If you stop to look around,  it's not hard to find examples of CEOs, middle managers, elected officials, public servants, neighborhood watch organizers, team captains and coaches, teachers and countless others who are doing a good job as leaders. Most of us are either in that group or working toward it.

Much rarer are the exceptional leaders whose qualities truly shine, the ones who practice the kind of leadership we all aspire to.

In my years of leadership consulting, I've learned that most of what makes outstanding leaders outstanding lies not in the things they do but who they are when they take action.

Here are seven of the most important:

When I started managing, I was focused on things such as ...


Gaining trust from my team
Understanding what motivated each one of my team members to work with me and at the company
Ensuring I knew sales forecasting fundamentals
Finding scaleable training initiatives
Managing my time effectively
Building a team-wide vision and enabling team unity
Defining (and refining) the right way to on-board new team members

While all of those endeavors were absolutely worthwhile, I realized that all of these things could and would constantly change.

People came and went. Processes came and went. Sales targets and forecasting methods came and went. The market and competitive landscape evolved. Even the products and services we were (and are) selling evolved. It was all about change.