Today we are continuing the series on successful coaching, leading and mentoring of people.  Being successful as a leader, mentor, father, mother, coach, teacher, pastor, business owner or whatever your title is requires a skill set that is constantly developed as you become the best you can.  As I look back at my career as a teacher and coach and as a business professional I am grateful for the people I was blessed to work with that had these qualities.  They were successful at what they did and were so consistent with the habits they had to remain on top of their game.  I have tried to be the best leader I can and at times sure I failed at one or two of these qualities somewhere in the process. 

The key is knowing where you are, where you want to be and how you will get there. You don’t have to be a leader to maximize some or all of these qualities.  I have worked with front line teachers, sales people and other peers that exhibited many of these traits.  They may not have wanted to be a leader, but in their own way led and inspired people by their actions, habits and behaviors.   As you can see I have put eight qualities above for leaders, coaches and others to exhibit, practice, portray and model to get people to take action and follow them.

1- Success comes to those that teach their students, employees, family and friends with a passion.  You do not have to be a certified school teacher to teach people.  

2- Success comes with inspirational actions.  Successful leaders inspire action, behavior and focus by modeling expectations and leading out front.

3- Successful people have goals.  They plan ahead, set short and long term goals and track the results making sure they are working towards accomplishing the goals they want and need.

4- Successful leaders motivate their players, employees, family and friends with their behavior, work ethic, integrity and actions.

5- Successful leaders “led by example”.  They would never ask you to do something they would not or have not done themselves.  They are out front and set the pace for the organization with passion and commitment to the team, brand or company.

6- Successful leaders mentor their players, staff, personnel and employees.  They teach, train, share, show, and guide those around them.  Sharing knowledge, experience and background engages people and grows their skill set.

7- Successful leaders/coaches emphasize teamwork as a requirement for success as a whole.  It takes teamwork to accomplish goals, complete task and grow the brand, business and win.  It takes teamwork to win, whether that be in the company itself or working with customers, recruits, players and family members.

8- Successful leaders have vision for the future.  They realize that having a vision is  part of the model for success and instilling that vision within the organization, team, or company.  I have worked for head coaches whose vision was lacking and it worked its way into the locker room and on the assistant coaching staff.  I have worked for others that led out front, had high expectations of everyone including themselves and the vision of where we were going was quite evident in their work ethic, actions and behaviors.

In life we wear many hats as professionals, business people, workers, teachers, coaches, lawyers, doctors, parents, spouses, brothers, sisters, and all the other hats we could wear in life.  Growing our skills and becoming a leader at work, at school, in the community or at home is a constant and evolving process that we work on to become the best we can be at what we do.