Essential Leadership Questions

For many years, I've used this definition of leadership:

Leadership is influencing the way other people think in ways that generate better sustainable results both for the organization and the people in it.

This definition generates these Essential Leadership Questions, which include:

1. What is the organization you are focusing on right now and who are the people in it?
2. What are the sustainable results you are ultimately trying to produce for the organization?
3. What are the sustainable results you are ultimately trying to produce for the people in it?
4. Who are the people you are trying to influence?
5. What are you trying to influence them to do?
6. How will you influence these people on an individual and/or group basis?

These six questions can be applied regardless of whether the organization is a family, a school, a not-for-profit organization, a business, a nation, a society, or the world.

Take out a blank sheet of paper and answer each of these six questions carefully. Keep your answers close by you as you go about your day-to-day activities. See if your answers can influence your own behavior first.