3 Things A Leader Must Do Before They Become A Leader

Before a leader can a lead other he must be able to lead himself. Sometimes this can be a lot harder because unlike leading others, you ultimately are the only one who can hold yourself accountable. Though these three points aren’t the only things you must do before you lead others, they are very important to a leader’s success.

– Understand your strengths and weaknesses: Jim Collins talks about getting the right people on the bus, but how do you know which people are right if you do not know who will compliment you? Being able to discover your strengths and weaknesses will help you discover how you can accomplish your goals.

– Find a mentor: As a leader you will not know everything and should not be expected to know everything. A mentor is someone who will be able to help you because of their experiences. A lot of obstacles a leader might encounter is something another leader has already conquered. Mentoring is a great way to gain experience and wisdom with out going through the events you ussually go through to gain experience.

– Believe in yourself: I heard this quote the other day, “People act when you believe you are the leader.” One reason I believe a lot of people do not become leaders is because they do not believe in themselves. Find time in your day to reflect on you successes and your failures and see how you can continue the successes and overcome the failures. Each success bring more confidence.

Third Edition of the Carnival of Leadership Growth

Welcome to the March 16, 2007 edition of carnival of leadership growth.

Alan presents Tired of having problems? Well guess what.. posted at Made to Be Great.

annette clancy presents Where's the humanity in organisations? posted at Interactions – Creative Strategies for Business.

Arvind Devalia presents Leadership in the current climate of change posted at Arvind Devalia, saying, “Practice leadership based on the courage to live the change you wish to bring about.”

Debra Moorhead presents “The Science of Getting Rich” Evaluated, Part Five posted at Debra Moorhead.com.

Scott Schwertly presents Up or Gettin’ Up posted at Presentation Revolution.

Zechary presents Think It Over; ZecHaryW.com posted at Zechary White, saying, “Think these over, you’ll learn something”

Editor – Dave Prouhet presents Sales Process Flow posted at Business Advice Daily, saying, “Business leadership can only exist if there are paying clients. Part of good leadership is ensuring that the top line is consistently growing. And this happens with a sales flow process – a repeatable way to get sales and to grow sales. Enjoy.”

Erek Ostrowski presents Failure and The Measure of Success posted at Verve Coaching.

Wilson Ng presents The Merely Good and the Really Great posted at Reflections of a BizDrivenLife, saying, “The Pursuit of Excellence starts by a person understanding the difference between being merely good and being really great.”

Jane Chin presents What Comedy Improv Taught Me About Life posted at On Careers and Life, saying, “What I learned in comedy improv has helped me live life the way I want to live life as an entrepreneur. Each opportunity to get up and perform is like applying life skills in a sliver of time.”

Nneka presents Problem Solving Using Appreciative Inquiry posted at Balanced Life Center, saying, “Appreciative Inquiry emerged in corporate America as a way to improve customer satisfaction. Learn how you can use it in your life to meet challenges.”

Alvaro Fernandez presents Stress Management Workshop for International Women’s Day posted at SharpBrains: Your Window into the Brain Fitness Revolution, saying, “Exercises and tips for better stress management, based on a leadership training workshop we just gave.”

Marcy Nala presents Be Your Own Guru posted at The Abundant Life.

Alan presents It gets lonely at the top – How to handle rejection posted at Made to Be Great.

Praveen presents How to Succeed posted at My Simple Trading System.

Walt presents “A Winner Never Quits And A Quitter Never Wins” posted at Walt Nation!.

Debra Moorhead presents It’s Always A Wide Chasm posted at Debra Moorhead.com.

Christopher J. Brunner presents The Adverse Effects of Poor Communication posted at GreatFX Business Cards, saying, “Some of the common communication mistakes that may adversely affect the success of your business.”

Travis Sinquefield presents ALA Loop posted at Disorganizational Behavior.

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of
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Edition #2 Carnival of Leadership Growth

Welcome to the March 2, 2007 edition of leadership growth.

Charles H. Green presents Seductive Statistics posted at Trust Matters, saying, “Effective leaders understand the difference between earning trust and measuring it.”

David Maister presents A Case Study in Professional Ethics posted at Passion, People and Principles, saying, “Deciding to “own the problem” and accept responsibility for a screw up requires guts, courage and ethics.”

