The 8 C’s of a High Impact Leader

A One Degree high impact leader is much more than just having power, money or position. A One Degree leader influences people to action…to commitment…to achieve their optimum performance…and to have a strong passion to go beyond their normal abilities. Influence achieves goals, builds effective teams, resolves differences, and maximizes your objectives. As you review the basic 8 C’s of a One Degree high impact leader, where do you “C” yourself?

1. Character
Robert Cook: “There is no substitute for character; you can buy brains, but you cannot buy character.” A great team – family – marriage – business – ministry must be built upon being a person of great character. “Leadership is a potent combination of strategy and character. But if you must be without one, be without the strategy.” Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf

2. Conviction
One Degree high impact leaders lead with an unwavering conviction about their purpose and calling. When the tough times come…when opposition rises up against you…when weariness attacks your whole being…when it looks impossible to continue…it is your conviction that drive you to victory. Every powerful leader – good or bad — throughout history was a person of deep un-moveable conviction and belief in what they are called to accomplish.

3. Comprehension
Your comprehension is our ability and willingness to listen and learn to others. The ability to truly comprehend or understand what people are trying to communicate to you will affect how you communicate back! Most leaders are the hard hitting ‘A personality’ that have strong opinions and are solution oriented. The end result many times is that they are not listening to the wisdom and counsel of their people.

Another element is carefully listening and evaluating what staff say about others…is it just idle gossip, their personal opinion or truth. Comprehending exactly what people are saying will help you not to jump to wrong conclusions but to effectively evaluate your proper response. The more we understand what people are saying the greater impact we’ll have with them.

4. Communicate
Your ability to positively impact people is strongly dependent upon how well you clearly articulate the ministries vision/ goals, define your team’s tasks/responsibilities, effectively communicate what you expect your people to do or not to do. Lack of concise clear communication leads to misunderstanding, confusion and ultimately conflict. There is a big difference between talking and ‘communicating’ where all parties have a clear understanding. Effective communication results in true understanding!

5. Compassion
Genuine concern and compassion makes a huge difference on the people around us. You will never have influence with people who believe you don’t care about them. The old proverb is so true…people don’t care how much you know but how much you care.”

6. Competence
When people believe that you are a capable leader, you will have their respect. The higher the level of respect — the higher your level of influence will be on people. Many so called ‘leaders’ that are incompetent are really ‘impeders’ due to their lack of leadership competence. In other words, their incompetence impedes the growth of the ministry. The level your ministry grows is in direct proportion to your level of personal growth to lead them. Never stop learning…never stop improving…never stop growing in every aspect of your life!

7. Confidence
People place great value on genuine confidence. Being able to project confidence is critical to influencing others especially tough times of uncertainty. However, be cautious not to project arrogance! Godly self-confidence energizes and gives people the courage to stretch to new tasks…take risks…and achieve more than they at first believed they could.

8. Cheerleader
The cheerleader encourages and cheers people to achieve greater achievements and attain success. Compliment your team for a job well done…build people up…encourage them….fire them up with enthusiasm! Look for the positive and good that people do! Remember, people like to be around cheerful, enthusiastic people. Your sense of humor even in the tough times will help cheer people on during their tough times at work, in their relationships and in their family. This quality is irresistibly attractive to people.