Today is the birthday of the first US President, George Washington. Also it is the birthday of Sir Baden Powell, the founder of Boy Scouts. Both were leaders in their own right. When I reflect on the word leader, I like to use this acrostic to give my definition.

L – Laughter. A good leader strives to use humor in their everyday work and personal life. If they aren’t naturally funny, they can learn how to use humor to create a better work place or organization. They can harness the talents of the funny people they work with. Humor is a known endorphin and it is perfectly legal in all 50 states! I read in the New England Journal of Medicine, “20 seconds of hearty laughter is better for you physiologically than 3 minutes on a rowing machine”. In my own non-scientific survey of people in the volunteer and auxiliary field, 100% of the respondents would rather laugh than spend any time on a rowing machine. Laughter creates a more positive work environment and helps open the doors of creative thinking. My friend and motivational speaker Karyn Buxman travels the country speaking to organizations about the power of humor (BTW, she is really funny and reminds me of Meg Ryan).

E - Example – Leaders talk the talk and walk the walk. They do what the say they are going to do. They work along side their people. They don’t ask anyone to do anything that they haven’t done or aren’t willing to try. Early in my career, I worked for the IBM Corporation. The last working day of the month was always stressful as the sales representatives were always trying to place computer orders to make their quotas. I worked as the sales reps’ order processing contact by placing orders for them. My manager would always bring in donuts on this stress filled day. It helped set the stage for the day and most importantly, this small gesture communicated care. He would also come out of his office and sit with us helping to process orders and asked who needed help. This was one of the many ways he demonstrated the positive aspects of leadership. To this day, I still hold him up as one of the best managers I ever had the pleasure of knowing.

A – Attitude. There are few things more important in life and work than a positive attitude and the ability to turn negative a situation around. It’s not a question of whether difficult things are going to occur in our lives. The question is, “How do we respond when those things happen?” Recently, I interviewed a top performer in insurance sales. She was one of the most amazing managers and leaders I have ever known. She told me in the interview that everything that happens to you happens for a reason. Her quote is “On the other side of adversity, is ALWAYS something better”. Sometimes that is hard to apply when life deals you a difficult hand. The day after something happens is usually not the best time to think about this. I have found over and over there is truth in that statement. It is difficult to accept while experiencing adversity, but encouraging to know that something good or even great can come from something really bad. Try it out. A leader can’t change anyone but they can change their response to a situation. Price Prichett, author and consultant from Dallas, TX says, “Higher management can end up having to do things that are hard for people to accept. This doesn’t mean that whoever is in charge should carry the burden of responsibility to pump you back up and give you a positive attitude.”

D - Discipline – Several year ago, Sport Illustrated conducted a survey of the top professional athletes in the world, an astonishing statistic was revealed. The time differential that separated the #1 professional athlete in the world from the #100 was as little as seven tenths of a second. However the #1 athlete had an income of as high as 5,300% greater. I am convinced that part of the difference was discipline. A suspect that the #1 athlete did things every day with greater focus and discipline. Winners in sports, politics, and in business are disciplined. They do things that others aren’t doing and they do these things everyday. It is focusing on the little things that make effective leaders.

E - Execution – Many times in my career I have suffered from paralysis of analysis. I have surveyed too much, had too many focus groups, tried to make everyone happy, waited to see what others will think, etc. Sometimes leaders must execute ideas without testing them. Perhaps they needed to approach some things like my son did when he was four years old. He would start races with me by saying, “Ready, go, set.” His attitude was let’s just do it. We’ll figure out the specifics later. In his book Selling the Invisible, Harry Beckwith says, “Execute passionately. Marginal tactics executed passionately almost always will outperform brilliant tactics executed marginally. I think Beckwith and my son are right – Ready, go, set!

R - Respect – When I graduated from college, I started my career with the IBM Corporation where one of the platitudes was “Respect for the Individual”. While it was posted everywhere, it wasn’t lived by everyone. One manager I knew had respect for those who played golf together on weekends, those who participated in the weekly football pool and those who had lunch together regularly. In other words, he respected those people who conformed to the way he thought, believed, and lived. We didn’t think alike but we didn’t need to to have mutual respect. You don’t have to agree with your team, coworkers, friends, or family; you just need to respect them. Abraham Lincoln once said, “I don’t like that man, I better get to know him better.” What a wise and respectful motto to have.

To me, being an effective leader is:

L – Learning to use Laughter to lead
E – Being an Example
A – Maintaining a great Attitude
D – Having daily Discipline
E – Executing with excellence
R – Treating everyone with Respect

Arguably, these are all simple things. But as Jan Carlson, CEO of Scandinavian Airlines said, “It’s not doing one thing 1000% better, it’s doing a 1000 things 1% better.” Jan should know. He took an airline from losing over 20 million a year to gaining a profit of over 60 million. You might not turn an airline around, but by using these skills, you can lead a team, department, or organization to a very positive outcome.

Tim Richardson is an inspirational speaker who speaks about how giving increases employee morale, lowers employee turnover, increases customer loyalty and creates higher profits for Fortune 500 companies, associations, and national conventions. He is the founder of the The Worlds Biggest Blog Party an event which will connect bloggers from all over the world to raise money for charity. He is also founder and president of the Bill Walter Melanoma Research Fund. For more information on Tim, go to www.TimRichardson.com