Much like a builder needs tools for each unique project, leaders need tools to lead unique people. The current workforce is full of diversity: Different generations, different cultures, different personalities, different socioeconomic levels, different skill sets and abilities, different lifestyles, different wants/needs from an employer.

In this series, we discuss the various tools a leader needs to become the best leader they can be.

A great leader provides many powerful tangibles for their people. Inspiration. Hope. Recognition. Feedback. And one of the most important tangibles: Direction.

It’s the responsibility of the leader to navigate the team in the right direction for success, which is why a compass is important for all leaders to have inside their tool box.

Using intuition, experience, research, wisdom, and more, the leader’s role is to help the team end up at the destination of achievement, and help the individuals on the team discover their destination of achievement as well.

Two questions a leader should ask themselves each day:

1. What am I doing to ensure our team is successful each day?
2. What am I doing to ensure each person is feeling valued as we achieve success?

Ask yourself the smaller questions each time you finish a project or task:

• Why did things go right?
• Who gets the credit?
• How do we learn from our mistake?
• What can we do better next time?

Never forget: As a leader, the destination of the ship depends on your ability to navigate for yourself, for others, and for the team. As John Maxwell writes in The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, “Anyone can steer the ship, but it takes a leader to chart the course.”