"The greatest leader is not necessarily the one who does the greatest things. They are the ones who get the people to do the greatest things." Ronald Reagan
Let's be honest for a moment.
Have you ever worked for a boss who made you dread Monday mornings? Someone who micromanaged your every move, took credit for your ideas, and made you feel like just another cog in the machine?
Now think about the best leader you've ever had. The one who made you feel unstoppable. The one who trusted you, challenged you, and made you believe you could achieve things you never thought possible.
Here's the uncomfortable truth: Most businesses fail not because of bad products or tough competition. They fail because of bad leadership.
And here's another truth that might sting: If your business isn't growing as fast as you'd like, the problem might be in the mirror.
But here's the good news: leadership isn't a talent you're born with. It's a skill you can learn. And the leaders who master these skills don't just survive; they build businesses that dominate their industries and last for generations.
So, let's dive into the seven leadership practices that separate the ordinary from the extraordinary. But fair warning: some of these might challenge everything you thought you knew about being a leader.
1. Foster Employee Engagement and Management
The Contrarian View: Stop hiring for skills. Start hiring for attitude. (Yes, I said it.)
Here's what most leaders get wrong: They treat employees like interchangeable parts. They hire for technical skills, stick people in boxes, and then wonder why nobody seems to care about the company's success.
But let's flip this on its head.
What if your employees aren't disengaged because they're lazy, but because you've failed to give them a reason to care?
Questions to ask yourself:
- When was the last time you asked an employee for their opinion and actually acted on it?
- Do your people feel safe speaking up, or are they terrified of making mistakes?
- Are you recognizing your team's contributions, or are you too busy noticing only what goes wrong?
The Hard Truth: Engagement isn't "nice to have." It's the difference between employees who show up and employees who show up and give a damn. Gallup research shows that engaged teams are 17% more productive and 21% more profitable. But here's the kicker: only 23% of employees globally are engaged.
So ask yourself: Are you part of the 77% of leaders who are failing to engage their people? Or are you ready to be different?
What Great Leaders Do Differently:
- They create psychological safety where people can speak up without fear
- They listen more than they talk
- They recognize contributions publicly and often
- They trust their teams enough to let go of micromanagement
- They connect every task to a bigger purpose
Real-World Challenge: This week, have a conversation with one employee where you do 80% of the listening. Ask them: "What's one thing I could do to make your work more meaningful?" Then and this is the hard part: actually do it.
2. Develop and Maintain Agile Strategic Plans
The Contrarian View: Throw away your five-year plan. It's already obsolete.
I know, I know. This sounds like heresy to every MBA graduate who's ever created a beautiful, detailed strategic document. But let's be real: How many of those plans actually survived contact with reality?
The business world changes too fast for rigid planning. Your competitors innovate. Technology shifts. Customer preferences evolve. A global pandemic hits. A supply chain crumbles.
And your beautiful five-year plan? It becomes a historical document rather than a working guide.
Questions to ask yourself:
- When was the last time you reviewed and adjusted your strategy?
- Are you clinging to outdated assumptions because you're afraid to admit they're wrong?
- Do you have Plan B, Plan C, and Plan D ready, or are you betting everything on one path?
The Hard Truth: Agile planning isn't about having no plan. It's about having a plan that breathes. It's knowing your destination while being flexible about the route.
What Great Leaders Do Differently:
- They set clear vision but remain flexible on execution
- They review strategy quarterly, not annually
- They make decisions based on data, not ego
- They plan for multiple scenarios best case, worst case, and everything in between
- They invite input from every level of the organization
Real-World Challenge: Pull out your current strategic plan. Challenge every assumption. Ask: "What would we do differently if we knew our biggest competitor was about to launch a game-changing product?" If your plan can't adapt, it's time to start over.
3. Advocate for Effective Employee Training and Development
The Contrarian View: If you're not investing in your employees' growth, you're investing in their departure.
Here's a startling statistic: 94% of employees say they would stay at a company longer if it invested in their development. Yet many leaders view training as an expense to be cut, not an investment to be protected.
Questions to ask yourself:
- Are you developing your people, or are you just using them?
- When budgets get tight, is training the first thing you cut?
- Do your employees see a clear path for growth, or do they feel stuck?
- Are you investing as much in your people's development as you do in your equipment and technology?
