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Learn from Others

Written by Mark Miller on . Posted in Development, Engagement, Personal Effectiveness. No Comments on Learn from Others

Why I Meet With a Small Group Every Month

For many years, I have met with a group of men twice a month. We’ve been working diligently to improve our leadership. We’ve learned from thought leaders in the field and from each other. We’ve also been doing life together.

We’ve attended conferences together, shared resources with each other, and challenged and prayed for each other. We’ve attended weddings and graduations. Three members have battled cancer – one didn’t survive. We’ve also buried one child together. We’ve certainly grown as leaders and as friends. We’re stronger because of each other. There’s power in the group!

Why Small Groups Stand the Test of Time

Small groups are not a new idea. Men and women have been meeting together in small group settings for centuries. Why has this practice stood the test of time? My best answer:

Small groups provide a unique environment in which some of our deepest,
most innate needs can be met.

Five Reasons to Be Part of a Small Group

Here are five reasons I plan to be part of a group like this until the day I die:

  1. Community – Small groups are the perfect setting to foster genuine community. Community is a place where we know, serve, celebrate, mourn, and love deeply. In our daily lives, these types of relationships rarely occur accidentally. True community requires a time commitment that runs counter to the pace of our lives. The discipline of meeting together on a regular basis and investing time together is the bedrock of community.
  2. Learning – A small group is an excellent forum for learning. The dynamics of a small group stimulate rich, meaningful dialogue, questions, debate, and learning. In a group, we learn from the experiences of others and enjoy the insight derived from diverse perspectives. All these factors combine to do more than merely facilitate learning – they accelerate it.
  3. Challenge – Where do you go to be challenged? Not the challenge you may get at work to do more with less. Or the challenge you get from your boss to improve your performance. Where do you go to be challenged as a human being? Where are you challenged to learn, grow, and be a better person? A well-functioning small group can be that place.
  4. Accountability – I need all the help I can get in life. Much of my accountability comes from my small group. Certainly this is true as it relates to learning, but on a larger scale as well. In our group, we decided to begin the practice of sharing our life plans and annual plans with each other. This process provides not only input but also greater accountability on the execution side.
  5. Encouragement – Life can be hard. I need a place to be encouraged. Some of this can happen at work and at home. However, a group where trust and mutual respect have been cultivated over time is the perfect venue to encourage one another.

Start a Small Group Today

Do you have a place like this? Why not find 6 – 8 of your friends or colleagues and start a small group today? It’s one of life’s decisions you’ll never regret. For more group resources, click here.

 

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Scale Your Impact

Written by Mark Miller on . Posted in Character, Development, Personal Effectiveness. No Comments on Scale Your Impact

How Your Approach to the World Shapes Your Leadership

Our leadership is a composite of many factors: our background, our experiences, our skills, our character, our relationships, our personality, etc. Some of these things we control, some we do not. One of the things we can affect is the way we approach our world. Do you live in a small world or a large one?

Your choices determine your impact.

7 Ideas to Open Your World and Your Leadership

Here are 7 ideas to open your world and your leadership:

  1. Read widely – For me, this is very powerful–and a struggle. When I do it, I grow. The challenge is my backlog of leadership reading. One way I approach this is through abstracts and summaries. The more widely I read, the better I lead.
  2. Travel – I know this is not possible for everyone. Personal constraints, financial constraints, family, and job issues can limit our options. I get it. However, travel has life-altering and leadership-altering potential. Travel as much as possible; your view of the world will expand.
  3. Experience other cultures – Don’t assume this is about travel. It can be, but doesn’t necessarily need to be. I’ve been to other countries but missed their culture entirely. How is that possible? I visited people and places very similar to my hometown even though I was halfway around the world. Also, don’t miss the opportunity to experience different cultures near your home. If you don’t think this is possible, visit your local homeless shelter.
  4. Ask more questions – Great questions can take you places you’ve never been. Do you have favorite questions you ask? If you had 15 minutes with a leader you admire, what would ask? Ask more questions–you and your world will grow.
  5. Try a new hobby – Think about the last time you started a new hobby. I’m guessing you learned a lot. Your world got bigger in a hurry. What have you always wanted to try? Maybe it’s time for a new hobby.
  6. Vary your routine – Do you drive to work along the same route every day? Do you take your vacation at the same place every year? What would happen if you intentionally added some variety to your schedule? You may find the world is bigger than you think.
  7. Seek out experts – Who are the thought leaders in your field? Do you know them? Could you find a way to meet them? I was at TED years ago and was delighted to hear a presentation by Edward DeBono, the creativity expert. After his talk, I asked him if I could buy him a meal. He said yes! Seek out experts. They’ll help you grow!

