Let’s make it more personal with this sobering question: are the people you lead better or worse off because of you? What is the experience of each person on the other end of your leadership?

Since there are so many leadership responsibilities, let’s focus on just a few that have enormous implications for the people in our wake.

Your Decisions

We’ve probably all complained at one time or another that “management” makes arbitrary decisions and doesn’t understand the impact on the day-to-day work. But then one day we’re put in charge and have to figure it out. By definition, decision-making involves uncertainty and risk. Leaders are responsible for applying not only their insights and fact-based evidence – they must seek to understand the implications at the frontline – and especially at the point of customer interaction.

Your Feedback

Feedback is tricky business – especially when it’s negative. Many times we jump straight in and give abrasive feedback off the cuff or we feel intimidated and don’t give feedback that is truly necessary. Both approaches make a situation worse. It helps to remember there is a real, live person on the other end of our feedback. A curt, one-sided exchange may feel efficient in the moment but create more work and resistance in the long-run than taking the time to have a thoughtful interaction.

Your Commitment to Growth

What got you to where are now won’t get you to the next opportunity. Leaders either grow or they slow. The tricky part is that the more responsibilities a leader takes on, the less time they usually have available to sharpen the saw without being disciplined and intentional. As a leader, it’s your responsibility to chart your growth.

Your Transparency

Leaders tell the truth. Of course it’s not always appropriate to disclose 100% of the information to 100% of the stakeholders in 100% of the situations. But leaders go out of their way to tell their followers what they need to know without making them wait any longer than is necessary. It’s very hard to maintain credibility when followers think you’re hiding something. It’s nearly impossible to maintain credibility after your actions don’t match your words.

Your Vulnerability

In The Five Dysfunctions of Team, bestselling author Patrick Lencioni says that a leader demonstrating vulnerability is one of the best ways to build trust on a team. That means admitting where he messed up or needs help. It’s always difficult to say I’m sorry and no one wants to appear incompetent. But keep in mind, none of these revelations come as a surprise to the people on the other end of your leadership. Appropriate vulnerability builds credibility rather than erodes it.

Your Character

Ultimately, skill can make you leader but it’s character that will sustain you. Unfortunately, skills come much more easily than character. Think about it, would you rather have an employee who lacked skill or who lacked character? Your character is the sum total of the embodiment of your values. It’s not enough to have positive aspirations, character comes through both in the daily grind and the crucible.

Remember, everyone watches the leader. Being a leader is like interviewing for your dream job – every single day. Some days are better than others, but at the end of the day, each person on the other end of our leadership deserves our very best.

Nathan Magnuson is a leadership consultant, coach, trainer and thought leader. Receive his ebook Trusted Leadership Advisor by subscribing to his website or follow him on Twitter.

Leaders are responsible for making important decisions that by nature aren’t easy. In fact, in a certain sense the essence of one’s leadership is the sum of the decisions he or she has made over time. Unfortunately, many leaders struggle with the decision-making process. I’ve written before about the need for leaders to have the courage to step up and make the tough calls. I’ve also shared an insightful decision-making process I’ve found.

Fortunately, decision-making skills are a lot like public speaking skills. The more you step up when others shy away, the greater your influence will become.

Below, I’d like to include a variety of factors I consider when making decisions that will have significant organizational impact. These are factors I often use – and encourage those I’m responsible for to use as well.

Decision-maker – Are you the right person to make the decision?

If you are not the right person to make the decision, hand it off to the person who is. If you are the right person, accept the responsibility even if it’s difficult.

Leader Responsibility – What outcome are you directly responsible for as it relates to this decision?

Decisions (and scope) can get complicated very quickly. Always maintain clarity on what you are trying to accomplish. Getting sidetracked can really hurt your influence.

Boss – What is most important to the boss?

Filter your decisions through the lens of your boss’s priorities. If you are in alignment, great. If not, check yourself. One question I’ve begun asking my boss each year is, “Which of my projects is worth the most money at year-end bonus time?” This enables me to make appropriate decisions along the way.

Organizational Values – What would be most consistent with the organization’s core values?

