A spoonbill is just a spoonbill until it eats a diet of crustaceans and red algae. A diet of shrimp and crayfish produces the rich colors shown by the pictured roseate spoonbill.

We are what we eat.

As leaders, we are the sum of every leader we have followed, every book we've read and every class or seminar we've attended.

Leaders are made through experiences and developed through reading and training. The quantity of leadership training available is astounding. The blogosphere is populated with hundreds of blogs on the topic. Training is available at almost any college or university online or through continuing education. There is no reason for anyone to feel they need money to learn about leadership.

It's the experiences that are costly. I believe I have learned something from everyone I've ever had the privilege to lead. Unfortunately, some of what I learned came at the expense of relationships. It seems very difficult to sustain long-term relationships while also delivering optimum results. Perhaps the set is mutually exclusive.

The goal of a leader is not about making friends. This fact is hard on a man-pleaser. My formative years in leadership were rooted in a quest to be liked, understood and valued. The more I was liked the less productive I seemed to be.

Leaders are results focused. The metric is growth—of something. It could be a growth of knowledge, revenue or attendance but growth is a sign that a leader is at work. 

Influence is measurable.

The care and feeding of a leader must include experiential learning not simply surviving. Highly effective leaders have insatiable appetites for the study of leadership.

Roseate leaders shine brightly.

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Today's Scripture

"A wise man will hear and will increase learning, and a man of understanding will attain wise counsel" (Prov. 1:5).

Platform Tip No. 125

Marketing and more specifically platform building are not "paint by numbers" experiences.

If they were, we would all end up with exactly the same paintings using exactly the same colors.

Every platform must be unique to the target audience. The needs of an audience are met through platform work.

The message is one of a kind. No one else delivers the message in quite the same way. No one else is willing to expend the effort to deliver the message with frequency.

A legacy platform seems to have been built with ease. It looks so simple. But it was built with pains of labor.

Painting by numbers is very easy but delivers very unsatisfying results.

Do you want to learn more about developing your personal platform?

For my free eBook 7 Reasons Your Organization Suffers from Marketing Malpractice, plus 3 Things to do NOW to Prevent Further Damage, click here.

Dr. Steve Greene is the publisher and executive vice president of the media group at Charisma Media and executive producer of the Charisma Podcast Network. His book, Love Leads: The Spiritual Connection Between Your Relationships and Productivity, is now available.

Leaders, Dr. Greene wants to help you understand the spiritual connection between relationships and productivity. Read his new blog, here.

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