Turbocharge Your Growth and Leadership

As we open our world, we can turbocharge our growth and our leadership. Enjoy the journey!

What do you do to open your world and grow your leadership?

 

A businesswoman and businessman discussing something from a stack of papers they hold in front of them. A businesswoman and businessman discussing something from a stack of papers they hold in front of them.

Delegation without Guilt

Written by Mark Miller on . Posted in Personal Effectiveness, Teams, Vision. No Comments on Delegation without Guilt

How do I delegate without guilt?

A question I believe many leaders have struggled with is: How do I delegate without guilt?

What is delegation?

Let’s first look at what delegation is. Is it dumping work on someone you manage? Is it strategically getting work assigned to the best possible person? Is it a convenient way to avoid unpleasant tasks? Is it a way to help people grow? The truth is, it can be any of the above.

Four reasons to delegate without guilt

Before I go any further, you’ll have to decide what YOU believe about delegation. However, I’m going to assume you are a servant leader – or are striving to become one. Therefore, I would suggest you can minimize or even eliminate any angst you may have about delegating if you clarify your point of view. Here’s how I try to think about delegation.

Delegation helps people grow

Delegation helps people grow – if done properly. Delegation should never be a dump-and-run proposition. The outcomes need to be clearly stated, the boundaries established, and milestones identified. Most of what you and I know about leadership, we learned when someone delegated real responsibility and we grew in the process.

Leverage talents, strengths, and passions

Next, if done thoughtfully, delegation can leverage a person’s talents, strengths, and passions. There are clearly things you and I don’t like to do. However, there are men and women who LOVE to do those same activities. I know it seems strange on the surface, but it’s true. So, when I find myself faced with something I really don’t enjoy doing, one of my questions is, “Who would love to do this?” Thankfully, we’re not all the same.

Create space for what you do best

Another reason we should be able to delegate guilt-free is the space it creates for us to do what we’re uniquely qualified, gifted, and compensated to do. Assuming we use our time wisely, appropriate delegation multiplies our time and our effectiveness. We will have more time to do what we are supposed to do.

Delegation is good stewardship

Finally, assigning work to the most appropriate individual or team is a stewardship issue. Generally, you are paid more than the people you lead. Therefore, if work can be done by someone at a lower hourly wage, that is good stewardship.

Why effective delegation matters

I’ll close by saying that effective delegation is a HUGE hurdle for many leaders. More than that, failure to delegate well will derail your career. You must figure out how to delegate before you can move to the highest form of getting work done – when you see your role not as a delegator but a developer. If you’re interested in learning more, I wrote about this transition in a post entitled Is Your Leadership Career Stalled?

For now, clarify what you believe about delegation and do it well. It is an essential stepping stone to becoming a great leader!

looking up at a red clock hanging on the right side of a wall with a white ceiling in the background looking up at a red clock hanging on the right side of a wall with a white ceiling in the background

Six Strategies for Impossible Deadlines

Written by Mark Miller on . Posted in Execution, Personal Effectiveness. No Comments on Six Strategies for Impossible Deadlines

When is the last time you faced an “impossible” deadline? For me, it seems like I’ve had several in recent years. I’ve been thinking about this so much, I decided to share my thought process and the strategies I’ve used to maintain focus and keep moving.

When a deadline feels impossible, you have more options than you think — but only if you stop staring at the deadline long enough to see them. The six strategies below are the ones I reach for first, in roughly the order I use them. None of them require permission from anyone else to try. Most of them work better in combination than alone.

1. Reframe the problem

How many truly impossible deadlines have you ever faced? For me, I’ve had some sizable deadlines, but the truth is that few were impossible. Assuming the mindset, “This is impossible,” doesn’t help. It hurts. Rather, reframe the situation more accurately by saying, “This is extremely challenging.”

Calling something “impossible” makes it harder. Calling it “extremely challenging” keeps the door open.

2. Rethink your approach

Based on the challenge you face, you may not be able to apply your traditional work methods. For decades, it was my practice to not work on Sunday; nor did I typically ask my staff to do so. However, I have faced challenges in the past when we did have to work on Sunday. Drastic situations often require non-traditional solutions.

