The 3 I’s of Remarkably Effective Leaders

They’re driven. They’re authentic. And they consistently deliver exceptional results.

You hear all of the fuss about employees being disengaged, and you wonder who are the leaders who are lucky enough to have highly engaged employees working for them. You figure they must be gifted and charismatic like Steve Jobs or incredible orators like Barack Obama and Richard Branson. Based on my experience teaching, coaching, and developing over 5,000 leaders in 22 countries, I’ve uncovered 3 things remarkably effective leaders focus on. If you want to dramatically increase your leadership effectiveness, do what they do.

Here’s how they do it:

They Inspire

Great leaders know people suffer from two gaps in motivation- a gap in self-motivation and a gap in tribal motivation – and they inspire people to close both gaps. A gap in self-motivation results from the lack of daily discipline. Effective leaders constantly use language to encourage people to take action, take risks, and overcome their fears. A gap in tribal motivation occurs when people become too inward focus and fail to surround themselves with tribes of success. Effective leaders continuously inspire their people by doing two things: they share stories about highly successful people and they connect their people to them.

They Inform

Effective leaders convert the ordinary to extraordinary by focusing on continuous growth. They do this by setting goals and clear expectations for achieving them. But the communication process is not one way. They create 2 way communication loops where everyone remains informed and progress, no matter how small, is recognized and celebrated regularly. This approach creates a culture where people are much more effective at accepting failure and change as naturally occurring elements in the success equation.

They Improve

Two of the 3 I’s of effective leaders are externally focused. The last one is internally focused. Effective leaders never stop improving their own skills. The rate at which things change is increasingly rapidly, and as a result, effective leaders never stop auditioning for leadership. How do they do it? Everyone is overworked. Everyone is attempting to do more with less. Regardless of what they are confronted with on a daily basis, they hold themselves accountable to identify and complete the 1, 2, or 3 things each day that they must complete. They know what they can tackle in a day is where the compounding for success happens. They are constantly increasing their knowledge and skills that enable them to get better and better at accomplishing the things that truly matter on a daily basis.

To be a remarkably effective leader is not easy because s/he does what the average, what the mediocre, what the rest of us don’t, won’t, or are unwilling to do. The good news is with hard work, self-discipline, and a willingness to invest the majority of your time increasing the value of others, you can become remarkably effective too. And your team will revere you for it.

The Floor is Yours

In what other ways have you seen highly effective leaders develop others and develop themselves? Please share your feedback in the comments below.

For more tips and strategies on becoming a more effective leader, email us at info@ictscorp.com, explore the rest of this website, subscribe to this blog, and follow me on social media (Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Facebook). By doing so, you will gain access to leading edge research on management and leadership development and have access to daily inspirational and motivational quotes that will drive your success trajectory upward. So don’t delay, follow me and think yourself to success today!