough.
4. All-outs. People who set goals, commit to them, and pay the price to reach them.

Act

• Measure your progress and track your time. Are you really doing the things you say you want to do?
• What are you willing to die for? Write it down and reflect on that thought.
• Make your plans public. Create peer pressure to follow through on your intentions.

4. Communication: Without It You Travel Alone

• People will not follow you if they don’t know what you want or where you are going.
• The key to effective communication is simplicity.
• Write an exiting opening that will grab everybody in your audience. Then write a dramatic summary and closing that will make the people want to act. Then put them as close together as possible.
• Be audience oriented. Who is my audience? What are their questions? What needs to be accomplished? How much time do I have?
• Convey credibility by believing what you say and living what you say.
• The purpose of communication is action. Give people something to feel, something to remember, and something to do.

Reflect

• How do you rate your ability to communicate with others?
• Is communication a priority for you?
• Can you inspire and motivate people?
• Are you able to connect with people one-on-one? How about a big group?

Act

• Be clear.
• Use short and direct sentences.
• Use common language.
• Focus on the people, no your material, when you communicate.
• Live out your message.

5. Competence: If You Build It, They Will Come

• Show up and come ready to play every day.
• Continually search for ways to keep learning, growing, and improving.
• Performing at a high level of excellence is always a choice, an act of will.
• Highly competent people always go the extra mile.
• They inspire and motivate other people to do the same.

Reflect

• Are you always trying to be your best? Or are you OK with good enough?
• Are you a thinker, a doer, or a clutch player?
• Identify your strengths, areas where you can uniquely contribute at a high level.

Act

• Engage in your work and dedicate yourself to your job.
• Raise your standards and demand higher expectations of yourself.
• Find three ways to improve. Be intentional about honing your professional skills.

6. Courage: One Person With Courage Is A Majority

• Courage isn’t the absence of fear. It’s doing what you are afraid to do.
• Courage is having the power to let go of the familiar and forge ahead into new territory.
• Courage deals with principles, not perception.
• Your dedication to potential must remain stronger than your desire to appease others.
• An act of courage inspires others to follow suit.
• Your life expands in proportion to your courage.

Reflect

• How do you tend to handle fear?
• Are stretching experiences a regular part of your daily life?
• How must you change to develop a spirit of courage in your life?

Act

• Go and do something to face a genuine fear.
• Speak the truth in love to someone you are avoiding confrontation with.
• Face up to feelings that now might be the time to make a big career move. Take time to really examine your options.

7. Discernment: Put An End to Unsolved Mysteries

• Discernment is the ability to find the root of the matter, and it relies on intuition as well as rational thought.
• Leaders need discernment because they often must make decisions with incomplete information.
• People who lack discernment are seldom in the right place at the right time.
• Leaders create their own “luck” as a result of discernment.

Reflect

• When faced with complex issues, can you readily identify the heart of the matter?
• Are you able to see root causes or difficult problems without having to get every bit of information?
• Do you trust your instinct and rely on it as you do your intellect?
• Value nontraditional thinking. Embrace change, ambiguity and uncertainty.

Act

• Analyze problems that you solved successfully in the past. Can you identify the root cause of each?
• Read the biographies of leaders you admire. Learn how other leaders think and make decisions.
• Look for patterns where trusting your gut led to a good outcome.

8. Focus: The Sharper It Is, The Sharper You Are

• Effective focus combines priorities and concentration.
• Don’t major in minor things. Focus 70% of your time and energy developing your strengths.
• Focus 25% on growing and trying new things.
• Focus 5% on improving areas of weakness.

Reflect

• Work on yourself. You are your greatest asset.
• Set your priorities. You will have to fight for them.
• Work on your strengths so that you will reach your potential.
• Work with your contemporaries. You can’t be effective alone.

Act

• Make a list of three things you do well in your job. Assess how much time you spend on those activities and brainstorm opportunities to increase that to 70%.
• Identify three activities at your job that you don’t do well. Figure out how you might delegate these tasks to others.
• Improve your ability to concentrate by limiting distractions and investing in tools that help you work more efficiently.

9. Generosity: Your Candle Loses Nothing When It Lights Another

• Nothing speaks to others more loudly or serves them better than generosity from a leader.
• True generosity comes from the heart.
• You can’t be generous until you are content and thankful for what you already have.
• The measure of a leader is not the number of people who serve him, but the number of people he serves.
• The only way to really win with money is to hold it loosely – and be generous with it to accomplish things of value.
• If you’re enslaved by greed, you cannot lead.

Reflect

• Do you continually look for ways to add value to others?
• Are you giving money to something greater than yourself?
• To whom are you giving your time?

Act

• Take something that you truly value and give it away to someone you care for who could benefit from having it.
• Put your money to work for something that will outlive you.
• Find someone to mentor. Pour your life into someone. Give them your time and resources to become a better leader.

10. Initiative: You Won’t Leave Home Without It

• Leaders always look for opportunities and are ready to take action.
• If you’re going to be an effective leader, you’ve got to know what you want.
• Push yourself beyond your comfort zone. You can’t wait for other people to motivate you.
• Proactive people are willing to take risks.
• Initiating leaders are not intimidated by the prospect of failure.

