In my spare time, I volunteer as an advisor for a collegiate leadership organization.  We have chapters at 220 colleges across North America, and I work with the undergraduates at Stanford University.

As a men's leadership organization, they spend a lot of time learning from alumni who are now NFL coaches, members of Congress, CEO's, university professors, actors, etc.  It has been an amazing experience to gain exposure to each of their unique vantage points on time-tested subjects like integrity, ambition and excellence.  In all of the books that I have read on leadership, I have never heard it described as concisely and accurately as one of our alumni (a highly-successful former CEO and a Harvard Business School professor) put it:  "Leadership is character-in-action."

It's such a simple, yet thoughtful, definition. Leadership is not just a trait that people possess.  It's not a system of rhetoric or "a certain je ne sais quoi."  It's not a particular occupation, title, or symbol of status.  Leadership is simply living evidence of people who make the "right" decisions over and over again.  Your best leader might not be at the top of your company, organization or family.  He/she might be on his/her way up the ladder right now.  And, in the spirit of mentorship, he/she is probably being chased up that ladder by an even-better protégé.

As I am currently working to build our sales team here at WhatCounts, I am seeking people who will bring their proven leadership skills to our company.  It's a daunting task!  Anyone can put a good spin on a resume and anyone can don their best face for an interview, especially after a few years in sales.  But how do you truly know about that person's character?  In each moment of decision with a team member, a customer, a partner, etc, how can I predict which action he/she will take?  The value of personal connections and references is simply immeasurable.

I would venture to say that the rarest leadership quality in today's society is the ability to create, develop and sustain a successful values-based culture within an organization.  Perhaps it is one person's character-in-action that is required to spark another person's character-in-action.  Whether we sell communications platforms, shoes, or widgets...at the end of the day, the most important contribution that we bring to the marketplace is leadership.