The Hard Truth: Your people are your competitive advantage. When you stop developing them, they stop developing your business. And eventually, they leave taking their knowledge, relationships, and potential with them.
What Great Leaders Do Differently:
- They create individual development plans for every employee
- They invest in diverse learning methods mentoring, coaching, formal training
- They lead by example and share what they're learning
- They celebrate skill acquisition and growth
- They make learning part of daily work, not an occasional event
The Cost of Doing Nothing: Consider this replacing an employee costs between 50% and 200% of their annual salary. Is that really cheaper than investing in their development?
Real-World Challenge: Map out a clear career path for your top three employees. Share it with them. Ask what additional development they need to get there. Then commit to making it happen.
4. Facilitate Leadership Development and Management
The Contrarian View: Your biggest failure as a leader isn't what you didn't achieve, it's the leaders you didn't develop.
Here's an uncomfortable truth: Many leaders hoard power. They keep decision-making at the top. They don't develop successors because they're afraid of being replaced.
But let me ask you this: If you got hit by a bus tomorrow, would your business survive?
Questions to ask yourself:
- Who is being prepared to take your place?
- Are you developing leaders throughout your organization, or only at the top?
- Do you give emerging leaders real authority, or just more responsibility without power?
- Are you mentoring anyone who isn't an obvious "high potential"?
The Hard Truth: Your legacy isn't measured by how high you climbed. It's measured by how many people you helped climb with you and how far they go after you're gone.
What Great Leaders Do Differently:
- They identify potential early and develop it consistently
- They give stretch assignments that challenge and grow people
- They mentor and coach future leaders
- They delegate real authority, not just tasks
- They create formal leadership development programs
The Ultimate Test: If your business can't function without you, you haven't built a business, you've built a job. And that's not leadership. That's a trap.
Real-World Challenge: Identify one person on your team with leadership potential. Give them a project with real decision-making authority. Let them make decisions, even mistakes and support them through the learning process.
5. Aspire to Incline to Visionary Leadership
The Contrarian View: If your team can't describe your vision in one sentence, you don't have a vision, you have a word salad.
Visionary leadership is one of those buzzwords that gets thrown around so much it's almost lost meaning. But let's get specific: A vision without clarity is just noise.
Questions to ask yourself:
- Can every employee articulate where the company is going and why it matters?
- Does your vision inspire people, or does it put them to sleep?
- Do your daily actions embody your vision, or is it just words on a wall?
- Have you invited others into creating the vision, or did you dictate it from on high?
The Hard Truth: Vague visions don't inspire, they confuse. And confused employees don't do great work. They just... do work.
What Great Leaders Do Differently:
- They paint a vision so clear and compelling that people can see it
- They connect vision to action through clear priorities and milestones
- They communicate the vision relentlessly through every channel
- They live the vision their actions match their words
- They co-create the vision with their team, building ownership
A Simple Test: Ask five random employees to describe your company's vision. If you get five different answers, you don't have a vision problem—you have a communication problem.
Real-World Challenge: Write your vision in one sentence. If you can't, you need to go back to the drawing board. If you can, ask your team to do the same and compare notes.
6. Develop Performance Management Culture
The Contrarian View: Annual performance reviews are a waste of time. Actually, they're worse than a waste; they actively demotivate people.
Let me be blunt: If you're still doing annual performance reviews, you're stuck in the past.
Here's what usually happens: Once a year, you sit down with an employee, review a year's worth of work in 45 minutes, assign a rating, and call it "performance management."
But consider this: Research shows that annual reviews often decrease performance. Employees leave these conversations feeling criticized, misunderstood, and demotivated.
Questions to ask yourself:
- Are you giving feedback in real-time or saving it up for an annual dump?
- Are your performance conversations focused on growth or just evaluation?
- Do your employees know exactly what success looks like, or are they guessing?
- Are you celebrating successes as loudly as you're addressing problems?
The Hard Truth: Performance management isn't about judging people; it's about growing them. And you can't grow someone with feedback that's months old.
What Great Leaders Do Differently:
- They give continuous, timely feedback
- They set clear, measurable goals that employees can track
- They focus on development, not just evaluation
- They celebrate public successes
- They address issues promptly and compassionately
Real-World Inspiration: Adobe replaced annual reviews with regular "check-in" conversations. The result? A 30% drop in voluntary turnover. That's not just a change, it's a revolution.
