Do you aspire to have a well connected, highly functioning team around you? There are some core components of leadership that are necessary to achieve those desired outcomes. Listening is one of the foundational blocks for long-term successful leadership.

Do you remember when you were a toddler and your favorite question was why? Maybe fresher in your memory is *your* toddler asking *you* why a seemingly endless number of times. Children do this because they are curious, and they really do want to understand more.

If you are looking for a simple to use tool that can help organize almost any information across all of your different devices, then Trello may be for you. This web-based application is highly versatile and works well on every device. Since it is web-based, it does not matter whether you are a Mac or PC user.

Do you share your best ideas, or do you wait to see how they work out first? Perhaps you hold on to your ideas to ensure you have a bit of an advantage over your peers.

One Friday each month I dedicate the post to looking at some questions I have heard recently from developing leaders. Sharing those questions and my thoughts for them is a way for me to spread the information to as many leaders and future leaders as possible.

John Maxwell said, ‘Leadership *is* influence’. He explains that leadership is a verb and not a noun. It is not a position, rather the act of leading to grow and develop others. If you cannot influence others the ability to lead them will be lost.

Understanding why influence is important may seem obvious: you want other people to think or act as you do. But becoming an influential leader is much more than getting people to do what you want.

Leadership is influence. Influence is leadership. This is a conundrum that we all face when thinking about what influence is and what it means. Do you need to have influence to be a leader?

You have just begun a new leadership role in a company that has tremendous potential. It is a small, relatively unknown company, but it is up and coming and could be something significant in the future.

Do you need to capture your thoughts in a quick, organized fashion? When inspiration hits, how do you ensure that you get that information into a place and way that you can refer back to later?

Those you lead are the heroes in their own story. When they are in front of customers or their team - it has to be *their* story, not yours. The role you play is coach and coaches are rarely at the forefront of any hero's journey.

It feels great to complete a project, regardless of the size. There is a sense of accomplishment and pride that comes from getting to the finish line. Whether your project was a tremendous success or it had bumps along the way there is something that every project has.

Almost all success stories begin with small steps that eventually pick up steam and turn into something much bigger. We did not learn how to read or write overnight, it was the culmination of many small steps to get to a point of proficiency.