According to a study from Gallup, fully half of all employees in the U.S. have left a job because of problems with their manager.

When founders and CEOs look to hire and promote managers, they want people who exhibit leadership. But how can you exhibit leadership if you're stuck in individual contributor roles? No one reports to you, and you're not even a project manager.

1.Exceptional Leaders know that leadership is influence.

"You are the average of the five people that you spend the most time with. – Jim Rohn"

One of the most under-discussed elements of effective leadership is how fast a leader must learn to stay at peak performance. Most successful leaders never stop learning. In fact, they are voracious learners who are always trying to find ways to improve and enhance their own performance and that of...

First things first: Confidence is not bravado, or swagger, or an overt pretense of bravery. Confidence is not some bold or brash air of self-belief directed at others.

I was at a conference with 50 or so chief learning officers last week and we had a number of discussions about leadership.

Make a list of the 5 leaders you most admire. They can be from business, social media, politics, technology, the sciences, any field. Now ask yourself why you admire them. The chances are high that your admiration is based on more than their accomplishments, impressive as those may be. I’ll bet...

"A superior leader is a person who can bring ordinary people together to achieve extraordinary results." Many years ago, an entrepreneur told me that. He was right.