Decision-making is an essential part of leadership; it comes with the job title. A leader’s day is chock-full of decisions both big and small, and sometimes those decisions need to happen quickly while sometimes they need to happen thoroughly—but often, both is needed. However, a leader’s decisions will only go as far as their influence takes them. To be an effective leader, you must possess influence and make good decisions.

In this article, we dig into the importance of decisions and influence, defining what they both look like in leadership and the impact they play in a leader’s effectiveness.

A high level of emotional intelligence (EQ or EI) is not only beneficial to you but also to those around you—because how we engage in the world matters. We all have the capacity to influence but we don’t always understand what that influence looks like. This is why emotional intelligence is key in effective leadership.

As a leader, you have the unique privilege and responsibility to lead people which makes it all the more critical to understand how you’re showing up and how you’re impacting those you lead and serve. And when you lead yourself in strengthening your emotional intelligence, your influence will be positive and your leadership effective. In this article, we discuss the five key components of emotional intelligence and the leadership benefit of each one.

We all know what it feels like to become emotionally triggered—often sparked by an event, a circumstance, or someone’s words. But it’s how we respond in the moment that truly matters. Our ability to control our words and actions following the emotion we experience determines the level of our emotional intelligence (EQ). And the great news is that we can all strengthen and develop our EQ.

In this article, we define emotional intelligence, share why it’s important, and discuss how it can impact your leadership effectiveness.

How we speak to and about ourselves is powerful. We may not always realize it, but we have internal narratives, stories we tell ourselves, playing in our minds—and often on repeat. The key is to discern what those narratives are so that you can stop playing the ones limiting you and reinforce the ones lifting you.

At Building Champions, we believe that just as our phones need regular updates, so do our mindsets because we all have Leadership Operating Systems determining our words, actions, and ultimately, results. In this article, we discuss how a leader’s lifting beliefs can lead to success and how a leader’s limiting beliefs can lead to failure.

Just as your phone or laptop’s operating system (OS) needs regular updates to work out the bugs, increase the processing speed, fix any development errors, and allow for evolutions as technology advances, we too need to maintain our leadership operating systems (LOS). At Building Champions, we believe that what we think about, believe, and feel will show up in our actions and words—and that is why it’s imperative for a leader to regularly assess how they’re doing internally so that they can show up as their best self externally. In this article, we define what we mean by Leadership Operating System, why it’s important to understand it, and what the components are that make it up.

It’s a unique privilege to lead people, and when you’re a coaching leader, one of your main jobs is people development. You view leadership differently and understand that your purpose is to add the most value to the people you lead and to help them improve. But to become a coaching leader, you’ve got to embrace a specific set of skills to help those you lead become their best selves.

In this article, we share seven skills of a coaching leader and explain why they’re necessary to develop if you want to equip those you lead, improve their performance, and create a lasting leadership legacy.

People development is often considered a function of the Human Resources department. But if you lead people, then people development should be one of your top priorities. However, we know that with the fast-paced nature of our lives and careers, it can be so difficult to even define our top priorities when our days feel urgent and hurried. But that’s why approaching leadership differently is so important.

At Building Champions, we believe that coaching leadership is key to transformational leadership. And in this article, we define coaching leadership, discuss why it’s important, and share how you too can become a coaching leader.

You know how people often describe workplace environments as either healthy or toxic? Well, what they’re describing is a company’s culture, the attitudes, words, and actions of the people that work there. And that’s why the health of an organization matters. Whether we realize it or not, we all contribute to the culture of the company where we work. And if you’re a leader of an organization, you have a lot of influence upon your organization’s culture—which is why it’s important to understand what that influence might look like.

In this article, we share three steps for leaders to take toward fostering a healthy organizational culture so that their companies not only become positive environments where people want to work but where people get to grow.

To have a healthy team, you must have healthy team members. And we’re not just talking about physical health because health encompasses far more than that. A team’s overall health is dependent upon the people that form the team—because each person is responsible for how they show up to work. And a healthy person leads themself well despite the inevitable challenges that life and leadership throw their way.

And this is why, at Building Champions, we say that self-leadership precedes team effectiveness—because to lead yourself well, you must be aware of how your inner thoughts drive your outer behaviors. In this article, we discuss how an individual contributes to a team’s health and why it’s vital to maintain a healthy well-being, take accountability for your actions, and work on your mindset.

As a Champion Leader, it’s important to not only be clear on your organization’s vision, but to understand how you can support it. You get to help others see how their daily job functions connect to both the company’s purpose and vision so that they feel engaged and inspired to do their best work. And when you’re practicing Champion Leadership, you’ll be equipped to support those around you and advocate for causes that are bigger than yourself.

In this article, we discuss how the Champion Leadership Effect can transform your organization and inspire your people to positively impact their communities, our society, and even the world.