Great customer-driven leaders manage the attention they give to others, and they manage the meaning of that attention. They control the level of trust that exists between themselves and others, and most importantly, they manage themselves. These leaders are always proactive; they are goal setters who begin with an end in mind. They know what they want the outcome of their actions to look like because they've envisioned it from the start. It's as clear as if they have already achieved it. They abide by the words of Henry Ford: "Whether you think you are successful or not, you're probably right either way."

Successful leaders always put first things first and clearly adopt the philosophy "What's the most important thing I can be doing right now?" They recognize the difference between important and urgent tasks at hand.

Great leaders take the time to stay on top of their game.

Great leaders serve as both the messenger and the message of what is important to those whom they guide. They are the example of what good behavior in the leadership arena should look like. While they envision goals for themselves, they are careful to make their people's goals part of their own. They let their people define those goals and take ownership of them.

Customer-driven leaders enjoy the process of motivating people to move to a higher plane. While communication skills are the primary factor, quality leadership is about managing our own behavior better so that others can define their parameters by our own. When we are in charge of our own management, we have ourselves to answer to.

Leadership is also about explaining the job properly and letting the troops know what is needed to "cover the nut." When a rat leaves the ship, it is usually because it is sinking.

Good leaders are a symbol of what their organization is all about. Their values are clear and their decisions come easy. Their thoughts represent the entire group's well-being. Most importantly, great leaders constantly renew their relationships with their people.

Great customer-driven leadership, most importantly, is about integrity and honesty, and requires absolute competence on the part of the leader. It requires someone who is forward thinking, who can inspire and motivate the troops. And, most importantly, it requires intelligence.

These great leaders ask the questions:

Our agency training tells our salespeople that if they're talking more than 20 percent of the time during discussions with clients, then they're talking too much.

Great customer-driven leaders expect to get results in real time, and have figured out how to beat the curve. They have mastered self-management through self-mastery: doing the things they are best at and letting others do what they're best at.

Most importantly, great leadership is about course correction. "When the horse is dead, get off of it," observed the late great speaker, Rosita Perez, CPAE Speaker Hall of Fame. Know when to change the direction—and more importantly, know why you're doing so.

The difference between managing and leading can be described in the old adage : You manage things; you lead people. And leading people always requires some degree of flexibility. Leaders occasionally have to do things that they may not fully support. However, they recognize that you don't have to agree with a goal to achieve it; you just have to understand it. They're aware that while goals should be set based on the highest standards, they should also always leave room for improvement. Something that was considered to be the objective at the beginning of a process may not always be the aim at the end, or midway through. Leaders acknowledge this and "roll with the punches." They remain adaptable and take the action that best supports their people.

If you don't make a profit, you won't have a business. If you don't lead people correctly, you won't keep them around. People must learn to stop apologizing for being successful, and for seeking to make a profit in business. One of the critical elements about good leadership is having people who bring hope to the people they are leading.

The unfair advantage in leadership occurs when leaders adjust to what happens while they're making other plans. Leaders must be change merchants and produce new ideas with an open mind and full heart. Effective leadership requires divergent thinking, the ability to withhold judgment until all the facts are in, and the ability to accept and understand the issues at hand.

Divergent thinking is an outward expansion of ideas from a narrow focus to a wide focus, from a narrow view to a broad view. This kind of imagination figures heavily into the leaders' decision processes. Thinking creatively is not an option; it is a requirement. It requires the ability to conceive something beyond the realm of one's immediate experience. In fact, great leaders even tend to operate better when an opportunity disguised as a problem does appear.

The salespeople in my agency have shown significant skill in dealing with objections. When there are no objections, they face their most difficult selling challenge—because they don't know the problem that needs to be addressed. This is when they regain control by asking questions and thinking creatively.

Leaders who learn early in their tenure that brainstorming is one of the most important things they can do to move new ideas along mature much faster than the folks who have to learn that lesson the hard way. Brainstorming's purpose is to produce an abundance of new ideas to address a particular issue; to that end, it's vital to withhold judgment during the brainstorming process. Though quality does count, that can come later in the process. Effective brainstorming is about quantity of ideas first and quality of ideas later. Some good rules for brainstorming:

Leaders also permit idea fluency in that they prod the troops to think up a new way to address an old problem. One popular way to approach an issue is to simply ask, "How would you decide on this issue if you knew you couldn't fail?" That gives participants permission to think outside the box.

Another tool used in the brainstorming process is the forced association approach where the leader deliberately combines desperate ideas to get a novel result.

If we've learned anything about customer driven leadership, it is this: LEADERSHIP IS A LEARNED ART FORM.

Leaders can't pass along that which they don't already possess; no one can teach something that they don't know themselves. For that reason, leadership is empty unless one is committed to the process of learning. There are five important steps to the process to taking possession of an idea:

Like any art form, leadership is not just about doing the right things; it's about doing the right things right. Many of these so-called "right things" go directly to the issue of how the leader inventories his or her "idea shelf" with things that work.