Editor’s Note

From deliberate leadership to front-line leadership, bold leadership to servant leadership, effective leadership to authentic leadership, leak-proof leadership to maverick leadership, leadership lessons from Bill Clinton and lessons from the life of Lee Kuan Yew, Leadership 500 Excellence Awards 2015 and interviews of the proud winners of the award, and last but not the least, a heartfelt tribute to Dr.Wayne Walter Dyer – Leadership Excellence Essentials 2015 editions covered the latest trends, events, happenings and news in the leadership space this year. We hope you enjoyed reading our articles.

What Makes A Great Leader?

Emotional intelligence has become a major topic of interest in scientific circles as well as in the lay public since the publication of a bestseller by the same name in 1995 (Goleman, 1995). The early definitions of social intelligence influenced the way emotional intelligence was later conceptualized. Contemporary theorists like Peter Salovey and John Mayer originally viewed emotional intelligence as part of social intelligence (Salovey & Mayer, 1990), which suggests that both concepts are related and may, in all likelihood, represent interrelated components of the same construct.

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The Secret Sauce Of Successful Leadership: Know the 5 D’s of leadership

We often look at extremely successful leaders and wonder "What makes them so successful?" If you ever wonder the secret sauce of successful leadership, a good portion of that boils down to The Five D’s of Leadership. Extremely successful leaders separate themselves from the rest in terms of how they balance and focus on the Five D's of Leadership.

A Strategist. Are You One? - Connection between leadership and strategy

All Leaders – in business or working for a government - would be ready to answer “Yes” but wait before answering my question. Let’s first try to define what a strategist is. He/she is a long term thinker who will be able to anticipate and even react to all kinds of potential consequences and also be ready to have a fall-back position “just in case” his/her strategy would fail. Basically he/she is a much focused individual with a vision, a plan and has direction. By becoming a strategist, you then become the Leader YOUR business – government included - NEEDS.

The Disciplined Leader: Keeping the focus on what really matters

Part of leading yourself is learning when to challenge yourself at strategic moments in your professional life. When I look back at my career, several big professional growth spurts were directly attributable to when I pushed my comfort zone. These were times in which I had little or no experience with a particular area or in a certain subject. I had to learn on the fly as I took on and mastered those new projects or responsibilities, a strategy that enabled me to really accelerate my career.

Safety Strategy: What great leaders do well

Occasionally, some of the greatest truths in business are found not only in the musings of great business leaders, but also in the creative genius of authors of fiction. Consider the exchange between the characters Alice and the Cheshire Cat of Lewis Carroll’s novel, Alice in Wonderland. “Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?” “That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the Cat. “I don’t much care where–” said Alice. “Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,” said the Cat. “– so long as I get SOMEWHERE,” Alice added as an explanation. “Oh, you’re sure to do that,” said the Cat, “if you only walk long enough.”

Let It Go: Making room for new opportunities

I recently decided (in a fury of "decluttering") to remove the perfectly good CD/cassette tape stereo from my office bookshelf and give it to charity. Truthfully, I hadn't even used it in years. It was just taking up space that can be better occupied by something more relevant. Then, in another burst of energy and insight, I gathered up all the old cassette tapes stored away (for what?), the CD/DVD teaching packages that were regularly dusted but otherwise ignored, and gave it all away in boxes to The Salvation Army.

Loners At Heart: Great leaders are often loners in disguise

Conventional wisdom holds that great leaders are the charming and vivacious men and women who can work a room the way a rock star lights up a stage. That they are born to it, naturals, to which command and control comes effortlessly.

Succession Planning: The foundations of a leadership succession plan

It's the circle of life, enterprise style. Eventually, your managers, directors and even senior executives will have to hand the reigns over to the next wave of leaders.