One of the main benefits of well articulated core values is their use in making tough decisions. (That’s why it’s so important for organizational values to be meaningful, visible and practical.) When in doubt, make a decision that is best supported by the organization’s values.

Customer Experience – What would delight the customers the most?

If the customers don’t care about a particular decision, you may be wasting your time.

Long-term Solution – What is most ideal long-term?

Many organizations are artificially focused on the short-term – this month or this quarter. Your decisions today will impact decisions you’ll need to make down the road. The clearer the desired future is, the easier today’s decisions will be.

Facts – What does the data say?

It’s not worth relying solely on your gut if you have the relevant data available to you. Peter Drucker said, “Once the facts are clear, the decisions jump out at you.”

Benefit – What are the benefits?

There will likely be primary and secondary benefits, as well as immediate and lag.

Cost – What are the costs?

Don’t measure cost in only dollars.

Risk – What are the risks?

Be comprehensive in your assessment of risk, especially for decisions with wide impact.

Simplicity – Which solution is the most simple to implement?

All things being equal (or sometimes not quite equal), always be biased in favor of the simple option.

Communication – What will be the easiest to communication?

Communication should be productive and constructive, not defensive. Still, you’re asking for trouble if you make a decision you know in advance will be difficult to communicate or defend.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed by the long list – don’t be. Decision-making is a mental muscle. The more you use it, the stronger it gets.

Nathan Magnuson is a leadership consultant, coach, trainer and thought leader. Receive his ebook Trusted Leadership Advisor by subscribing to his website or follow him on Twitter.

I read a book a couple years ago that took decision-making to a whole new level. It was Decisive by Chip & Dan Heath. I don’t think I’ve heard as comprehensive (or creative) a thinking process as it relates to decision-making. And the best part is that is applies to nearly all circumstances, from business (should we sue a bigger company? offer a discount on our products?) to personal (should I break up with my significant other? let my adult child move back home? buy a new TV?).

Here is a brief summary of the WRAP decision-making process the Heath brothers use:

W – Widen Your Options

The first decision-making mistake we often make is assuming a situation is binary – we chose between only two options. In reality, there are so many more possibilities.

Expand your options – Find several alternatives, not just one. Instead of deciding whether to stay or quit a job, come up with several options for making the best of a job without leaving.

Consider the opportunity cost – Determine what you give up by making a certain decision. What else could you have instead? For instance, by choosing to attend a private school, you may be choosing to not attend a public school AND buy a new car. Which would you rather have?

Benchmark – Instead of rushing out to make a decision, find someone who has already solved your problem. What did he or she do and how did it turn out? What do the experts say to do in this situation?

R – Reality-Test Your Assumptions

Once we’re leaning a certain way on a decision (and especially after we’ve made the decision), we’re often imprisoned by our confirmation bias. We want our decision to be “right,” so we look for confirmation and discount or ignore evidence to the contrary.

Consider the opposite – Look for reasons why the decision you want to make could very well be the wrong one. In other words, look at it from the standpoint of someone who disagrees completely and be willing to acknowledge the weaknesses from that side. (Maybe this could come in handy in politics).

Zoom in/out – Zoom in by asking for the real-world experience of others in the exact situation as you. (What did your friend think of the restaurant you are considering visiting?). Then zoom out by looking at the macro data (What is the overall Yelp rating for the restaurant?). Why guess when you can know?

“Ooch” – According to the Heaths, to “ooch” means to experiment on a small scale. Instead of investing tremendous effort and resources toward a decision, look for ways to test a decision before actually deciding. Hire several firms to do one project before awarding one with the big contract. Sell your pies at the farmer’s market before starting a baking business.

A – Attain Distance Before Deciding

Deciding and executing don’t need to happen at the same time. Better to take a “cooling off” period.

Overcome short-term emotion – Give yourself some time before acting on a decision. Use 10/10/10 – ask yourself how you will feel about the decision in 10 minutes, 10 months and 10 years. Ask what decision your successor would make in this situation (especially for high profile ones) – or how you would advise your best friend.

