Everything rises and falls on leadership, that’s what John Maxwell says, and it is true in all we do. The true measure of leadership is influence. Your leadership effectiveness is directly relative to your ability to influence others, and it’s earned by example, not title.

You have to first have the internal fortitude to influence and inspire yourself to believe higher. The higher you believe, the higher you will reach. Then once you believe at the highest levels possible, you then put the energy and effort into learning to do what you need to do in order to magnify and amplify at the highest levels possible your magnitude of impact through operational effectiveness.

Change is not easy. In fact, the more you try to grow to become better at what you do, the increments become that much harder. If you can’t influence yourself to grow through trial, tribulation, and error, by having an open mind and reaching further tomorrow than you did today and really pushing yourself to grow — then how can you expect yourself to be an example to others?