What does a leader must have?  These distillations have helped me immensely in leadership and have proven to help other leaders I have consulted or mentored.  They are in no particular order.

1. A leader must be willing to and actually make hard decisions.

2. Procrastination is not a strategy.

3. Passive resistance on your team is not an excuse for failure to perform.

4. Lack of preparation on others’ does not constitute a crisis on your part.

5. Individual priorities do not trump team priorities. The team’s priorities are more important than your own.

6.  Servanthood is not subservience.

7. It’s not just what you do it’s also how you do it.

8. Initiative is part of the package.

9. Humility and teachability are essential to longevity.

10. Leadership requires consensus building.

11. “Vision” without a path to practical implementation is simply wild imagination.

12. Knowing your constituencies well enables high levels of effectiveness and productivity.

13. Facts are your friends.

14. Build the road ahead of you before you burn the bridges behind you.

15. Change is not a curse; it also should not be an idol.

16. Leaders share the glory but accept all the blame.

17. Appropriately administered confrontation is an essential trait of a good leader.