Following is an excerpt from the book, Words to Action: Building A Leadership Legacy, by Paul Pease, PUBLISHED SEP 7, 2001

Every great leader has an objective and a plan to reach to that objective. What separates the great leaders from the imitators is one simple fact: they lead beyond their lifetime. They don’t measure their success in how much they earned during their tenure. Great leaders don’t build monuments to themselves. Rather, monuments are erected in their name by those they lead.

Anybody can look like a success in good times. It’s the tough times that separate the real leaders from the also-rans. Real leaders know that challenges are a part of the journey to success, and meeting those challenges is what makes a leader worthy. They view it as their job to deal with problems and issues head-on, not duck for cover.

We’re always trying to grasp for the new leadership trends, methods, and philosophies. Let’s mimic Phil Jackson, Pat Riley, Jack Welch, or the Marines. We try to imitate what they do in order to be more effective. But doing things exactly the way they have done them is wrong.

Everything that Phil Jackson, Pat Riley, and Jack Welch have done didn’t turn out right, and they’ll be the first to tell you. But how easy it is for many to conveniently throw out that subtle fact- that leadership isn’t all cut and dried. That there is some experimentation required, some of it succeeding, some of it failing. Many people try to just focus on everything these great leaders did right, and assume that doing these things will work in their own circumstance. But Phil Jackson never won an NBA championship in Chicago without Michael Jordan; and Michael Jordan never won one without Phil Jackson. They needed each other, along with a willing host of support characters, no injuries, and a dosage of luck to succeed.

Each great model we look up to had their own set of circumstances and sequence of events, but without certain other very important (emphasis on very important) sets of circumstances, we would have never heard of these people in the circles we now discuss them. We love to look at Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and marvel at the great wealth generated by the new wave of technology. But when we think about Nathan B. Stubblefield, who patented the cell phone, do we think of success and wealth? Absolutely not. Nathan B. Stubblefield patented the cell phone in 1906 and died penniless.

Successful leadership isn’t purely circumstantial, either. Given the same set of circumstances, many would have failed where Pat Riley, Phil Jackson, and Jack Welch succeeded. What is common among all successful leaders is that their legacy lives beyond their moments in the sun. In fact, many great leaders are not realized as being such until they are past their tenure. In 1960, John Kennedy announced that America would put a man on the moon by the end of the 60’s. He set in motion the program to make that dream a reality, and nearly six years after John Kennedy died, Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon.

Look at the founding of the United States of America. An incredible cast of leaders. Hamilton, Franklin, Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Payne, Hancock, - the list goes on and on. All different in their styles, their roles, and their effectiveness, but all united to a great cause that not only freed themselves, but set a nation’s government on the right path for the next 230 years plus. That’s visionary leadership.

Let’s not get caught up in the measurement game when we scale the effectiveness of a leader. True leadership isn’t based on what is taken; it is based on what is given. It is based on creating a lasting legacy, not a fleeting moment or erecting a self-serving monument.

One thing is for certain: you will never be able to duplicate any great legendary leader’s path. You must find your own. You can, however, master a few fundamental principals that all great leaders have in common. They have a vision for the future and a plan to reach the vision. Through effective communication, they forge teams to execute the plan. They adapt, learn, and always strive to get better, realizing that their vision isn’t always right, but they’re not afraid of the dark. Stumbling doesn’t bother them, for it is through the darkness that true leaders light the path for others to follow.