9. Forget your manners.
Sounds like your mama speaking, I know, but she was right.
Please and thank you carry an incredible amount of power, even in email. OK, especially in something as mundane as email and text messaging. So does holding the door for others, allowing others to go first, taking the low place at the table and a smiling when you first meet someone.
I’ll never forget a particular tweet by Jeff Henderson. He said, “You can tell an awful lot about someone’s character by how they return the shopping cart.” Yes, you can.
10. Don’t fight your cynicism.
Here’s the dilemma. People don’t want to follow cynical leaders. But the more experience you have as a leader, the more things you’ve seen, the more disappointment you’ve faced and the more heartbreak you’ve endured, the more cynical you naturally become.
Fight that.
The most effective and the most resilient leaders are rarely, if ever, deeply cynical. If you want to resist cynicism, I list 16 ways to counter it in this post.
So there you have it. Ten things to keep an eye on as we try to steward the leadership God has entrusted us with. I’m committed to battling all 10. How about you?
Any other ways you’ve seen to lose influence without even trying?
