Leaders understand that listening is essential to their effectiveness. That’s why those individuals who genuinely deserve the distinction listen actively.

Leaders understand, too, that the quality of their every decision reflects their judgment, core values and principles as well as their degree of faithfulness to a consistently objective decision process, including:

•The extent, and how well, they actually listened;

•The accuracy and completeness of all input; and

•How completely they controlled their own propensities.

That’s why genuine leaders are deliberately tough minded on themselves while always gracious, and almost always patient, with other people.

And, leaders understand that they must re-qualify everyday, in every way, to continuously earn the distinction and mantle of leadership. That’s why, while aspiring individuals pursue learning the “what and how” of leadership in order to earn the opportunity to begin; those deemed emerging leaders practice both the “what and how” while learning the “why” and accepting the full responsibilities of leadership.

We can discover leaders in all arenas of life and society. Some may be captains of industry. Some may live next door to you. Some are captains and crew aboard ships and planes while others may sit in the cubicle next to you.

Some of these leaders will have positions and titles that convey authority within an organization or emanating from governmental while others may not. However, genuine leaders do not need titles to gain the respect of their peers or other people.

Yes, no matter where we look, we can find genuine leaders. I believe we can even find some in Washington, D.C. What about you?

Perhaps, we would find only a few real leaders, especially, if the criteria we used was no in line with the criteria mentioned above. But, we would be certain to find many more if the criteria we used requires only a position title.

So, let’s address the leadership issue at hand by turning our focus on the 100 U.S. Senators and the 435 U.S. Representatives, each with a title granted to them by voters within the last two to six years.

Based on your chosen criteria and upon what you’ve seen and heard these last weeks and months approaching the Congressional recess, in your judgment:

•How many incumbents consistently listen?

•How many incumbents heed constituents’ input?

•And, finally, how many incumbents do you assess as a genuine leader?

In turn, incumbents might be wise, in the spirit of the baseball season, to keep in mind the concept of three strikes and notice that growing numbers of citizen constituents are assuming the role of umpire.

Richard Olivastro is president of Olivastro Communications, a professional member of the National Speakers Association and founder Citizens For Change. He can be reached at Rich@Olivastro.NET or 877.RichSpeaks.