Reflect

• Are you constantly on the lookout for opportunity, or do you wait for it to come to you?
• Are you willing to move forward despite the calculated risks? Or are you stuck endlessly analyzing?
• When was the last time that you pushed yourself outside of your comfort zone?

Act

• If you lack initiative, determine the source of your hesitation and address it.
• Opportunity is everywhere. Spend a week taking stock of your assets and looking for a need. Who is looking for the expertise that you have?
• Take action. Pursue an opportunity as far as you can and don’t stop until you’ve done everything you can to make it happen.

11. Listening: To Connect With Their Hearts, Use Your Ears

• 60% of all management problems are the result of miscommunication.
• Good leaders take the time to get to know the people they lead.
• You need to really listen to the person talking, and not just the words coming out of their mouth.
• Make it a priority to listen to your customers – the people you’re serving.
• No leader is so advanced or experienced that he can afford to be without a mentor.

Reflect

• Are you making time to listen? Or are you to busy trying to do your own thing?
• When was the last time you slowed down and paid attention to what was going on around you?
• Listen for more than facts, but also the feelings, meanings and undercurrents.

Act

• Schedule time throughout your week to dedicate towards listening – to your peers, customers, competitors, and mentors.
• A key to being a good listener is to find common ground. Ask four or five questions about someone to really get to know them.
• Read between the lines by paying attention to body language and emotion.

12. Passion: Take This Life and Love It

• Nobody can be successful unless they love their work.
• Nothing can take the place of passion in a leader’s life.
• Passion increases your willpower, productivity and dedication.
• Passion outperforms skill.

Reflect

• Do you wake up feeling enthusiastic about your day?
• Are you excited on Mondays? Or do you live only for the weekend?
• How long has it been since you couldn’t sleep because you were too excited about an idea?

Act

• Ask people in your life if they see passion in your work.
• Think back to a project that really got you going. Evaluate your career in light of what you used to love doing. Are you on the right track?
• Passion is contagious. So schedule time to go associate with people of passion.

13. Positive Attitude: If You Believe You Can, You Can

• A positive attitude is essential to effective leadership.
• We always have the power to choose our attitude.
• Your attitude determines how you’ll act.
• Who you are is who you attract.
• It’s much easier to maintain a positive attitude than it is to change a sour attitude.

Reflect

• What is you self-talk?
• Are you constantly warning yourself against the pain of failure? Or do you give yourself encouraging pep talks?

Act

• Pay attention to what you consume. Read, watch, and listen to positive influences.
• Set small goals for yourself that you can accomplish each day.
• Decorate your environment with things that bring up happy memories and encourage positivity.

14. Problem Solving: You Can’t Let Your Problems Be A Problem

• Good leaders anticipate problems. They don’t expect the road to be easy.
• Always accept the truth of the problem. Face up to the reality of the situation.
• Don’t lose sight of the big picture.
• You cannot afford to be overwhelmed by emotion or get bogged down in the details.
• Deal with problems one at a time. Solve the first before moving onto the second.
• Make major decisions when you are experiencing a positive swing, not during dark times.

Reflect

• How do you react when faced with a difficult problem?
• Do you ignore it? Feel powerless? Or do you tackle them willingly?
• The obstacle is the way.

Act

• If you are avoiding problems, go out looking for them and get better at dealing with them.
• Surround yourself with people who are good problem solvers. Learn from them.
• Try tackling problems using the TEACH process:
  • Time = Spend time to discover the real issue.
  • Exposure = Find out what others have already done/tried.
  • Assistance = Have your team study all angles.
  • Creativity = Brainstorm multiple solutions.
  • Hit it = Implement the best solution.

15. Relationships: If You Get Along, They’ll Go Along

• People like to feel special – so compliment them.
• People want a better tomorrow – so give them hope.
• People desire direction – so navigate for them.
• People are selfish – so speak to their needs first.
• People get low emotionally – so encourage them.
• People want success – so help them win.
• You must treat people as individuals.
• If you focus on what you can put into people rather than what you can get out of them, they’ll love and respect you.

Reflect

• How are your people skills?
• Do you interact well with strangers?
• Are you quick to find common ground?
• Are you able to sustain relationships?

Act

• Read books on psychology to learn more about how people think and behave.
• Take the focus off yourself. Instead, pay attention to opportunities you have to serve others.
• Repair a hurting relationship. Take responsibility for your part of the disagreement and apologize. Try to better understand, love, and serve that person.

16. Responsibility: If You Won’t Carry the Ball, You Can’t Lead the Team

• Good leaders never embrace a victim mentality.
• A get-it-done attitude is achieved by thinking of yourself as self-employed.
• Go the extra mile and never limit yourself by your job title.
• If you value excellence, responsibility will follow.
• You can’t lead if you don’t produce and follow through.

Reflect

• Do other people see you as a finisher?
• Are you known for your excellence?