If the normal path won’t work, the question isn’t whether to leave the path — it’s which path to take instead.

3. Rely on others to help

Getting others involved is one of the primary strategies I use when things get crazy. Sometimes you can seek help from other members of your team, sometimes you can find others in your organization who will be willing to help, and you can almost always find vendors and contractors who can add needed manpower to meet challenging deadlines.

Most leaders wait too long to ask. The people around you almost always have more to give than you’ve asked for.

4. Re-prioritize your work

Everything can’t be urgent. If it is, you need to consider a different line of work. When big deadlines are on the horizon, some work will probably need to be pushed to make space for the most pressing work.

Saying yes to the deadline means saying no to something else. Decide what that something is before the week starts.

5. Renegotiate the deliverable

If you do all you can and still find yourself unable to deliver what is expected when it is due, you can strike a deal. Sometimes, people ask for more than they really need. A simple conversation can sometimes simplify or reduce what is needed. Finally, you can sometimes negotiate stages or phases for a deadline to be met.

The deadline is often less negotiable than the scope. Ask which one really has to hold.

6. Root out the real issue

If you consistently have what you perceive to be “impossible” deadlines, ask yourself: Why? Is the problem a cultural flaw in your organization? Is the issue your own planning? Are you struggling with self-leadership issues? Are you understaffed? Are you overly ambitious? Challenging deadlines are not the end of the world; we all encounter them. But to constantly be faced with these situations is not healthy for an individual or a culture. If you find yourself in this situation, you may be facing a leadership opportunity to solve a bigger problem than the deadline you are chasing.

One impossible deadline is a problem. A pattern of them is a leadership signal pointing at something deeper.

Here’s my final thought: Don’t become discouraged. The work we do as leaders is often hard — sometimes really hard. Help your team manage challenging and “impossible” deadlines, just don’t ever let them stop doing challenging work. What you do matters.

Common Questions About Impossible Deadlines

How do you handle an impossible deadline at work?

Start by reframing the problem — most “impossible” deadlines are extremely challenging, not impossible. Then work through five questions in order: Can you change your approach? Can you get help? Can you re-prioritize? Can you negotiate the scope or stages? And if none of that works, what’s the real issue underneath the deadline itself?

How do you decide what to cut when deadlines can’t move?

When a deadline is fixed, scope is your only lever. List everything currently inside the deliverable, mark what’s essential to the outcome versus what’s nice to have, and renegotiate the rest. The conversation often surprises people — what you assumed was required usually isn’t.

What do you do if you keep facing impossible deadlines?

A pattern of impossible deadlines is rarely a deadline problem. It’s usually a planning problem, a staffing problem, a cultural problem, or a self-leadership problem. The question isn’t how to survive the next one — it’s what underneath the deadlines keeps producing them, and what you can do about that.

Should you tell your boss a deadline is impossible?

Telling your boss “this is impossible” almost never moves the deadline. Telling them what trade-offs the deadline forces — what gets cut, what gets delayed, what risk increases — almost always does. Bring the math, not the verdict.

Game piece tiles spelling out the word 'Wisdom' on a tabletop Game piece tiles spelling out the word 'Wisdom' on a tabletop

No Shortcut to Wisdom

Written by Mark Miller on . Posted in Character, Personal Effectiveness. No Comments on No Shortcut to Wisdom

Why wisdom is a life-long pursuit

We live in a world that loves speed – our computers, our microwaves, our cars, texting is quicker than a call. We’re always looking for a faster way – and leaders are the worst offenders! In Great Leaders GROW, Ken Blanchard and I outline four strategies for leaders who want to become leaders for life. The fourth of these is Walk Toward Wisdom – and it is not a text or a tweet, it’s a life-long pursuit.

Wisdom is within your reach

We may see wisdom as beyond the reach of mere mortals. In our minds, it can often seem like something that only a few can achieve. This is not a valid precept regarding wisdom. Wisdom is within our reach, but it must be sought.

How a leader walks toward wisdom

So how does a leader Walk Toward Wisdom? Here are a few ideas.

Self-evaluation

Slow down and ask yourself: What’s working? What’s not working? What have others done that has worked in the past? What are my strengths? How can I better leverage them? What are my weaknesses? How can I mitigate them? Socrates said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” Wisdom will always remain outside your grasp if you don’t evaluate your experiences.