Caroline Latham presents I don’t want to ever retire. What can I do to remain sharp? posted at SharpBrains: Your Window into the Brain Fitness Revolution.

Walt presents No Plan B! posted at Walt Nation!.

Joseph presents How to attain success posted at Self Help and Personal Development.

Debra Moorhead presents The Meaning of TEAM posted at Debra Moorhead.com.

Niels Hoven presents Ask Niels: How do I build an emotional connection? posted at Niels Hoven.

Laura Ricci presents Supporting Community Growth and Continuance posted at Laura’s Winning Ideas, saying, “team building, using the metaphor of a dance community”

almomento presents Open Call For Project MastermindX posted at BurstCreativity.

Anna Farmery presents Dear Boss posted at The Engaging Brand.

The Positivity Blog presents Take the Positivity Challenge! posted at Henrik Edberg.

Scott Schwertly presents The Power of “I” posted at Presentation Revolution.

Praveen presents Review of “The Rich Jerk” – Get It Free, Plus $1 posted at My Simple Trading System.

Charles H. Green presents Waddya, Nuts? posted at Trust Matters, saying, “It’s hard to be trustworthy if you yourself can’t trust. And part of trusting is not thinking that everything—good or bad—is about oneself.”

David Maister presents Lions, Wolves, Beavers and Humans posted at Passion, People and Principles, saying, “Most leaders are incapable of team strategy because the key players have not agreed either to (a) collaborate or (b) invest in their mutual future.”

Kapil Handa presents Develop Leadership Skills posted at The Sum.

Jack Yoest presents Manager as Sociopath: An Interview With An Honest Boss posted at Reasoned Audacity, saying, “Your Business Blogger teaches management training. But there is no need to sit in my class, just visit An Interview with an Honest Manager.”

Debra Moorhead presents “The Science of Getting Rich” Evaluated, Part One posted at Debra Moorhead.com.

Vahid Chaychi presents Viral Marketing Strategies – Learn How to Spread the Words for Free! posted at Internet and Search Engine Marketing, saying, “Do you know how websites like Hotmail and Google became popular and well-known? They didn’t spend a single cent for advertising. They used the power of viral marketing.”

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of
leadership growth
using our
carnival submission form.
Past posts and future hosts can be found on our

blog carnival index page.

Technorati tags:

leadership growth, blog carnival.

Seeking A Mentor

I talked about cheating success in an earlier post. One of the ways to do this is by having a mentor. I came across this great post at The Only Trait of A Leader Blog that helps explain how to find a leader. If anyone does not have a mentor of some sort I really encourage you to find one, but read this post first before you do because it has great insight.

…that is the key to finding a mentor. In fact, I’ve never really “found”, as in set-out-for-and-tracked-down, a mentor. Starting with an attitude of curiosity and humility, an eagerness to learn from anyone who was willing to share, and a willingness to listen first, lured mentors to me, and it will work for you as well. Most people want to help those around them, and most people love to share their experiences; maybe its some kind of genetic parenting instinct that we all share. Whatever the reason, people who have already been down the road you are just starting on will want to see you avoid the hurdles they encountered, or at least they’ll want to help you handle them better than they did at the time.

Growing Exponentially In Experience

As a new graduate in the workplace I have found how much different it is than the classroom. In the classroom we learn from a book about the ideal situation in a generic industry, but in the “real world” we word with a specific industry, that is always changing and has specific rules and procedures. Because of all these factors it that experience can be more important to succeed in the workplace. The problem as a new person in the workplace is gaining the necessary experience quickly.

This past week I attended meetings with other participates in the leadership program I am where I work, and one of the interesting things one of VP’s encouraged us to do is to “cheat” experience. At first I when he said cheat it kind of through me off, but once he explained how it made sense. He made three points that I thought would help me and others new to the workplace tremendously:

– Listen and ask those with experience

– Make their experiences your experiences

– Believe those with experiences

Through other’s experiences and learning I can take them and apply them to situations I might run into in the job and might prevent some of the mistakes others had gone through. Instead of growing in experience day by day now I will be able to grow exponentially through others too.