The Noel Strengths Academy defines it this way:
- The strength of leadership is seen in those who can
- Encourage others to get things done
- Maintain good relationships with those being led
- Inspirational, influential
- Can organize groups and activities
- Achieves results through others
- Underuse: Complacency
- Overuse: Despotism
Key Research:
- Rank order of Leadership in populations from:
- US : 7;
- European: 10
- Asia: 9
- Latin America: 10
- Sub-Saharan Africa: 8
- Middle east: 10
- Top 10 (rank order) strengths expressed at work: honesty, judgment, perspective, fairness, perseverance, love of learning, leadership, zest, curiosity, social intelligence.
Tayyab Rashid and Afroze Anjum offer 340 Ways to Use VIA Character Strengths including these four for Leadership:
- Lead an activity, assignment or project and actively solicit opinions from group members. Encourage members who rarely speak up to share their opinions.
- Mentor a child in your neighborhood who would benefit from your skills. Listen carefully to them without paying attention to the age difference.
- Read a biography and/or watch film of your favorite leader and evaluate how he/she inspires you in practical ways. Consider what strengths you share with this figure.
- Make a list of possible ways that you could improve your leadership style. Ask people who you have led in the past for their input.
- Strengths Based Leadership by Tom Roth
- The 21 Irrefutable Laws Of Leadership shows you that leadership is learned not inherited and that you can become a leader too, if you internalize some of the universal principles at play in any leader-follower-relationship.(more at 4 Minute Books)
- Leaders Eat Last teaches you where the need for leadership comes from historically, what the consequences of bad leadership are and how you can be a good leader in the modern world. (More at 4 Minute Books)
- The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership: Follow Them and People Will Follow You (10th Anniversary Edition) by John C. Maxwell and Steven R. Covey
- Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win (New Edition) by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin
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The Dichotomy of Leadership: Balancing the Challenges of Extreme Ownership to Lead and Win by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin
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The Power of Positive Leadership: How and Why Positive Leaders Transform Teams and Organizations and Change the World by Jon Gordon
Learn more about Leadership
- We have all changed someone’s life — usually without even realizing it. In this funny talk, Drew Dudley calls on all of us to celebrate leadership as the everyday act of improving each other’s lives.
What makes a great leader? Management theorist Simon Sinek suggests, it’s someone who makes their employees feel secure, who draws staffers into a circle of trust. But creating trust and safety — especially in an uneven economy — means taking on big responsibility.
The world is full of leadership programs, but the best way to learn how to lead might be right under your nose. In this clear, candid talk, Roselinde Torres describes 25 years observing truly great leaders at work, and shares the three simple but crucial questions would-be company chiefs need to ask to thrive in the future.
Simon Sinek has a simple but powerful model for inspirational leadership — starting with a golden circle and the question: “Why?” His examples include Apple, Martin Luther King Jr. and the Wright brothers …
Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg looks at why a smaller percentage of women than men reach the top of their professions — and offers 3 powerful pieces of advice to women aiming for the C-suite.
Podcasts to feed your Leadership
- Gallup’s Called to coach is all about putting your strengths to work.
- John Maxwell’s Leadership Podcast
- Jocko Willnick’s Podcast takes what he learned in the military and bsiness and share’s about leadership and discipline
- Tim Ferris long form interviews offer up fantastic insight on leadership and performance
- Many more suggestions here and here
Articles worth reading:
Meditation for Leadership
- Believe in Yourself @ Insight Timer
- Mindful Leadership & Formless Meditation @ Insight Timer
- 10 Minute Wisdom Meditation guided by Steven Hickman
(12Mb)This practice assists the practitioner to cultivate and access his or her inner wisdom for healing, kindness and compassion. - Reflection on Leadership Excellence [Download]
- Reflection on Leadership Principles [Download]
- A 10-Minute Meditation to Work with Difficult Emotions @ Mindful
- Guided meditations form the Institute for Mindful Leadership
Read more on meditation and Leadership:
- Want to Be a More Successful Leader? Try Mindfulness Meditation …
- Want To Be A Better Leader? Take Five Minutes To Meditate – Forbes
- Making Space for Wellbeing: Using Guided Meditation in Leadership Education