Feedback

Seek out the feedback of others. Regardless of how candid you try to be during self-evaluation, you’ll never be able to overcome your own bias and perspective. Ask others for feedback. This can be done in many forms, formally and informally. Just do it. Ken Blanchard calls feedback “the breakfast of champions.” It’s also the breakfast of great leaders!

Counsel

Feedback is about the past – counsel is about the future. When we seek counsel from others, especially those who have accumulated more experience than we have, we are actually borrowing their wisdom. If we are open to their counsel, if we guard our heart against pride and arrogance, we can benefit greatly from the counsel of others. Over time, this practice will add to our own store of wisdom.

Decide today to walk toward wisdom

Don’t wait. Decide today: I will Walk Toward Wisdom.

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Plan to Grow

Written by Mark Miller on . Posted in Development, Personal Effectiveness, Vision. No Comments on Plan to Grow

What are YOU doing to grow?

Personal growth should be the leader’s highest priority. I liken it to the admonition you hear when flying: “In the event of an emergency, put your own oxygen mask on first.” The question therefore becomes, “What are YOU doing to grow?”

This is not a trivial question. If you advocate for personal growth, be prepared for someone on your team to ask you the same question. If you’re not walking the talk, you’ll have zero credibility with those you’re charged to lead.

Four strategies for your growth journey

In the book I wrote with Ken Blanchard, Great Leaders Grow, we talk about these four strategies you can use on your growth journey:

  • Gain Knowledge – I’m always looking for ways to do this: reading, conferences, time with my new team members one-on-one, and more. I’m also part of an ongoing group focused on studying the topic of leadership. We’ve been meeting twice a month for 30+ years. This group has been a steady source of inspiration, challenge, accountability, and personal growth.
  • Reach Out to Others – The predominant way I’m attempting to execute on this strategy is through my writing. If you’ve not read Great Leaders Grow, here’s the quick summary of this idea: Once you commit to share what you’re learning, it puts pressure on you to keep learning.
  • Open Your World – Over the years, this has been a fun strategy for me. I’ve learned to scuba dive, climb mountains, and run marathons.
  • Walk Towards Wisdom – This strategy is fueled by questions, council, and feedback.

Personal growth for leaders is not automatic, but it is essential.

Be intentional about your growth

As you can tell, there’s nothing magical about these developmental activities. What matters most is that you and I are intentional concerning our growth.

Enjoy the journey!

A woman standing in an office with windows behind her, giving a presentation to a group of three people seated in front of her. A woman standing in an office with windows behind her, giving a presentation to a group of three people seated in front of her.

Don’t Believe Everything You Think

Written by Mark Miller on . Posted in Character, Development, Personal Effectiveness. No Comments on Don’t Believe Everything You Think

Don’t believe everything you think

One of my favorite quotes from Andy Andrews is “Don’t believe everything you think.”

As leaders, we’re a confident group. We have to be. It’s a prerequisite to fulfill our role. We’ve got to have confidence in the future we see, and we must have confidence in the strategies we’ve created to get there. We have to believe we can lead. In the midst of this confidence, we must also be careful. We’re not always right.

Our fallibility shows up in our thinking

Our fallibility shows up in many forms – none more often than in our thinking. I find Andy’s advice both sobering and challenging. He wasn’t asking you and me to have less confidence. He was challenging us to be grounded in reality; just because we think something doesn’t make it true.

Ways our thinking can get off course

There are many ways our thinking can get off course and lead us to the wrong conclusion. Here are a few of them…

  • You could have been wrong about a person’s motives.
  • You could have been wrong about a person’s intent.
  • You could have been wrong about the root cause of the problem.
  • Your personal bias could have colored your thinking.
  • You may have been overly optimistic.
  • Your idea may not be as good as you think.
  • You could have oversimplified the problem in your own mind.
  • You could have been too aggressive with the timeline you envisioned.

How the best leaders get it right more often

This list is just for starters. Considering all that could lead us to the wrong conclusion, it’s amazing when a leader cultivates the ability to get it right more often than not. How do the best leaders do this?

I don’t think there is a formula or a class you can take. I think to get the right answer, we must always consider: We can be wrong. This simple idea can infuse just enough humility to make us open to the input of others.

Don’t just listen to people who agree with you

Once you reach a level of maturity and humility to be open to input, I have only one caution – Don’t just listen to people who agree with you.

