Do you want to be a great leader? Not just somebody who’s good at your job. Not just somebody who gets promoted and earns awards.

But a great leader. Somebody whom others willingly follow — with enthusiasm. Do you want to be a person whose opinions matter? Someone others look up to, and want to be like?

Then, according to Jack Zenger, you need charisma.

At LFI’s September 29 Leadership Briefing, keynote speaker Jack Zenger said that most people believe that great leaders are born, not made. Most people think that it’s hard to learn the skills that make leaders great.

But Zenger believes that charisma, the ability to connect emotionally with others, is the main quality that separates great leaders from the runners-up. Zenger believes it’s a skill that can be learned.

Once mastered, charisma generates a contagious enthusiasm that people find inspiring and motivating. Research shows that inspiring leadership increases cooperation among employees, heightens creativity and ups productivity.

As LFI members, we obviously want to be great leaders. Hearing messages like Jack Zenger’s reinforces the knowledge we need to excel. We’re fortunate that LFI’s support of our goals doesn’t end with our class year, and that we can benefit from LFI involvement through events like the Leadership Briefings.

The last twelve months have been extraordinary. None of us recalls a more challenging time for our economy. We take no solace that Fairfax has been less impacted than many parts of our country. For our vulnerable neighbors, preserving or finding basic needs is critical. Nonprofits face the combination of increased service requests and diminished resources available to meet them.

For LFI and other nonprofits, this is a critical time to look at our mission and the ways we are focused on it. In good times, there is little sense of urgency to fix things or to redesign delivery of services. In times like these, we must focus on our mission and instill innovative ways to fulfill it.

We have realigned our staff to better serve our members, and are launching new initiatives to help the nonprofits do what they do better. Leadership Fairfax will emerge stronger, more relevant, and more responsive to community needs than ever before. Our glass indeed is half full.

— Wayne Hill, CEO and Chief Concierge

With bad news filling inboxes and blazing on websites daily, it’s easy for people to say that leadership development must be put on the back burner for more pressing issues.

We disagree!

Now more than ever it is important for companies to invest in their communities and their people to reap rewards today and to take advantage of what will surely come tomorrow.

During boom times companies can make do with a less than stellar leadership team and as a result can get away with greater leadership risk. But when the economic tide turns, investment in leadership is more critical to the continued prosperity of the company. According to Steven Meredith, Global Knowledge Director at Talent Intelligence “Our research and insights, from advising Global Fortune 500 level companies, indicates that it is more important than ever for organizations to invest in their leadership during recessionary periods so that the business not only survives but emerges stronger than the competition.”

Leadership is more than intuition – it’s education. By enrolling in long-term leadership development classes, such as Leadership Fairfax, Leadership Washington and Leadership Chicago, participants hone and refine their skills among their peers – other leaders — which make them more valuable both as employees and to the company. The contacts and skills that participants learn in their ten-month program change their lives while helping their company’s bottom line.

“People buy people before they buy products and services,” commented Wendy Lemieux, Marketing Director, Leadership Fairfax. “By investing in their people, companies made a strategic investment in their bottom line which pays off in retention, increased influence, connections and sustainable influence in the community.” Using long term leadership classes will ultimately position your company to take advantage when the economy turns.

Or, as Steven Covey put it “Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success; leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall.”