Let’s get straight to the point. Exceptional leaders make a positive difference in the lives of people, teams, organizations, and communities. Exceptional leaders can change the world. Exceptional leaders are Difference Makers!
So, how can you be an exceptional leader who leads people, teams, and organizations to higher levels of growth and performance? The bottom line up front is if you want to become an exceptional leader who makes a positive difference and develops leaders who can do the same—a difference maker—then you need to examine your leadership approach and rethink how you hire and develop leaders.
An organization’s long-term success requires such things as an effective strategy supported by an effective organizational design and an enabling culture that builds individual and organizational cohesion and competence. Yet this requires effective leadership at all levels, including:
- Leaders who can motivate, encourage, and inspire employees to grow and strive for excellence;
- Leaders who can motivate, encourage, and inspire employees to grow and strive for excellence;
- Leaders who can equip, enable, and empower employees to succeed; and
- Leaders who can cultivate cohesive, collaborative relationships between people, teams, and division that poses a shared understanding, vision, purpose, and values.
Unfortunately, there is a crisis in leadership effecting all sizes and types of organizations—from churches, charities, and businesses — to military units and government agencies. On one hand, ineffective leaders are failing to provide clear direction or stifling progress because of their unwillingness to accept responsibility, take action, or improve their own leadership capacity. On the other hand, toxic, self-serving, exploitative, and immoral leaders are destroying organizations from within from their prideful and self-serving actions.
Here is an example: Many of today’s organizations are focused on short-term profits and hire leaders to produce immediate results—enticing them with large salaries and perks. But this often invites ego-driven leaders motivated by their selfish interests and not serving the greater good. These self-serving leaders want what they want, want it now, and often want it at any cost. This leads to toxic leadership that manifests itself in authoritarian, command and control, fear-based, and exploitative leadership that destroys morale and hinders employee development—which adversely effects hiring, retention, and even an organization’s reputation.
Believe me, I’ve seen all kinds of toxic, ineffective, and immoral leaders, but I have also seen exceptional leaders at work leading a committed workforce out for more than a paycheck and benefits but a commitment to service. In fact, when I developed senior civilian leaders for the Department of Defense and Marine Corps, I had the privilege of working with thousands of people who were committed to serving the warfighter, that is, our men and women in uniform, and the American taxpayer. Our organizations can benefit from a commitment to service like this.
We must recognize that there is often a heavy cost and a sacrifice to the constant pursuit of short-term financial gains in that they are often unsustainable, put profits before people, and conflicts with long-term growth and performance efforts. The leadership lesson here is this: Anyone can be an authoritarian, command and control leader because it is easy. Be an exceptional leader whose approach is to add value to organizations and make a positive difference in people’s lives.
Whereas toxic and self-serving leadership is one problem, ineffective leadership is another. Ineffective leadership implies that people put in leadership positions are ill-prepared to deal with the full scope of leadership responsibilities or the situations and events they encounter. Here an organization might hire someone who was successful in another company, or someone who was a successful manager within the organization, but the person lacks the understanding, mindset, and skillsets required for effective leadership at a higher level. You see, a person could be a great manager, but not a good leader. The leadership lesson is this: Leadership and management are not synonymous. The mindset is different between leadership and management, so is the focus, and so are the competencies. They are two separate things.
So, everything I’ve talked about so far comes down to this: Toxic and ineffective leaders, and command and control and fear-based leadership are only symptoms of larger problems. But, we are not, or not properly, developing our leaders. According to Future Market Insights, organizations and individual leaders spent an estimated $81.19 billion on leader development products and services in 2024 and are projected to spend $216.9 billion by 2034. But not every organization is investing in leader development, and many of those who are—are doing so in an uneven, sporadic, or incomplete way, or are providing outdated leader development instruction.
As a result, many leaders are ill-prepared for today’s rapidly changing, increasingly complex, hypercompetitive, and socially disconnected world.
What is missing is a holistic and comprehensive approach, structure, and process to developing transcendent leaders who can face today’s complex challenges, and not those of a bygone era, and transform organizations to higher levels of morale and performance. You see, leadership has evolved into a broad, multidiscipline field but traditional leader development does not reflect this.
The second problem contributing to toxic and ineffective leadership is that many leaders are not taking responsibility for their own growth and development, either through self-study or participating in formal programs. Many leaders wrongly believe that what got them to their current position will get them to the next, which is the point of Marshall Goldsmith’s famous book What got you here won’t get you there. So, the leadership lesson is this: Leadership starts with you. If you want to improve your leadership you must take responsibility for your growth and development. Exceptional leaders never stop growing. The solution to toxic and ineffective leadership lies in ensuring leaders not only have leader development to begin with, but the right leader development. What does the right leader development look like?
The right leader development must provide a comprehensive and holistic leadership and leader development approach, framework, and processes that shows us what the pinnacle of human and leader development looks like, giving us a north star to strive toward—and supply us with a framework and process a to help us achieve it. In doing so, it will give us a modern, 21st century leadership and leader development approach that will not only help us increase our leadership competence and capacity to face today’s challenges and lead in the uncertain future, but also give us standards that raise the bar on how we train, evaluate, select leaders —and hold them accountable. If done right, this will develop exceptional leaders who do more than chase short-term profits and gains, but lead people and organizations to high levels of sustainable performance. Our organization’s long-term success requires it.
You see, leader development is unlike any other form of training or education. This is because leadership is personal—it is about who we are and the factors that define us. This is why leadership can be informed by science, but remains and art because our individual values, beliefs, motivations, attitudes, character, and personality all play a role in our leadership approach, decision-making, and ability to gain the trust, respect, and cooperation of others. It encompasses all our intellectual, emotional, moral, physical, and social abilities working together. So, the truth about leader development, and the next leadership lesson, is that leader development is human development. They are one and the same.
“Don’t just be a leader people want to follow, but also be an exceptional leader that makes a positive difference. Be a Difference Maker!”
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