Leadership is demonstrated at the moment of need. You learn to be a leader by acting, by doing."
Carlos Ghosn

Business expert and professor Peter Drucker was once quoted as saying, "You can either take action or you can hang back and hope for a miracle.

Miracles are great, but they are so unpredictable." In essence what Drucker was saying is that you have to DO, you must take action in order to make things happen.

DOING is at the heart of leading.

Two words that we hear often today, in politics and business, are Leadership and Sustainability.

Organizations as well as government need those who can successfully lead others and sustain success. When choosing a leader for public or private sector work we must look for certain criteria or core competencies. These competencies will serve as the foundation and metric to ensure leaders can create environments that are productive and sustainable.

There are eight core competencies every leader should posses: Communication, Leadership, Adaptability, Task Management, Relationships, Production, Development of Others and most importantly Personal Mastery. These competencies ensure that a leader is well rounded and fit to lead.

Occasionally, there is a new leadership concept introduced that is too simple and powerful to be true.

Visioning is one of those leadership concepts.

Visioning is a systems thinking leadership approach that enables and empowers leaders to make better decisions, solve problems and improve relationships with others.

An important question that must be asked by all leaders when making a decision is “what future reality will I create with the decision and choices I make from this point forward.”

Persuasion is not the same thing as influence.

Convincing someone to do what you want him or her to do is persuasion.

Influence on the other hand is part of your identity. Influence is your presence. Influence is a part of who you are.

When you are being truly influential with people, you achieve a state known as conversion, rather than compliance.

In the Code of Influence, Paul Mascetta defines these states as:

Let’s take a look at the process of change itself. There are seven stages, which can be broken down into three categories.

Communication is a shared responsibility.

Effectively listening is imperative to the communication process. Providing feedback through mirroring and the use of open-ended questions also facilitates the communication process.

Let’s take a look at what constitutes quality human relationships.

In academia and corporate America one of the hottest topics today is employee engagement.

As scholars and organizations try to find solutions to increase employee engagement some employers remarkably find ways to mistreat high performers. Often organizations are not aware that they mistreat their high performers.

Three morale killers for high performers:

• Conformity
• Micro management
• Reactive environment