"You do not merely want to be considered just the best of the best. You want to be considered the only one who does what you do." - Jerry Garcia

What is the leadership zone?

For purposes of this article, think of "The Zone" as an emotion you feel when you are at your very best.

For example, think back to a time when everything seemed to be going just right, just the way you had intended ? or perhaps even better than you had intended.

The Zone personifies "the thrill of victory". The zone is a place where great leaders live every day ? on purpose. These leaders ensure that they stay "in the zone", but at any point that they are not in the zone, it doesn't take them long to recognize and remedy the situation.

They do what's necessary to get back into the zone because they know that that is where all the action is.

Once you live in the zone for any length of time, you become quickly "addicted" to living there. In this particular case "addiction" can be considered a good thing.

Okay, let's get more specific now about how each of us can live in the leadership zone.

First, we must identify what high-leverage activities we need to be putting our time and energy towards, in order to achieve the results we seek. These high-leverage activities must take up the bulk of our time so that we can experience the ultimate rewards.

We must shun unnecessary email, paperwork and any other "low-result activities" that can easily be addressed by others ? leaving us free to maximize our time on the activities that truly matter the most.

The following activities are examples of "zone activities", where the rubber meets the proverbial road: I.e., making prospect calls, developing new referral sources, marketing your product effectively, ensuring quality delivery of customer service, planning for expansion of your business, etc.

The preceding examples of high-leverage activities are what makes the difference in ones success? they take a salesperson and/or an organization from simply being good, to truly being GREAT.

This is what we mean when we say you must "LIVE where the rubber meets the road". Ensure your total fulfillment in your work and in your life, by maximizing those high-leverage activities that makes the difference in your results.

In doing so, your passion for your work will grow and you will experience and enjoy more fully the fruits of your labor.

Your feelings of success, of pride, of accomplishment and of joy ? will be the signals you will quickly come to recognize as "Living In The Zone".

"Most misfortunes are the results of misused time." - Napoleon Hill

Richard Gorham is the founder and President of Leadership-Tools, Inc. His web site, http://www.leadership-tools.com is dedicated to providing free tools and resources for today's aspiring leaders. Offering high-quality tools in the areas of Business Planning, Leadership Development, Customer Service, Sales Management and Team Building.