If we only surround ourselves with people who always agree with us, we might as well be alone. They will add no value in regard to helping us think. The people I’ve enjoyed working with the most over the years are those who have an opinion, are willing to share it, and don’t mind if we disagree.

Every leader needs truth tellers

Candor, and those who bring it, is a rare and precious gift for any leader. Every leader needs truth tellers in their life! Encourage people around you to challenge your thinking.

Remember…. Don’t believe everything you think.

a yellow post with a red and white bar blocking the entrance to an underground car parking area a yellow post with a red and white bar blocking the entrance to an underground car parking area

The Fine Art of Facilitation

Written by Mark Miller on . Posted in Execution, Personal Effectiveness, Teams. No Comments on The Fine Art of Facilitation

Why Great Meetings Need a Skilled Facilitator

Have you been in a great meeting recently? I know for some of you, that may sound like an impossibility. My fear is that many of us can’t remember the last time we went to a great meeting. One reason we attend so many low-impact meetings is absence of a skilled facilitator.

What a Facilitator Actually Does

Although many elements must come together to create a successful meeting – none are more important than a good facilitator. Being a great facilitator is not hard to do if you clearly understand the role.

Have you ever thought about what the word ‘facilitator’ actually means? The origin of the word reveals an individual who removes barriers for others. Let’s explore how that might manifest itself in the context of a meeting.

Anticipate and Remove Barriers

A facilitator should both anticipate barriers in advance and remove them in real time during the meeting. Following are examples of both.

Before the Meeting…

It would be a barrier if:

  • the right people weren’t invited. A good facilitator will invite them.
  • there were no agenda distributed in advance. You can remove that obstacle by ensuring one goes out before the meeting.
  • the wrong items were on the agenda. A skilled facilitator does the necessary pre-work to determine the highest priority items and places them on the agenda.
  • you didn’t have a place to meet. Secure a venue and publish the location.
  • you didn’t have the needed technology to conduct the meeting – even if the “technology” is nothing more than a flip chart. Determine in advance what’s needed.
  • there were no meeting norms. The best facilitators help groups establish these.

By taking the above actions, and others like them, you are preemptively removing barriers and improving your odds of having a productive meeting.

During the meeting…

It would be a barrier if:

  • members of the group were not participating. You can ask individuals for their thoughts during the meeting.
  • the conversation turned ugly. You can stop the dialogue and ask people to repeat their understanding of the other person’s point-of-view.
  • the group were ignoring your meeting norms. A facilitator will reference and enforce these norms.
  • someone were dominating the conversation. You can ask him or her to hold their next thought and allow others to comment.
  • there were no process for solving problems. The facilitator should be skilled in several approaches and models.
  • no one were capturing action items. Be sure someone is.
  • no one were keeping track of the time. The facilitator may choose to do this or assign someone else to watch the clock.
  • the conversation were allowed to wander off the agenda. You can redirect by capturing “Other Issues” for future meetings or outside conversations.

Why a Great Facilitator Makes Meetings Productive

Although this is a partial list, I think you get the idea. A great facilitator helps make meetings productive! Without this crucial role, most meetings flounder.

The next time you find yourself in a great meeting, be sure to thank the facilitator.

What barriers have you experienced as a facilitator? How did you overcome them? I’d love to hear from you on this. You can leave your comments below.

 

Close up. confident young team joining their hands. The concept of unity Close up. confident young team joining their hands. The concept of unity

How To Revive A Culture

Written by Mark Miller on . Posted in Culture, Personal Effectiveness, Vision. No Comments on How To Revive A Culture

Bill Hybels on How to Turn Around a Culture

At a global leadership summit I attended years ago, Bill Hybels shared some of his “hard fought leadership lessons,” and they’ve had a big impact on my own leadership. I want to recap one of these lessons here: How do you turn around a culture?

Bill shared the process he and his team used to transform the culture of their organization. He challenged the 200,000 leaders participating in the summit to do the following…

Assess the Current Reality and Own the Findings

Assess The Current Reality – You may not be shocked by this advice. However, many leaders believe they are capable of doing their own evaluation. Bill believes using a third-party to help with the process will come much closer to revealing the true state of the culture.