Honor your core priorities – Remind yourself what is most important to you. Then consider the options in light of those priorities.

P – Prepare to Be Wrong

Being “right” about a bad decision just isn’t worth it. Politics aside, remember Sarah Palin’s bridge to nowhere? At least she had a jumping off point. Opt for a correctable slip up over a colossal failure.

Bookend the future – Anticipate the future given your desired course of action. If everything goes right, what will you do? If everything goes wrong, how will you respond? Ask yourself what could go wrong and improve on it.

Set a tripwire – Decide at what point you will change course. What would make a job so bad you would finally have to leave it? How much will you invest toward a failing business (or a hobby) before you throw in the towel?

We’ll never outlive the necessity to make decisions. As stressful as it can be, it is immensely rewarding as well. Decision-making is a function of leadership. The more willing we are to make decisions (and live with the consequences), the more opportunities we’ll get.

Nathan Magnuson is a leadership consultant, coach, trainer and thought leader.  Receive his ebook Trusted Leadership Advisor by subscribing to his website or   follow him on Twitter.

One of the first mistakes we often make is assuming that the person in charge is always the leader. Then, when it turns out they aren’t, we give up. But what if leadership doesn’t have anything to do with having a title? In that case, it would be possible to have an organization filled with leaders at every level.

So how can we tell who the real leaders are? Here’s a start. Real leaders do each of the following – and then some:

Take Responsibility

Great followers do what they’re told. Leaders take initiative and responsibility for solving problems. Have you ever tried to resolve a problem with someone who told you, “that’s not my job?” Contrast that with a person who went the extra mile to resolve your issue, or at least get you pointed in the right direction. Which one will you prefer to work with in the future? There’s no substitute for having defined processes, but leaders gain influence each time they take responsibility.

Have the Courage to Take Risks

One of the reasons people are so reluctant to take additional responsibility is their fear of consequences if things don’t work out. In unhealthy organizations, this is a legitimate fear. But leaders don’t take risks for just for the fun of it – they understand the differences between blind risks and acceptable risks – and they accept the responsibility to take the appropriate risks at their level. At some point, someone has to make a decision. It’s always easier to push risk up the organizational chart, but organizations tend to reward those who are willing to manage risk themselves. Leadership always requires courage.

Collaborate

In today’s information age, collaboration isn’t just a nice sentiment or corporate buzzword that goes in and out of vogue. It’s an organizational deal-breaker. Leaders are aware of how their part fits in the context of the larger picture – and they go out of their way to anticipate who needs the information they have. Then they work proactively to make that information available.

Develop Others

I got to work on a project with the FBI once and I will never forget what the Executive Assistant Director told us one day. She stated that the organization needed leaders who were good at… making other people look good. This flies in the face of the assumption that leadership is 100% about individual performance. A high performer who can’t develop others will soon be leading a low-performing team – and won’t be doing it for long.

True leaders don’t wait until they are in charge to develop others. They constantly look for ways to help others improve – or to make something better for everyone.

Set a Positive Example

Unfortunately, the best examples of positive behavior don’t always come from the top of the organizational chart. But people can’t help but take notice of a worthwhile example, no matter where it comes from. Leaders understand they are never too unqualified to set a good example – and that includes a good leadership example.

Create Positive Change

The whole point of leadership is change. If things were good enough the way they are, leadership would be unnecessary and irrelevant. Change is difficult to initiate and harder to sustain. There are often many barriers. But leaders don’t let what they can’t do prevent them from doing what they can do. And what they can do is enough.

It’s not easy being a leader. If it was, everyone would be doing it. But it matters – for individuals, teams and organizations as a whole. So if you are trying to figure out who the real leaders are, start looking for these factors. If you are trying to determine if someone is a leader, look for past evidence of them. And if you are trying to become a leader, this is a great place to start.

Nathan Magnuson is a leadership consultant, coach, trainer and thought leader.  Receive his new ebook Trusted Leadership Advisor by subscribing to his website  or follow him on Twitter.

At the end of the day, the organization is going to do what it’s going to do, right? So maybe a better question is: why do we even have core values?

