I Can: Acquire new insights into becoming more effective as a leader. Apply them to your work and life. Practice until mastered. Continue the process indefinitely.

Developing more effective leadership is a hugely broad subject and so is the I Can answer. That answer is probably not a good one although the process steps are valid.

I Can't: Because developing more effective leadership is so general, it is necessary to break it down into its basic components and work with those. Those components include the acquisition of knowledge, developing new insights, changing how you think and what you do, and practicing until mastery is achieved.

Acquisition of Knowledge: The conscious and deliberate quest of knowledge about all aspects of leadership is essential. Knowledge is the great separator between the mediocre and the exceptional.

I'll mention a few of the hundreds of areas where in-depth knowledge is important: speaking, listening, dialoguing, exercising, eating, dressing, supervising, motivating, writing, reading, working, technical area of expertise, psychology, selling, negotiating, and the list continues.

How do you get this knowledge - reading books and magazines, listening to educational CDs, watching educational Videos or TV, asking questions, interviewing experts at lunch, observing people and reflecting on your experiences.

Developing Insights: In the acquisition of knowledge, you will find certain pieces of information that will catch your attention and develop an ah-ha experience. You come to realize that what struck you could be valuable information for you in particular.

Don't neglect these insights but record them in an Insight Log. If you don't, what will happen? You will forget each insight and they all becomes worthless.

Changing How You Think: Application of your insights to your work and life is the action that begins to develop more effective leadership. Applying what you learn and your insights to how you think is critical to making the changes you seek. Only if you change your thinking and beliefs will your behaviors change. Changing your behaviors is essential to developing more effective leadership.

Changing What You Do: As your thinking and beliefs change, so will what you do. You will find yourself engaged in new more effective actions at work and in your life. Your new actions and behaviors will be directly linked to getting new results and will be recognized as exercising more effective leadership. Insight without application is only entertainment! You want more than entertainment, don't you?

Practice until Mastered: Practicing the thoughts, actions, and behaviors that bring you more effective results will lead to developing more effective leadership skills, competencies, and attitudes.

This process is actually easy. It is a daily endeavor and includes baby steps. Today, acquire knowledge until you develop one clear insight into how you could improve your work and life. Apply that insight to your thinking and actions today and for at least 21 days (track performing your daily application).

Watch as you develop another effective skill to add to your collections of leadership skills. Observe and celebrate the new results that you will receive from developing more effective leadership skills.

Continue this process until you die. I guarantee that you will have an unbelievable rewarding life from the results you will generate with this daily practice.