Lead to Succeed: 10 Essential Habits of Outstanding Leaders

FOREWORD by Ken Blanchard

The True Measure of Leadership Success

In all my years of writing and participating in countless seminars and speaking engagements, and meeting some of the best leaders whom I deeply admire and respect, I’ve never met a leader that measures to the level of success like Jesus.

In my book Lead Like Jesus, I explore what it means to lead like Jesus through two internal and two external domains. The motivations of our heart and our leadership point of view can, at first, be things we keep inside and even mask over if that suits a private purpose. Our public leadership behavior and habits as experienced by others will determine how they follow. When the heart, head, hands, and habits are aligned, extraordinary levels of loyalty, trust, and productivity will result. When they are out of alignment, frustration, mistrust, and diminished long-term productivity are the result.

Leadership success is first a matter of the heart. Whenever we have an opportunity or responsibility to influence the thinking, behavior, or development of others, the first choice we are called to make is whether to see the moment through the eyes of self-interest or for the benefit of those we are leading.

As you consider what it takes to be an outstanding leader, a primary question you will continue to ask yourself is: “Am I a self-serving leader or a servant leader?” It is a question that, when answered with brutal honesty, will go to the core of your intention or motivation as a person who leads others.

One of the quickest ways you can tell the difference between a self-serving leader and a servant leader is how they handle feedback, because one of the biggest fears that self-serving leaders have is to lose their position.

Self-serving leaders spend most of their time protecting their status. If you give them feedback, how do they usually respond? Negatively. They think your feedback means you don’t want their leadership anymore.

Servant leaders, however, look at leadership as an act of service. They embrace and welcome feedback as a source of useful information on how they can provide better service. Self-serving leaders who are addicted to power and recognition, and who are afraid of loss of position, are not likely to spend any time or effort serving or developing others.

Outstanding leadership starts on the inside. How do you define success as a leader? Do you measure success by outcomes that bring personal gain or through the outcomes that you help others achieve? Consider how Jesus led his coworkers—his disciples—known as twelve ordinary men who became known as the twelve most influential men in history

— led by the greatest leader known to mankind.

In Lead to Succeed, Stan illustrates what it means to achieve leadership success through values and virtues that mirror Jesus’s leadership model of serving others first, followed by a consistency of leading to make a difference and to impact more leaders just like Jesus did.

May God richly bless you and equip you to be the servant leader you have been called to be. That’s the true measure of leadership success!

Ken Blanchard