We’ve probably all come across sets of core values that were easy to make fun of or were too vague to impact anyone. But well constructed, specific core values can add tremendous benefit both to organizations and individuals. In fact, here are three ways I’ve seen this happen.

Drive Culture

Every organization is driven by a number of things. Hopefully there is a clear purpose that all stakeholders know by heart. Customer value creation ought to drive action. If your organization is a company, earning a profit ought to be at least one of the drivers. But none of these should come at the expense of core values. Each driver should align and core values should empower the organization to move forward.

Wouldn’t you prefer to work in a values-driven organizational culture? Imagine what could happen in an organization without values. A quick look at the news and you’ll see many examples.

Influence Mindsets and Behaviors

As most of us have observed, nearly every organizations have a set of core values. Sometimes they even get talked about, which a great step. But how often are they referenced or recalled? To take it a step further, how often do they invoke personal change?

If your organization has core values, they need to be part of the corporate conversation. Then you’ve got to relate them to the way people think and act in the context of everyday situations. Point out when the values were present. “Our team did a great job demonstrating ________.” Use values-oriented language to assess future work. “Here’s an opportunity for our team to demonstrate _________.”

Over time, common language begins to turn into common mindsets and common behavior.

Guide Decision-Making

In any organization, there are many leaders who operate at many levels. The temptation for new or risk-averse leaders can sometimes be to push the difficult decisions up to the next level. Once this happens enough times, the leaders at the top start wondering why they have to solve every problem and make every decision that comes their way. What’s the point of having leaders if they don’t take responsibility, they wonder.

That’s where organizational strategy comes in. That’s where training comes in. And that’s also where core values come in. These are the tools every leader ought to be able to use to make the decisions appropriate for his or her level.

Core values enhance leadership responsibility by helping to guide decision-making.

So the next time you look at your core values, ask yourself what difference they make in your organization. If that answer is “not much,” it may be time for a refresh. Or it may be time to simply speak up.

What difference do your core values make?

Nathan Magnuson is a leadership consultant, coach, trainer and thought leader.  Receive his new ebook Trusted Leadership Advisor by subscribing to his website  or follow him on Twitter.

So what happens when adversity strikes? How can we climb our way our of it? This isn’t an exhaustive list, but here are some thinking patterns that have helped me maintain a sense of sanity and clarity over the years.

No Second Guessing

Many times adverse situations are the result of our own making. We create our own chaos. That’s why it’s takes so much courage to make tough decisions when the outcomes aren’t clear.

Whether your adversity is self-inflicted or not, don’t second-guess. It’s a waste of time and energy. The past is gone. In economic terms, it’s “sunk cost.” Instead, re-assess based on where you are now. What went wrong? What could you do differently next time? What makes the most sense based on where we are today, not where we were in the past? Use the past as a teacher and then move on.

Profit From Your Losses

When I learned that Dale Carnegie had written a bestselling book called How to Quit Worrying and Start Living, I was a bit incredulous. Do people really worry that much, I thought. When I began reading, I realized I was one of the target audience. Carnegie shared that anyone can profit from their gains. It takes intelligence, creativity and a winning spirit to profit from your losses.

There are countless personal and business stories where the mistake led to the breakthrough. Your adversity may not be Hollywood material in the making, but most reversals rarely are. Start where you are. Find a way to turn your minuses into pluses, your lemons into lemonade.

Live to Play Another Down

That’s a sports reference. If you want a first class lesson in dealing with adversity, just take your queue from the world of athletics. I could never be a sports coach. If there is anyone who isn’t allowed to say “well guys, looks like this one is over,” it’s them! Sometimes it “works” and the team comes from behind to win. Other times even the most devastating losses provide an opportunity to grow into a stronger team. No single play or game or season gets the last word. The present is only temporary. It’s all about where you go from there.

When I was a college student, my classmates and I would occasionally receive a bad test on an exam followed by an overwhelming, end of the world feeling that our lives and careers were now in total jeopardy. It took some perspective to admit that job recruiters weren’t likely to inquire about each individual test score for all our classes.

