Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Alan Shelton on Awakened Leadership. Alan is a leadership coach, blogger, speaker, and the author of Awakened Leadership: Beyond Self-Mastery. The idea behind Awakened Leadership is to transcend beyond trained behaviors to awareness, and lead a life of authentic leadership. In other words, to be a more effective leader, you have to be more of who you already are.

We can defeat or mitigate decision fatigue with proven practices. We can learn from business executives, air force fighter pilots, fire-fighters, doctors, and intense knowledge work, like software development.

The words we use and the words we choose can shape our moments and our lives. Have you ever experienced a great leader who never get stuck? They are always asking things like, “What’s the opportunity?” or “What the next step?” or “How can we use this?’

Practice your leadership in the moment. A skilled leader knows when to provide more help with the task. A skilled leader also knows when to provide more encouragement or motivation.

Empower people to seek or create their own enthusiasm from the inside out. It’s a great thing when somebody or something lights our fire. But, it’s a lot more empowering if you create your own enthusiasm.

This is my roundup of top blogs for insight and action. The Web is a big place, but a lot of roads lead to the same town. Collectively, this collection of top blogs helps equip you with “skills to pay the bills and lead a better life.” You’ll find it’s a mash up. The mix includes: business skills, continuous learning, entrepreneurism, fun, leadership, personal development, productivity, strategy, technology, thinking skills, and trends.

I finished sweeping my Leadership Books list. It took a while to update it, but I think it reflects a good set of leadership books by key categories now.

This is my collection of leadership quotes drawing from John Maxwell, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Sun Tzu, and more. It’s wisdom of the ages and modern sages, all focused on the topic of leadership. Use these quotes to add to your own repertoire of leadership knowledge.

This is my collection of Seth Godin quotes. They’ll make you think and ponder as you wonder around from one idea to the next. Seth’s sweet spot is marketing but his quotes easily span business, change, greatness, innovation, leadership, mediocrity, and strategy.

This is a collection of John Maxwell quotes you can use to inspire yourself and others.

As a leader, people put their hopes, their dreams, and their fears in you. You are the container of their intangibles.

This is a collection of my favorite Mohandas Gandhi quotes. When I think of Gandhi, I think of non-violence, compassion, conviction, truth, service and sacrifice. He set the gold standard for leading with heart.

Editor’s note: This is a guest post from David Straker on how to influence and change behavior. David is an expert on influence and change.  He is the creator of ChangingMinds.org and author of  Changing Minds: In Detail, where he shares his wealth of insight and action on the art of change.
Not very long ago, David and I had been discussing effective ways to persuade.  I had said to David that a rule that worked for me is, “Win the heart, and the mind follows.”
David responded that where …

Managing change and the art of change management. Find out the best lessons learned in managing change from one of the world’s leading experts.

Keep virtuous cycles going and abort vicious cycles early. The little wins each day keep you going and add up over time. The same is true of setbacks.

There is something amazingly powerful about taking decisive action. It’s like flipping a switch and deciding it will be so. It’s a completely different experience than waffling or wading through the jungle of indecision.

You can dramatically shape a positive inner work life if you know what the key catalysts are. Catalysts are powerful ways to influence a positive inner work life. When people have a positive inner work life, they are more creative and productive.

Steve Jobs paved a powerful path of innovation, excellence, passion, and prosperity. These are my 25 lessons learned from Steve Jobs.

Knowing how to V-Team with skill helps you make things happen. It’s also one of the best ways to scale your impact. When you partner and pair with other people, you can bite off more than you can chew alone. With a V-Team, you have a team of capabilities versus a team of one.

This is a leadership assessment you can use to assess yourself against effective leadership practices. This leadership checklist organizes leadership qualities, leadership habits, and leadership practices into the following categories: action, change, communication, decisions, influence, motivation, problem solving, self-awareness, teamwork, and vision.