What is it that good leaders, strong leaders, successful leaders do that separates them from others who claim to be in charge? They lead.

Leaders take action and make decisions in the face of opportunity as well as adversity. Sometimes the decisions they must make are met with opposition, disagreement and discontent. But the strong leader puts their stake in the ground, confident that they are absolutely doing the right thing for all those in their care.

Even when difficult actions need to be taken, there will be dissention among the ranks. Once all the dust settles, and regardless of how rough the decisions or actions may have been for some of the team to take, most will respect and appreciate that at least there was one person in charge who had what it takes to make the call.

Because you know how it goes. We have all been in situations where the person we are looking to for direction becomes frozen with indecision or suffering from something called ‘paralysis by analysis’ when they over think the action required or waffle on the decision until they get so confused they refuse to commit.

I’ll bet that you can think of a time where maybe the outcome could have been different if the person responsible for providing direction would have acted with more courage and decisiveness. I’ll bet that you can also think of a time when you perhaps didn’t agree with the decisions being made, and no matter how angry or disappointed you were, even now in retrospect you can look back and know it was the right thing for that person to do at that time. And lastly, I am sure you can reflect on a time when you were the one who was faced with making a leadership decision and wish you would have taken action sooner or had been more decisive yourself.

It’s OK if you find yourself relating to all of the scenarios above, even if you were the one that could have done a better job yourself, because one of the decisions good leaders, strong leaders, and successful leaders make is a decision to commit to learning from all situations they face, decisions they have made, and actions they have taken.

For those aspiring to assume a leadership role and all of the new emerging leaders out there, one of the best first lessons that can be learned and applied is the ability to make a decision or take action. Not uncalculated or irresponsible chances, but intelligent and educated choices based on the greater good for the company, the family, the church, the school, the team, the community, the government, and the people.

I would love to hear all about what you expect from your leadership team and how you plan to become a take action yourself at gotonorton@gmail.com. Go ahead, take the lead this week in making it a better than good week.

Michael Norton, a resident of Highlands Ranch, is the former president of the Zig Ziglar organization and CEO and founder of www.candogo.com.