Put your adversity in perspective. A speed bump is just that: a bump. Not a mountain.

Plan for Next Time

The worst part of adversity is getting fooled twice. Don’t let this happen to you! Don’t second-guess, but re-assess. Remember?

A construction company I work with nearly went under during the housing collapse in the United States a few years ago. They made it, but just barely. Now the market is coming back and it would be easy just to get back to business. But nobody wants to go through all that misery again. So the leaders made a plan to diversify the main product line. It takes extra work now, but if the market collapses again, the company will stand strong.

How do you handle adversity? What’s your plan?

If your adversity involves a traumatic experience, visit this article entitled: Resilience and the Pan Am Flight 73 Hijacking.

Nathan Magnuson is a leadership consultant, coach, trainer and thought leader.  Receive his new ebook Trusted Leadership Advisor by subscribing to his website  or follow him on Twitter.

I saw a great post from Mark Miller last week on New Year’s resolutions for leaders – and it really challenged my thinking. I’m not sure what your leadership goals are for the new year, but if you haven’t thought about it, I’d suggest picking something from these ideas below.

1. Speak Up

Jack Welch made an observation in his book Winning that society and business generally seem to favor those who are energetic and extroverted above the rest. So where does that leave all the introverts (myself included)? Here’s a start: when you see something, say something. Whether it’s a safety concern, a new idea or simply providing your two cents’ worth, your voice will never be heard unless you take the opportunity to speak up.

2. Help Others Build Relationships

Nearly every organization struggles with poor communication, from top to bottom as well as sideways. One of the underlying factors I’ve found is that people simply don’t know each other. People who know each other are more likely to communicate and work well together. You may not be a social butterfly, but with a little initiative, you can still be a connector. Take a look at your network. Who do you know who needs to know someone else? What can you do to make an introduction?

3. Fight Off Pessimism

Pessimism – even under the guise of realism – will destroy your leadership influence. The reason is simple: no one wants to follow a pessimist. If you truly believe a project or initiative you are leading will fail, how can you expect anyone supporting you to believe differently? There is a direct relationship between expectations and results. Positive expectations get positive support which leads to positive results. Be an optimist.

4. Join a Cross-Functional Working Group

In any organization, there are generally three leadership opportunities: leading yourself, leading others and leading an organization. There is only so much room on the executive team, but a good way anyone can influence an entire organization is by joining a cross-functional working group. Instead of representing your function’s interests, you partner together to solve an organizational problem. And who knows, it could be great executive practice.

5. Smile

Dale Carnegie pointed out in How to Win Friends and Influence People that a smile is usually the first impression a person gives. In the business world, smiles lead to dollars because people prefer to do business with friendly people. A smile is the modern day game face. How’s yours?

6. Conduct an Experiment

Have you ever wanted to try something new, but felt you didn’t have the information you needed to know you would succeed? This over-reliance on research stymies people and organizations alike. Chip and Dan Heath propose an intuitive solution to this lack of action in their book Decisive. “Ooch.” Instead of waiting for all the data come in, conduct a small experiment to see if your idea can work. Why guess when you can know?

7. Learn Something New & Teach It to Others

Many organizations offer tuition assistance or provide a learning budget. Employees are sometimes required score a passing grade in the course to be eligible for reimbursement. But that’s usually where the expectation ends. The ROI on learning stays low unless people take the initiative to share what they’ve learned with others. If you engage in a development opportunity, host a lunch ‘n’ learn or ask for 15 minutes during your team meeting to spread the wealth of knowledge around.

7.5 Floss More

You haven’t gotten a lecture about flossing until you’ve gotten one from a high school buddy who is now a dentist. Maybe it’s not a leadership resolution per say, but my dentist friend told me recently that he always tells parents to floss in front of their kids because positive action examples are “more powerful than a million verbal reminders.” That’s a good leadership resolution for all of us: to set a positive example through our actions, whether flossing or anything else.

If you were to add another leadership resolution, what would it be?

Nathan Magnuson is a leadership consultant, coach, trainer and thought leader.  Receive his new ebook Trusted Leadership Advisor by subscribing to his website  or follow him on Twitter.

