Everyone is a leader in his or her own realm of influence.  Leadership isn't position, it's influence.  More than anything else, the leadership of any group or organization will determine its success or failure.  Good leadership starts within each individual leader, and is then outwardly demonstrated.  Good leadership is founded in a state of being, not just doing.

Articles on Leadership (♥ = GL Favorites) :

• Challenge is the Opportunity for Greatness by Jim Kouzes & Barry Posner
  People become the leaders they observe.  It's essential to give aspiring talent the chance to observe models of exemplary leadership.  When it comes to excellence, it's definitely not "What gets rewarded gets done" but rather "What is rewarding gets done."  To create a climate for developing the best leaders we must provide meaningful challenges.
   
• Do You Have the Will to Lead? by Peter Koestenbaum ♥
  Authentic leaders have absorbed the fundamental fact of existence -- that you can't get around life's inherent contradictions. The leadership mind is spacious. It has ample room for the ambiguities of the world, for conflicting feelings, and for contradictory ideas. I believe that the central leadership attribute is the ability to manage polarity. In every aspect of life, polarities are inevitable. How we act, how we respond to those polarities -- that is where we separate greatness from mediocrity.
   
• Fear Not by Jim Collins
  What’s needed is motivation that’s sustainable.  The dark side of motivation by fear is that it is like a powerful stimulant: it can jolt you for a while, but it also inevitably leaves you more drained than before.  We need to capitalize on the inspiring payoff of achievement -- the pure re-energizing glee that comes from simply creating something new and doing something better.
   
• Good to Great by Jim Collins ♥
  Good is the enemy of great!  It's true ... for individuals and companies alike, good, and the relative satisfaction and complacency that comes with it, can be the biggest barrier to achieving greatness.  Collins highlights five distinct principles common to all great companies.
   
• How to Be a Real Leader an Interview with Kevin Cashman ♥
  If leadership is so important, why are effective business leaders so rare?  Kevin Cashman, a Minneapolis-based leadership coach, says: “Too many people separate the act of leadership from the leader.  They see leadership as something that they do - rather than as an expression of who they are.”
   
• Leadership is an Art by Max Depree ♥
  Highlights from DePree's Leadership is an Art.  Peter Drucker asserted that the book "says more about leadership in clearer, more elegant, and more convincing language than many of the much longer books that have been published on the subject.”
   
• Leading a Virtuous-Spiral Organization by Edward Lawler ♥
  A "virtuous-spiral organization" is one where both individuals and the organizations that they're a part of achieve more and more of their goals.  Virtuous-spiral relationships come about when an organization values and rewards it's people, and as a result, they are committed to performing well.
   
• On Character and Servant Leadership by Larry Spears
  The concept of servant-leadership is increasingly viewed as an ideal leadership form to which untold numbers of people and organizations aspire.  The article outlines 10 characteristics of servant-leaders.
   
• Servant Leadership at TDIndustries
  TDIndustries, recognized as one of the "100 Best" companies to work for by Fortune Magazine, uses Robert Greenleaf's essay, The Servant as Leader, as a blueprint for their behavior.
   
• Servant Leadership: Quest for Caring Leadership by Larry C. Spears
  Many people are seeking new and better ways of integrating work with their own personal and spiritual growth.  The great leader is first seen as a servant to others.  This simple fact is a key to his or her greatness.
   
• Ten Tips for Communicating Vision by Angie Ward
  Here's a quick checklist of ten things leaders need to do to communicate organizational vision effectively.
   
• The Art of Chaordic Leadership by Dee Hock ♥
  Induced behavior is the essence of the leader/follower relationship.  Compelled behavior is the essence of all the other relational concepts (superior/subordinate, manager/employee, master/servant, owner/slave).  Where behavior is compelled, there you will find tyranny, however benign.  Where behavior is induced, there you will find leadership, however powerful.
   
• The Essence of Leadership by Stever Robbins
  Leadership is emotional; it's about inspiration, motivation, and connection.  Unlike management, it doesn't lend itself to systems, structure, and traditional classroom teaching.  What inspires people to follow is surprisingly consistent, and surprisingly simple.  But be forewarned: Simple doesn't mean easy.
   
• The Innovator's Rule Book by Bo Burlingame
  Companies need to innovate, coming up with new products and services, new markets, maybe even new businesses, as they work on optimizing the ones they already have.
   
• The Leadership Advantage by Warren Bennis
  The truth is that no one factor makes a company admirable but if you were forced to pick the one that makes the most difference, you’d pick leadership.  Without leaders who can attract and retain talent, manage knowledge, and unblock people’s capacity to adapt and innovate, an organization’s future is in jeopardy.
   
• The Leaders We Need by Frances Hesselbein
  What kind of leaders do people deserve and require in these demanding times?  Now is the time to develop our checklist for leaders of the future who embody the values, principles, and philosophy needed.  We need leaders who ...
   
• The Mark of a Winner by Noel M. Tichy
  What separates winning organizations from the also-rans?  Winning companies are led by men and women who personally and methodically nurture the development of other leaders, at all levels of the organization.  The ultimate test of leadership is sustained success, which demands the constant cultivation of future leaders.
   
• The Real Keys to High Performance by Jeffrey Pfeffer ♥
  While many leaders believe that putting people first makes strategic sense, all too few of their organizations do it.  Leaders of truly successful organizations engage in the important work of building work practices that ensure that the ideas of all people become known and used.
   
• The Trouble with Teamwork by Patrick M. Lencioni
  Teamwork, when properly understood and implemented, is a powerful and beneficial tool.  There is no disputing that it enables groups of people to achieve more collectively than they could have imagined doing apart.  However, the requirements of real teamwork cannot be underestimated
   
• Townsend's Leadership Views Still Genius by Dale Dauten
  Robert Townsend helped us begin to reinvent leadership over 30 years ago when he called into question the old, command-and-control style and proposed a more enlightened approach.

More Articles and Resources:

• Articles on Giftedness, Core Values & Purpose

• Articles on Emotional Intelligence & Employee Engagement

• Back to the Resources Page