Personal effectiveness comes from specific intention.  Intention means that you intend to act in a specific way in a specific situation. Listed below are five attributes that effective leaders employ.
 
1.  Forget past injustices. In a couching session, a divorced lady related to me with big tears and much emotion all the details about how abusive her husband was. I asked her when a particular incident had happened. She responded, "20 years ago." She had not learned the principle of release and reach forward; releasing the feeling of despair and actively replacing it with hope by working towards the new desired goal. When she was in the hope mode, she was effective and fun to be around. The despair mode created tension with coworkers.
 
The longer we hold on to an injustice the longer it takes to let it go. Deal with injustices when you first become aware of them. Sometimes it takes help from a friend or a professional counselor. Having high hopes and ongoing positive expectation in your personal and work life makes you more effective.
 
2.  Pride holds back effectiveness. Humility and pride (who we think we are) are in opposition to each other. Pride is boastful, arrogant and brash. Humility is seeing others as more important than you. People are drawn to others that openly display humility. It is easier to relate to someone that has challenges just like you do.
 
A humble person admits their shortcomings and is quick to pass praise on to others. The humble person is tempted to be prideful but chooses not to. Humble leaders have more influence and are effective because they are real. Leadership is situational. During the week sometimes you are the leader; sometimes you are the follower. In either case it is best to be humble.
 
3.  Closing the communication loop dramatically increases effectiveness with others. When you know something that someone else doesn't know, the communication loop is open. For example: You are expecting a special printing paper from your vendor to make a brochure to handout at a client meeting. The paper arrives three days early. You know something others do not know, the paper has arrived. 'Close the communication loop' and immediately inform all involved people about the early delivery. What typically happens is a feeling of relief that the printing paper arrived as planned (actually three days early) and we are on track and no action is required. When the concerned people are notified that the paper arrived early, it gives them more time options in completing the printing job.
 
When you become aware of something that others do not know, but need to know, 'close the communication loop' and be seen as an on-top-of-things communicator. 'Closing communication loop' accomplishes the unstated goal of making others more effective which makes you more effective. 

4.  Take more calculated risks. Continuous quality improvement demands change. Find ways to improve products, services and processes. Ask yourself this question: "How could this be done better?" Small improvements often net big gains. This applies to relationships, customer relations, products, process improvement and resource management. Sometimes improvements are needed on all of these issues.
 
In Seattle Washington, I met a young man who was enthralled with detailing cars. He started working from his parent's home when he was in high school and built a large clientele.  Instead of going to college, he took the risk of launching his business full time. The last time I heard from him, he had several contracts with local car dealers, did work for the general public and employed 40 people! He learned how to make a common task a little better and he thrived where there was no obvious opportunity. 
 
5.  Become more relatable to improve effectiveness with employees.  I recently asked a City Manager of a large city what he thought were some attributes of an effective leader. His response was, "Effective leaders listen with empathy".
 
Empathetic leaders perceive and understand the feelings and attitudes of others. They are good at viewing a situation from the other person's perspective.  Being empathetic involves deliberate intent about how one's actions will impact others. To listen with empathy you must have the intention to do so.