Real-World Challenge: Schedule a "check-in" conversation with a team member this week. Skip the formal review format. Just ask: "What's going well? What support do you need? Where do you want to grow?" Then listen. Really listen.
7. Encourage Effective Resource Management Practices
The Contrarian View: Your biggest resource problem isn't money, it's wasted talent and wasted time.
We tend to think about resource management in terms of finances. But here's what leaders often overlook: The biggest resource drain in most organizations aren't dollars, they're inefficiencies that waste people's time and potential.
Questions to ask yourself:
- Are your best people working on your highest priorities, or are they buried in low-value tasks?
- How many meetings could have been emails?
- Are you investing in technology that genuinely improves productivity, or just shiny new toys?
- Do you track resource utilization, or are you flying blind?
The Hard Truth: Wasted resources whether money, time, or talent aren't just inefficiencies. They're opportunity costs. Every dollar or hour wasted on something that doesn't matter is a dollar or hour not invested in something that does.
What Great Leaders Do Differently:
- They align resources with strategic priorities
- They eliminate waste processes, meetings, activities that don't add value
- They invest in technology that genuinely improves productivity
- They track and monitor resource utilization
- They balance short-term needs with long-term investments
- They treat every resource especially people as precious
The Hidden Cost: How much time is wasted in your organization on inefficient processes, unclear communication, or unnecessary meetings? Now multiply that by your average salary. That's the cost of poor resource management. Are you willing to keep paying it?
Real-World Challenge: Map out how your team spends their time for one week. Identify the three biggest time-wasters. Eliminate two of them immediately. Watch productivity and morale skyrocket.
The Real Secret: Leadership Is a Choice
Here's the thing about leadership that nobody tells you: It's not about a title. It's not about a corner office. And it's certainly not about being the smartest person in the room.
Leadership is a choice you make every single day.
You choose whether to engage your people or just manage them.
You choose whether to adapt your strategy or cling to the past.
You choose whether to develop others or hoard power.
You choose whether to inspire with vision or bore with bureaucracy.
You choose whether to develop a performance culture or accept mediocrity.
You choose whether to manage resources wisely or waste what you've been given.
And here's the kicker: Your people are watching every single choice you make. They're not listening to your words, they're watching your actions. And they know, with absolute certainty, whether you're a leader worth following.
The Leader's Self-Assessment: Where Do You Stand?
Be brutally honest with yourself. Answer these questions truthfully:
| Area | Rate Yourself 1-10 |
|------ |-------------------|
| Employee Engagement | ______ |
| Agile Strategic Planning | ______ |
| Training & Development | ______ |
| Leadership Development | ______ |
| Visionary Leadership | ______ |
| Performance Culture | ______ |
| Resource Management | ______ |
If you scored:
- 49-70: You're a leadership powerhouse. Keep going you're building something remarkable.
- 28-48: You have solid foundations, but there's significant room for growth. Pick one area and focus on it this quarter.
- Below 28: It's time for a leadership reboot. The good news? The only way from here is up.
Your Challenge: One Week. One Practice. One Transformation.
Here's what I want you to do:
Pick ONE leadership practice from this article. Just one. Don't overwhelm yourself.
For the next seven days, focus obsessively on that one practice. Journal about it. Talk about it. Challenge yourself to embody it every single day.
Then, after one week, ask yourself:
- Did my team notice?
- Did it change anything?
- Did it change ME?
Because here's the ultimate truth: When you change as a leader, everything changes. Your team changes. Your business changes. Your results change.
The question isn't whether you can be a better leader. It's whether you'll choose to be.
Final Thoughts: The Leader Your Business Needs
Your business doesn't need a manager who just keeps things running.
It needs a leader who dares to be different. A leader who engages, adapts, develops, and inspires. A leader who manages resources with discipline and builds a culture where performance thrives.
Your business needs the leader you're capable of becoming.
So, here's my final question to you:
What are you going to do about it? Not tomorrow. Not next week. TODAY?
The greatest leaders aren't the ones who do the most. They're the ones who bring out the most in everyone else.
What leadership practice are you committing to this week? Drop your answer in the comments, I'd love to hear what you're going to change.
P.S. If this article challenged you, that's good. Growth is uncomfortable. But staying the same? That's the real danger. Share this with another leader who needs to hear it. None of us leads alone.
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