The Qualities of Skillful Leadership

The Qualities of Skillful Leadership by Jim Rohn

If you want to be a leader who attracts quality people, the key is to become a person of quality yourself. Leadership is the ability to attract someone to the gifts, skills and opportunities you offer as an owner,  as a manager, as a parent. I call leadership the great challenge of life.   What is  important in leadership is refining your skills. All great leaders keep  working on themselves until they become effective. Here are some specifics:

1) Learn to be strong, but not rude. 

It is an extra step you must take to 

become a powerful, capable leader with a wide range of reach. Some people 

mistake rudeness for strength. It is not even a good substitute.

2) Learn to be kind, but not weak.

 We must not mistake kindness for weakness. Kindness is not  weak. Kindness is a certain type of strength. We must be kind enough to tell somebody the truth. We must be kind enough and considerate enough to lay it on the line. We must be kind enough to tell it like it is and not deal in delusion.

3) Learn to be bold, but not a bully.

 It takes boldness to win the day. To 

build your influence, you have got to walk in front of your group. You have  got to be willing to take the first arrow, tackle the first problem,  discover the first sign of trouble.

4) You have got to learn to be humble, but not timid.

You cant get to the high life by being timid. Some people mistake timidity for humility. Humility is almost a God-like word. A sense of awe. A sense of wonder. An awareness of the human soul and spirit.

An understanding that there is something unique about the human drama versus the rest of life.

Humility is a grasp of the distance between us and the stars, yet  having the feeling that we are part of the stars. So humility is a virtue, but  timidity is a disease. Timidity is an affliction. It can be cured, but it is a problem.

5) Be proud, but not arrogant.

It takes pride to win the day. It takes pride 

to build your ambition. It takes pride in community. It takes pride in cause, 

in accomplishment. But the key to becoming a good leader is being proud without being arrogant. In fact, I believe the worst kind of arrogance is arrogance from ignorance.   Now that kind of arrogance is intolerable.    If  someone is smart and arrogant, we can tolerate that. But if someone is  ignorant and arrogant, that is  just too much to take.

6) Develop humor without folly.

That  is  important for a leader. In leadership, 

we learn that it is OK to be witty, but not silly. It  is OK to be fun, but not 

foolish.

Lastly, deal in realities. Deal in truth. Save yourself the agony. Just accept 

life like it is. Life is unique. The whole drama of life is unique. It  is  fascinating.  

And I  have found that the skills that work well for one leader may not work at all for another. But the fundamental skills of leadership can be adapted to work well for just about everyone: at work, in the community and at home.