Marcus Buckingham has been steering leaders for several years through
his best selling books First, Break All the Rules and Now, Discover
Your Strengths based on The Gallup Organization’s study of 80,000
managers and 3 million employees. Now he does it again in his new book
The one Thing you Need to Know…About Great Managing, Great Leading, and
Sustained Individual Success. Here are six core concepts Buckingham
discovered from interviewing great leaders:

1. Leaders are compelled by the future – Success is about where you’re going, not where you’ve been or maintaining where you are.
2. Turn anxiety into confidence – Success requires hitting fear of the unknown head-on and turning it into energy.
3. Be clear about whom you serve – You need to know who you’re working to please and then put everything into doing so.
4. Be clear about why you’re going to win – Your organization may have many strengths, pick the one that is at the core and build from there.
5. Keep you core score – There are many ways to measure success.  Pick your vital few to guide you.
6. If you want to be clear, act – Nothing is clearer than action.  Don’t just talk the talk, but walk it.

Re-purposed from an article originally published in Management Focus.