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predictor of leadership effectiveness. Leadership development initiatives
focus on being conscientious in assuming responsibilities rather than
passively waiting to act until problems develop.
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Our greatest challenge as leaders is not understanding the practice of
leadership; it is practicing our understanding of leadership. Marshall
Goldsmith.
On the surface, many of the noted leadership behaviors may seem obvious.
When they are defined clearly, most people would agree these are things
we should be doing. What's often missing is having key behaviors that
lead to effective leadership in a readily available checklist to remind us to
do them. When non-leaders read through these key behaviors that lead
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to the desirable characteristics of good leaders, they usually agree that
these behaviors are important. However, they typically don't really do
them, and their excuse is that they don't have time.
Successful people acknowledge the importance of key behaviors and agree
it's difficult to find time to think about and do them. Typically, however,
successful people force themselves to take the time because they've learned
that doing these things saves much more time in the long run. It eliminates
much wheel spinning and repetitive false starts that less successful people
waste time on because they won't take time to rise above day-to-day fire-
fighting and instead find a way to prevent the fires from starting.
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One of the more effective ways of learning the critical behaviors of effective
leaders is through observation, which may include:
• Observing other successful people and copying what they did
(i.e., productive behaviors)
• Observing and learning from the mistakes (i.e., critical behavior
omissions and counter-productive behaviors) of unsuccessful
people
69 http://www.bretlsimmons.com/2011-04/leadership-traits-and-behaviors-four-evidence-based-
suggestions/.
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http://www.yoursoulatwork.com/competencies.htm.
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http://www.yoursoulatwork.com/competencies.htm.
David Kolzow 58
