The Pillars of Success

Dale Carnegie asserted "Success is a journey not a destination."

This idea suggests a moving target. Even those on top of the world still seem to be reaching for success. I view success as being gendered by four key ideas.

Lead - Leadership expert John C. Maxwell can be most commonly quoted "Everything rises and falls on leadership." You can trace the rise and demise of every country, company and civilization to leadership. Being able to connect, inspire, motivate and lead people is the most important pillar of success. I've often challenged audiences to name someone of great success who did so alone. This idea is impossible. Success is a collective effort influenced by great leaders.

Engage - Gone are the ways where leaders can sit in their corner office and effectively lead. In order for a leader to be successful, they must engage with those around them. Autocratic leadership styles lead to resentment, missed leadership opportunities, and degradation of morale. Engagement is a leader’s number one responsibility.

Advise - Ponder a world where the most astute minds kept knowledge to themselves. When you advise others, you are transcending time by passing knowledge from one generation to the next. In the world of infinite technological connections, we often see the world as "fire and forget." E-mail has possibly been the biggest degrader of personable leadership. We hire and fire, propagate, delegate and communicate, through e-mail more now than ever. The movie Up in the Air is a great assessment of how we've lost the human touch.

Delegate - One of the most powerful tools of success. From my observation, many managers, executives, even CEOs don't know how to delegate properly. In a dog eat dog world, our economy has caused our minds to enter a dementia of self preservation. Many are willing to do whatever it takes to keep their jobs, status quo, and personal priorities in check. And many are not willing to put work in the hands of others. Some are even willing to trade their personal integrity to manipulate perception. Understanding the importance of delegation is an entire blog in itself.

The pillars of success, Lead, Engage, Advise, and Delegate can be easily remembered by the acronym LEAD. Ironically, leadership is the most important aspect of success. In order to succeed, master the four pillars of success. Always remember, success is a journey not a destination.