Own The Findings – Leaders cannot hide from the truth, nor attempt to explain it away. Neither can you just celebrate the bright spots and ignore the gaps. And you can’t delegate this project to Human Resources. Senior leaders are responsible for the culture in an organization. If the culture needs to change, it is the job of senior leaders to make the necessary changes.

Train People Managers and Increase Candor in Performance Reviews

Train People Managers – You cannot change a culture without highly skilled people managers. The research is crystal clear on this – people join organizations, they leave their manager. Bill’s advice: People managers must lead and love well. And they must be trained to do so.

Increase Candor In Performance Reviews – Let’s face it, too many performance reviews are useless. The culprit is often lack of candor. To combat this, Bill’s team added a ‘Stop – Start – Continue’ segment to every review. He believes, and I agree, that the best performance feedback is always specific. I loved the quote Bill shared from Jack Welch:

“The kindest form of management is the truth.”

Resolve Relational Conflict

Resolve Relational Conflict – Bill actually presented this with more octane – I believe he said his team was “ruthlessly committed” to this issue. He challenged us all with the suggestion to reframe conflict. Most of us see conflict as a threat to relationships. He challenged us to use conflict as an opportunity to strengthen relationships.

How’s the Culture of Your Organization?

How’s the culture of your organization? Do you REALLY know? Maybe you need to take the first step Bill suggested and take a look. If the results are outstanding, congratulations! You and your team have reason to celebrate. However, if the assessment identifies any gaps, you’ve got work to do.

Enjoy the journey!

 

A collection of multi-colored flower peals arranged into the shape of a heart A collection of multi-colored flower peals arranged into the shape of a heart

Start with the Heart

Written by Mark Miller on . Posted in Character, Personal Effectiveness. No Comments on Start with the Heart

The four arenas of leadership

Every journey has a beginning. Although many of you have been on your leadership march for a long time, others are fresh on the trail. Regardless of where you are on your timeline, there are four arenas which require your attention and ultimately your mastery if you want maximum influence and opportunity.

These four domains create an ecosystem of sorts – Leading Self, Leading Others, Leading Teams, and Leading Organizations. Each contains its own unique elements, but each also is in a symbiotic relationship with the others.

Leading Self: the most challenging domain

Let’s take a quick look at what I contend is the most challenging domain of them all and where all great leadership begins… Leading Self.

Just like a coin, the challenge of leading self has two sides. The first is the daily, pragmatic side which includes establishing personal priorities and acting on them consistently; time management; stewarding our influence strategically; etc. The late Peter Drucker captures all these ideas and more in his classic book, The Effective Executive. As Drucker put it, “Effectiveness can be learned – it must be learned.”

The other side of the coin: leadership character

The other side of the coin is harder to see and is much more difficult to measure than tracking our time or managing our calendar, but it’s a much larger issue for most leaders. The most demanding part of leading self is the development of our leadership character – those defining traits that influence what we do, how we do it, and why.

What leadership character really means

For many years I was guilty of very sloppy thinking about leadership character. I knew character was the majority of what made a leader successful. Ken Blanchard and I used the metaphor of the iceberg in our book, The Secret, to describe the intangible 90% “below the waterline.” Only after I received a lot of feedback and encouragement did this metaphor morph into a point-of-view on what leadership character actually looks like in the real world.

Character traits can be good or bad

There’s a lot of confusion around the topic of character. The word itself is often thought of as a positive attribute. “He is a person of character.” However, character is nothing more than a mark, or distinctive – a trait. Character is comprised of characteristics. Therefore, character traits can be good or bad. “She is lazy” or “He is dishonest” are character statements just as much as positive adjectives.

Leaders are marked by a different set of traits

The second point of confusion is that when most people talk about leadership character, the conversation moves quickly to integrity, honesty, and dependability. These are great, but they are not unique characteristics of leaders. I’m guessing you want EVERYONE on your team to have these foundational traits and others like them.

Here’s the point: leaders are different. We see the world differently, we think differently, and this in turn means we act differently – not better or worse than others, just different. Leaders are marked by a different set of traits.

Start with the HEART

So if we are to cultivate leadership character traits, where do we begin? Assuming you have a grip on the foundational character traits like the ones mentioned above, I would start with the HEART.

Hunger for Wisdom
Expect the Best
Accept Responsibility
Respond with Courage
Think Others First

Leadership character is essential to becoming a leader people want to follow. If your heart is not right, no one cares about your skills.

If you want more on this topic, check out The Heart of Leadership.