Five short years later, she was called on by authorities as an expert in the initial custody process following the raid of the YFZ Ranch in Texas, which was being run by her ex-husband. The raid proved pivotal in landing the extremist sect’s leader Warren Jeffs in prison with a life sentence on multiple child sexual assault convictions.

I read Jessop’s New York Times bestseller Escape after it had just been released in 2007 as I was training for an overseas deployment to Iraq with the U.S. Army. I’m not sure what prompted me to read her story – or how I even heard about it – but I immediately thought she deserved to win some kind of Outstanding Person of the Year award and wished I could tell her as much. Jessop doesn’t lead a nation, a sports club or a Fortune 500 company, but she embodies some of the most important leadership attributes you or I could ever hope to learn.

Sometimes You Have to Lead By Yourself

Leadership can be a lonely place, but most of us have the benefit of resources, training and a leadership community to support us. But sometimes, in Jessop’s case for instance, we’re standing alone. It’s not pretty and it’s not fair, but it’s reality. How do you react when you’re responsible but isolated? The paralysis of uncertainty and temptation to second-guess can be overwhelming. But the risks of not acting, even with limited information and confidence, can have dire effects. In Jessop’s case, had she lingered, she knew she would have risked having her underage daughters forced into marriage with a FLDS man several decades her senior – as well as risked having her family move to the compound in Texas where anything short of a raid would make it impossible to escape. Being alone doesn’t take away the responsibility to lead well.

Courage Can Take Place in a Single Moment

I’ve written before that the type of courage leaders ought to aspire to includes making responsible decisions (instead of passing them on to others), accepting responsibility and initiating difficult conversations. It’s the opposite of waiting until a fire needs to be put out. It’s a constant and proactive practice. But sometimes, as in Jessop’s case, the situation calls for a sudden act of undeterred bravery. Jessop said in her own words that “at some point nearly everyone, no matter what [their] situation, has to face change that is terrifying and overwhelming.”

In corporate leadership development, we try to build leaders who lead by design and not by demand. In other words, they don’t wait till a fire starts to come to the rescue. In reality, leaders need the courage to do the right thing, no matter how much time they have available.

The Hardest Battle is the One Against Ideology

If there’s one thing we don’t have any control over, it’s the circumstances of our birth: where, when and to whom. That means we likely grew up believing most of the things that were intentionally or unintentionally taught around us. Hopefully along the way, we developed the critical thinking skills to evaluate our own ideology.

This is the reason Jessop’s escape was so incredible. By her admission, she grew up in a closed system which taught their leader had divine and sole inspiration from God and their only means of salvation was to obey their every whim. They were taught that women were essentially property, the outside world was only evil and it was forbidden to use the word “fun” or possess anything colored red. It wasn’t until she accepted that hell (according to FLDS doctrine) would be a better option than the life she and her children were living that she had the courage to make an exodus.

Having a doctrine (a “set of principles or beliefs”) is a good thing. Each military branches has one. The FBI has one (I helped build the “indoctrination” program). Your organization hopefully has a doctrine of some sort and your religion doubtless has many. What’s dangerous is being unaware of what the doctrine is, what indoctrination methods are being used, and not evaluating the merits. If you want to leave one ideology, you need another one to take its place. Otherwise, you will simply return to the old or succumb to disillusionment.

Carolyn Jessop’s story underscores the fact that you don’t need to be “special” to be a leader. You don’t need to be the next Winston Churchill, Vince Lombardi or Jack Welch. No matter who you are, you will encounter a leadership challenge at some point. Following Jessop’s example isn’t easy. But if you do, you’re sure to come out on top.

Carolyn Jessop is the author of Escape and Triumph and has appeared on various media outlets, including CNN and Oprah and testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Additionally, in 2008 Katherine Heigl contracted the rights to produce and star in a movie based on her story.

Nathan Magnuson is a leadership consultant, coach, trainer and thought leader.  Receive his new ebook Trusted Leadership Advisor by subscribing to his website  or follow him on Twitter.