Leaders behave in ways that are different. Changing the way you behave as a leader in 2017 can increase your effectiveness and fruitfulness as you seek to honor the one who sends and empowers you.

Here Dan Rockwell share five leadership behaviors for 2017.

Originally posted by Dan Rockwell

5 POWERFUL LEADERSHIP BEHAVIORS ANY LEADER CAN DO IN 2017

#1. Distill challenges and opportunities into one word. Create focus. 

All high performance requires focus. Chasing urgencies dilutes success.

Choose what matters. Ignore what doesn’t matter. (You can’t have it all. You can’t do it all.)

  1. What one thing would you like to do differently today?
  2. What one thing do you need to stop today?
  3. What one thing do you need to keep in mind today?

Distraction is the enemy of high performance.

#2. Seek solutions more than circling problems.

  1. Explore problems 20% of your time. This includes complaining and explaining why things won’t work.
  2. Spend 80% of your time focused on solutions.
  3. Make a list of everything you can’t control on the left side of a piece of piece paper.
  4. Make a list of everything you can control on the right side of a piece of paper.
  5. Answer questions about how are we going to do this with, “Yes.” (Peter Block)

#3. Point out what people are doing well.

  1. Overcome the magnetism of solving problems and fixing people. Success is about leveraging strengths and seizing opportunities.
  2. Celebrate strengths.
  3. Ask, “What would you do?”
  4. Reject negativity. Average talent with optimism is better than exceptional talent with pessimism.

#4. Challenge people to reach higher.  

  1. “I believe you have more in you.”
  2. “How might you challenge yourself?”
  3. “What if you’re selling yourself short?”

#5. Connect.

  1. Leave a bit of yourself with others during conversations. Explain how you feel about someone’s contribution. Don’t simply describe progress. “When I see you doing ‘abc’, it makes me feel ‘xyz’.
  2. Own your weaknesses. You appear to have a grasp on reality when you acknowledge the weaknesses others already see.
  3. Let others help you. You let others know they matter when you appreciate their help.
  4. Ask about the challenges and opportunities others face.