Five Cool Things Leaders Do

1. Find and fund cool projects: Leaders get to find cool projects. When leaders are open to listening to the people inside their organization (often deep, deep inside their organization), they can often find ideas that allow them to create something new, something better, or something that makes a difference for their clients. One of the great things about being a leader is having the checkbook and the ability to put the resources behind those cool ideas.
2. Building leaders: There aren’t too many things cooler than building the next generation of leaders. As a leader, you can help hire future leaders. And when you spot talent, you can give that talent increasing levels of responsibility to help them develop into the leader your organization is going to need. This is your legacy.
3. Helping others to grow. A leader doesn’t only make a difference in the life of future leaders. If she is at her best, she gets to do the work of helping the people she leads grow and develop into their full potential. This work is one of the things that separates the leader from the manager (and a good manager is almost always a good leader).
4. Focusing on the future. So much of what you do in business is about the here and now. There are always urgent issues requiring your attention. But one of the coolest things about being a leader is being able to focus on the future. As a leader you need to spend your time exercising your imagination, and deciding what the future is going to look like. You get to focus on the big picture strategy.
5. Go to war with the status quo. There are plenty of people inside an organization who will do everything in their power to defend the status quo, much of it worth defending. But it takes a leader to decide to make change and overthrow the status quo. Leaders don’t make change for the sake of change. But they do make the changes necessary to help the people and the organization they lead reach its full potential. And what could be cooler than that?

7 Things Warren Buffett Can Teach You About Leadership

The "most successful investor of the 20th century" has a thing or two to teach you about being a great leader. Warren Buffett is a famed philanthropist, business magnate, and sharklike investor. As the CEO and biggest shareholder of Berkshire Hathaway and someone who consistently ranks among the richest people in the world, he's smart, business savvy, and slick, even into his 80s.

However, the "Oracle of Omaha" is also a notoriously frugal spender and reveres value investing. Having pledged to donate 99 percent of his wealth, he's proof that sometimes old-school techniques work. If you're an up-and-coming leader (or just want to be), check out what Buffett can teach you about leadership, wise moves and humility.

1. On risk

"Risk comes from not knowing what you're doing," says Buffett, which means you can do one of two things. Either you can be a big risk taker and gambler, or you can learn what you need to do, play it a little slower, and minimize your risks. Obviously the latter approach is best, but it doesn't lead to instant gratification. Put those multimillion-dollar fantasies on the back burner long enough to get in control of your risk factor.

2. On reputations

"It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you'll do things differently." This is especially true in the digital era, when, if something's in writing or on video, it's forever. You can even take a screencap of a Snapchat, so be diligent when building your reputation--online and off.

Remember Congressman Anthony Weiner getting caught tweeting explicit photos? Yeah, don't be that guy. His reputation is toast.

3. On who you surrounded yourself with 

"It's better to hang out with people better than you. Pick out associates whose behavior is better than yours, and you'll drift in that direction." Birds of a feather flock together, and you're probably not in the position to be anyone's mentor yet. If you surround yourself with better people, they'll inspire you to do better yourself.

As I tell my children, "If you want to soar like an eagle in life, you can't be flocking with the turkeys."

4. On hindsight

"In the business world, the rearview mirror is always clearer than the windshield," quips Buffett. Of course, this is true in every other aspect of your life, too. Stop focusing on that rearview mirror, though, after you've gleaned the necessary lessons from it. Move forward, even if that direction isn't quite as streak-free.

5. On stupid mistakes

"I bought a company in the mid-'90s called Dexter Shoe and paid $400 million for it. And it went to zero. And I gave away about $400 million worth of Berkshire stock, which is probably now worth $400 billion. But I've made lots of dumb decisions. It's part of the game."

No successful person is mistake-free, and that's a good thing. Each stumble is a chance to learn and a warning when you're tempted to do something similar in the future.

6. On knowing when to quit

"Should you find yourself in a chronically leaking boat, energy devoted to changing vessels is likely to be more productive than energy devoted to patching leaks." In other words, ditch the stubbornness and know when to call it quits. Not every project is worth saving.

7. On frugality

Buffett is legendarily frugal. He lives in the same house in Omaha, Nebraska, that he purchased in 1958 for $31,500. He is well known for his frugality, which includes enjoying McDonald's hamburgers and cherry Coke, and his disdain for technology, such as computers and luxury cars. Despite a net worth measured in billions, Buffett earns a base salary of $100,000 a year at Berkshire Hathaway. It's a salary that has not changed in 25 years.

Today, many top leaders take as much as they can and live as extravagantly as possible. More leaders should take a page from the book of Buffett.

Listen to the wisdom of the Oracle of Omaha.

These words of wisdom come from decades of experience, success, and failure. Why make the same mistakes somebody else has already made all over again if you don't have to? With the likes of Buffett doling out advice by the shovelful, take advantage of it--then spend that saved time putting his words into practice.

One CEO Says The Best Leaders Have These 3 Traits

Most great leaders have several traits in common: they're smart and cunning, innovative, and willing to take risks. 

But according to Deborah Harmon, CEO of Artemis Real Estate Partners, the most important characteristics of leaders go deeper than a natural intelligence or penchant for ideas. Harmon told Adam Bryant of the New York Times that the three foundational characteristics of a good leader are "confidence, grit, and a real desire to make a difference."

This belief comes from Harmon's childhood, where she witnessed true grit in her mother. Harmon watched her mother not only raise three kids, but work as a theater producer, moving up from independent work to Off Broadway to Broadway itself. "I watched how hard it was, and she really taught me that there is no such thing as work-life balance," Harmon told the New York Times. But her mother made it work, pushing herself until she accomplished her goals.

Additionally, her father, an investment banker, often brought Harmon to work with him, which taught her an important lesson about confidence and success. "You don't have to have the highest I.Q. in the room, but if you're willing to work harder than everyone else, there's no limit to what you can accomplish," she says. 

For Harmon, being a good leader doesn't come down to the abilities you're born with, but rather how hard you choose to work. "It's not about getting the most glamorous or the most prestigious jobs," she said. "What matters most is where you can learn and grow and have the most responsibility."