The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader by John C Maxwell

1. Character

2. Charisma

Concerned about making others feel good about themselves than you are making them feel good about you.
a. Love life
b. Put a "10" on every person's head
c. Give people hope
d. Share yourself
Roadblocks to charisma:
a. Pride
b. Insecurity
c. Moodiness
d. Perfectionism
e. Cynicism

3. Commitment

Can be displayed in a full range of matters to include the work hours you choose to maintain, how you work to improve your abilities, or what you do for your fellow workers at personal sacrifice.

4. Communication
a. Simplify your message - be clear
b. See the person - know your audience
c. Show the truth - live what you say
d. Seek a response - give the audience something to feel, something to remember and something to do.

5. Competence
a. Show up everyday. Not in body only but come ready to play everyday - no matter how they feel, what kind of circumstances they face, or how difficult they expect the game to be.
b. Keep improving
c. Follow through sign excellence
d. Accomplish more than expected
e. Inspire others

6. Courage
a. Courage begins with an inward battle. Courage isn't an absence of fear. It's doing what you are afraid to do. It's having the power to let go of the familiar and forge ahead into new territory.
b. Courage is making things right, not just smoothing them over. The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.
c. Courage in a leader inspires commitment from followers. Courage is contagious. When a brave man takes a stand, the spines of others are stiffened.
You must do the things you think you cannot do.

7. Discernment/intuition. The ability to find the root of the matter.

8. Focus.

If you chase two rabbits, both will escape.
a. Focus 70% on strengths. Focus on your strengths and develop them
b. Focus 25% on new things. Growth equals change. If you want to get better, you have to keep changing and improving.
c. Focus 5% on areas of weakness. Delegate
Have you been majoring in minor things?
Experienced animal trainers take a stool with them when they step into a cage with a lion. Why a stool? It tames a lion better than anything - except maybe a tranquilizer gun. When the trainer holds the stool with the legs extended toward the lion's face, the animal tries to focus on all four legs at once. And that paralyzed him. Divided focus always works against you.

9. Generosity

Your candle loses nothing when it lights another.
a. Be grateful for whatever you have. It's hard for a person to be generous when he is not satisfied with what he has. Generosity rises out of contentment and that doesn't come with acquiring more. If you are not content with little, you won't be content with a lot. And if you are not generous with little, you won't suddenly change if you become wealthy.
b. Put people first. The measure of a leader is not the number of people who serve him but the number of people he serves.
c. Regard money as a resource. Money is a wonderful servant but a terrible master. If it gets on top and you get under it, you will become its slave

10. Initiative

Leaders always look for opportunities and be ready to take action.
a. They know what they want. That's the only way you will recognize opportunity when it comes.
b. The push themselves to act
c. They take more risks.
d. They make more mistakes. The way to succeed is to double your failure rate.

11. Listening

Two purposes for listening: to connect with people and to learn. If you are in the habit of listening only to the facts and not the person who expresses them, change your focus - and really listen. Listen to the whispers and you won't have to hear the screams. Larry King says "I remind myself every morning: nothing I say this day will teach me anything. So I'm going to learn, I must do it by listening. Do more than just grab onto facts. Listen not only for words, but also for feelings, meanings and undercurrents. The next time you meet with people (an employee or a customer), discipline yourself to ask four or five questions about him as a person. Get to know who he is, and seek common ground to build your connection with him.

12. Passion
Law of explosive growth "to add growth, lead followers, to multiply, lead leaders"
He breathes, sleeps and lives it.
a. Passion is the first step to achievement
b. Passion increases willpower. It is fuel for the will.
c. Passion changes you
d. Passion makes the impossible possible

13. Positive attitude

If you believe you can, you can.
a. Your attitude is a choice.
b. Your attitude determines your actions
c. Your people are a mirror of your attitude. Who you are is who you attract. Law of magnetism
d. Maintaining a good attitude is easier than regaining one
e. Feed yourself the "right" food

14. Problem solving
What separates winners from whiners.
Handle problems one thing at a time.
Method to solve problem - teach. Time : spend time to discover the real issue. Exposure: find out what others have done. Assistance: have your team study all angles. Creativity : brainstorm multiple solutions. Hit it: implement the best solution.

15. Relationships

16. Responsibility
They get the job done.
They are willing to go the extra mile.
They are driven by excellence.
They produce regardless of the situation.

17. Security
You don't follow the crowd; you make up your own mind.

18. Self discipline

19. Servanthood
When you think of servanthood, do you envision it as an activity performed by relatively low skilled people at the bottom of the positional totem pole? If u do, you have a wrong impression. Servanthood is not about position or skill. It's about attitude.

20. Teachability
Leaders face the danger of contentment with the status quo. After all, if a leader already possesses influence and has achieved a level of respect, why should he keep growing?
a. Cure your destination disease - as long as you're green, you're growing. As soon as you're ripe, you start to rot.
b. Overcome your success
Effective leaders know that what got them there doesn't keep them there. If what you did yesterday still looks big to you, you haven't done much today.
c. Trade in your pride
Teachability requires us to admit we don't know everything, and that can make us look bad. In addition, if we keep learning, we must also keep making mistakes. The greatest mistake one can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one. For everything you gain, you lose something. To gain growth, give up your pride.
d. Never pay twice for the same mistake - he who makes no mistakes, makes no progreS. But the leader who keeps making the same mistakes also makes no progress. As a teachable leader, you will make mistakes. Forget them but always remember what they taught you.
Observe how you react to mistakes. If you react badly or you make no mistakes at all - you need to work on your Teachability

21. Vision