11 Leadership and Excellence Truths

What do we mean by "leadership" and why is it important?

1. By “leadership” we mean influence for the greater good, earned by service to others, springing from hearts that are committed and concerned with making things better for all. 
2. Leadership is exercised through earned authority rather than wielded power: through being worthy of trust rather than through possessing titles. 
3. Leadership means having impact where we are, and moving toward where we aspire to be. It is exercised amongst us, rather than in front of us. 
4. Leadership is playing, with skill, the hand we are dealt rather than doing lesser things, while we wish for advantages we don’t hold. It is being learners rather than victims. 
5. Leadership can only be accomplished by those who are present, working on the situations with which they are presented. 
6. Leadership is being a blessing to our patients, our coworkers, our learners, our authorities, and neighbors at home, and at work. 
7. Leadership is influence.

What do we mean by "excellence" and how does it relate to leadership?

1. By “excellence,” we mean that we aspire to something better, something fuller, something more meaningful.  
2. Excellence is a passion for mastery that we might serve others well, and find our work to be a crescendo of value on a scale that doesn’t end. 
3. Excellence is where our work becomes the expression of our deepest values, where every duty has dignity. It is something we pursue not with complacency but determination, not through entitlement but commitment, not just with our gifts but with our grit. 
4. Excellence is a way of life that never gets old.

Leadership and excellence: for the good of one another and for the good of all.