Act

• Sometimes getting things done requires creativity and/or persistence. If you fall behind, maybe you need to work through the night, call a colleague to help, or hire an assistant.
• Set the bar high. Look for areas of your life where you’ve let your standards slip.
• If you set high standards, work hard, but still fail to achieve the desired results, it might be time to invest in better tools.
• Improve your skills by taking classes, reading books, or find a mentor.

17. Security: Competence Never Compensates For Insecurity

• You don’t follow the crowd; you make up your own mind.
• Insecure leaders can’t provide security for the people they lead.
• Insecure leaders constantly seek validation, acknowledgement and love. They are takers, not givers.
• Insecure leaders can’t celebrate their people’s victories. They limit their success and recognition.
• Secure leaders believe in others because they believe in themselves. They don’t feel threatened by someone else’s accomplishments.

Reflect

• How well do you understand and respect yourself?
• Do you know what your strengths are?
• When someone else has a great idea, do you support it or secretly try to shut it down?
• When your team succeeds, do you give other people credit?

Act

• Take time to get to know yourself. Take the Strengths Finders assessment. Write a personal mission statement. Ask other people who know you well to identify your talents. Schedule time for personal reflection.
• Be quick to give away credit.
• Seek out a counselor if you cannot get over your own feelings of insecurity. You can’t be an effective leader until you do.

18. Self-Discipline: The First Person You Lead Is You

• You will never reach your maximum potential without self-discipline.
• You won’t be successful if you only do what you need to do when it’s convenient or when you feel like it.
• Self-discipline isn’t a one-and-done event. It’s a lifestyle.
• Long term growth and success is achieved by developing systems and routines.
• Challenge and eliminate any tendency to make excuses.
• Remove rewards until the job is done.
• Shift your focus from the difficulty of the work to the joy of the promised results.

Reflect

• If you have talent, but aren’t seeing results, it may be for a lack of discipline.
• How much time did you spend last week on regular, disciplined activities?
• Did you do anything to grow professionally, physically, or spiritually?
• Are you prone to put things off until tomorrow?

Act

• Write down your priorities. Identify the top two and brainstorm the daily disciplines you must develop to keep growing and improving in those areas.
• Clarify why those disciplines are important. What are the benefits of doing these things? Post this list somewhere that will remind and inspire you each day.
• Write down all the excuses you can think of that would get in your way. Confront each one and identify solutions to overcome it.

19. Servanthood: To Get Ahead, Put Others First

• Servanthood is not about position or skill. It’s about attitude.
• Put others ahead of your own agenda.
• Show me someone who thinks he is too important to serve, and I’ll show you someone who is basically insecure.
• Great leaders serve without expecting anything in return.
• Servanthood is fueled by love. It has no other hidden agendas or selfish motivations.
• The extent of your influence depends on the depth of your concern for others.

Reflect

• Where is your heart when it comes to serving others?
• Are you more interested in being served than helping others?

Act

• Perform one small act of kindness each day.
• Walk slowly through a crowd. Get to know each person by name, their wants, needs, and desires. Then go home and make a list of how you can do something beneficial for five of them.
• If you have a bad attitude about servanthood, the best way to change it is to start serving. Start with your body and your heart will follow. Volunteer with at least one organization through your church or community.

20. Teachability: To Keep Leading, Keep Learning

• Leaders face the danger of contentment with the status quo.
• If you want to grow your organization, you have to remain teachable.
• Don’t allow your achievement to stagnate your desire to keep learning.
• Effective leaders know that what got them there doesn’t keep them there.
• Avoid shortcuts. There are none.
• It’s impossible to be prideful and teachable at the same time.

Reflect

• Are you growing in your professional life? If not, how much are you investing in learning?
• When was the last time you did something for the first time?
• Do you intentionally put yourself in uncomfortable situations to learn something new?

Act

• Observe how you react when you make mistakes. If you react badly – or make no mistakes at all – you need to work on your teachability.
• Try something new today. Do something that will stretch you mentally, emotionally, or physically.
• Continue to learn in an area of which you are an expert. Read 5 books this year on a field of your specialization. There’s always more to know.

21. Vision: You Can Seize Only What You Can See

• Vision is what leads the leader.
• If you struggle with developing a clear vision, maybe you’d be better hooking up with a leader whose vision resonates with you.
• Vision stems from a leader’s past and the history of the people around him.
• True vision is far-reaching and adds value to other people.
• A vision attracts, challenges and unites people.

Reflect

• Do you know your life’s mission?
• What do you dream about?
• Discontent with the status quo is a great catalyst for vision. What are you itching to change?
• Do you have an advisor who can help you sharpen your vision?
• A truly valuable vision must have God in it. Only He knows your full capabilities.

Act

• Ask people around you if they can articulate your vision. If they can, then you probably are doing a good job living it out.
• Take the time to put your vision to writing. Writing clarifies your thinking. If you see it as a worthy pursuit, put everything you have towards it.
• Consider what really impacts you at a gut level:
  • What makes you cry?
  • What makes you dream?
  • What gives you energy?
• What would you like to see change in the world around you?
• What do you see that isn’t – but could be?

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