Regardless of your experience level,  it's healthy and self-motivating to recognize that we are never done learning and growing as leaders. A hunger for learning is rocket fuel for the high performance leaders I work with in my practice.

One CEO offered, "My ability to lead effectively is a function of how hungry I am to keep learning and how willing I am to shut-up and listen in the process."

An SVP offered: "The higher I've risen on the corporate ladder, the more I've recognized how imperfect I am as a leader. Learning and improving are everyday activities for me."

Yet another professional heading up a major product development effort reflected on what keeps her loving her role and learning: "I thought I knew what it meant to lead people in my roles. I'm an engineer...and who better to lead engineers. I was wrong...at least about the knowing part. I've had to completely rethink my approach to people and work, and I'm reminded of how little I truly know about leading every single day."

Starting every day with the right attitude...both about the day's tasks and about the opportunity to learn is something I see in every high performance leader.

5 Ideas to Boost Your Daily Leadership Learning:

1. Prepare your attitude before you walk in the door. Leave the traffic ticket, the spilled coffee, the home challenges and everything behind once you hit the door. Remember, your job isn't about you.

2. Frequently ask and act on these 3 simple but powerful questions: What's working? What's not? What do you need me to do? And then do something with the insights.  

3. Take the initiative to solicit feedback on your leadership performance. If you perceive people are uncomfortable shooting straight with you, conduct an anonymous survey. Assess the results by person and across questions and identify areas to focus on immediately. Redo the survey in a few months. (Note: If you would like my suggestions on key survey questions, send me an e-mail.)

4. Conduct at least one professional development conversation per day. If you don't have time, schedule it over lunch. It's amazing how talking with and supporting others for professional development stimulates those thoughts about ourselves.  

5. Read 1 book every month on something related to leadership. And remember, the best books on leadership aren't in the business section of your bookstore or library. They're in biography and history.

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The right attitude backed by deliberate actions to assess and improve your performance add up to growth as a leader. What's stopping you from improving today?

One definition of self-esteem reflects, "confidence in one's own worth or abilities." Another source, psychologist and author, Dr. Nathaniel Branden, offers: "Self-esteem is the experience of being competent to cope with the basic challenges of life and being worthy of happiness."

While typically not a topic discussed over coffee, many leaders struggle with issues of low self-esteem.

They question their abilities to cope with the problems at hand, they often doubt they are worthy of the position of leadership they occupy, and they most definitely agonize quietly over much of their professional existence. 

A good number worry and wait for that point in time when they'll be "outed" as leadership frauds. (Of course, they're not frauds, but their insecurities cause them to doubt their own abilities.) Still others manifest their low self-esteem with over-the-top aggressiveness and strong controlling behaviors.

Regardless of how the self-esteem issue is expressed, the sufferers struggle with a debilitating level of self-doubt. Unfounded criticism and minor setbacks easily derail the positive thought train. Instead of pursuing success, the leader with low self-esteem settles for a kind of tortured survival.

The "self-esteem" issue is an intensely personal topic that often merits coaching and in extreme cases, professional counseling. For those with more of a nagging sense of self-doubt, here are three ideas for re-setting the positive thought train:

1. Recognize that you're not alone. The greatest historical figures and leaders throughout history struggled with self-doubt, and many of the most outwardly confident leaders battle this same issue in private. You are most definitely not alone.

2. Cultivate "bigger purpose" thinking about your job. Your focus on a large and compelling mission will promote action and help set priorities. It also sets the stage for self-esteem reinforcing behaviors and achievements.

I crafted my Leader's Charter (published in my book, Practical Lessons in Leadership) to remind me of my true role as a leader and serve as my "bigger purpose." Leaders in my workshops all create their own Charter, and I encourage them to keep it visible for all to see and to remember to spend a few moments every morning thinking about their purpose beyond getting to the next meeting. Here's my version:  

The Leader's Charter:

Your primary role as a leader is to:

• Create an environment that facilitates high individual and team performance
• Support innovation in process, programs and approaches
• Encourage collaboration where necessary and...
• Promote the development of your associates in roles that leverage their talents and that challenge them to pursue new and greater accomplishments.

 With all of that "purpose" to focus on, it's hard to spend time wondering whether you are up to the job. Your actions and approaches towards others are inherent in The Charter. And as you live your day(s) according to the concepts, you cannot help but produce small victories. These small victories are rocket-fuel for self-esteem.

3. Small victories count! Keep tabs on yours. Keep a list of the small victories to reinforce your growing self-esteem and good attitude.  And remember to share the wealth by celebrating or praising the positive accomplishments of others.  Your positive praise helps others build their own self-esteem as well.

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Don't shirk your responsibility to work on your own self-esteem. It's a human issue...and it's one that is critically important to your professional growth. And it's only tackled through deliberate actions that knock out the negatives and self-doubt.

Beyond Performance-How Great Organizations Build Ultimate Competitive Advantage by Scott Keller and Colin Price.  

This easy read helps us all understand the keys to achieving and sustaining organizational health.  

The work by Colin and Price and their many colleagues is perhaps the most comprehensive research completed to date on why some organizations thrive and others flail and fail.