Life would certainly be a lot easier if our employees and colleagues agreed with everything we said or did.

However, true life intervenes and creates the many challenges we face when trying to influence others to come alongside with our ideas. These challenges are even more prevalent today as top-down, authoritative leadership continues to give way to widespread teamwork.

Creating an Execution Culture is all about getting things done through people. In order to do that, you need to get your senior team on the same page in their thinking about management vs. leadership and how it relates to empowering people to get things done.

I have been fortunate to work with some very gifted and highly effective leaders and it’s been an exceptional learning experience. Here are nine common traits I have observed while working with these great influences:

Supervising people is one of the toughest jobs in organizations today. The role is often a thankless one, requiring incredible communication, problem solving and interpersonal skills. Today’s supervisor balances the personal needs of a diverse group of employees while meeting the operational requirements of the organization. The supervisor must ensure the safety of all employees while continuously improving overall performance, maintaining effective communication and ensuring compliance with a myriad of company policies and regulatory requirements.

Although February is the shortest month of the year, there are several days set aside to celebrate special events. For instance, we celebrate Black History Month, Louis Riel Day, Valentine's Day and Festival du Voyageur. As well, I recently learned that February has also been declared National Parent Leadership Month.

Being a Chief Executive Officer or any senior executive leader in today’s economy is very difficult. Leaders must demonstrate an effective combination of the so called “hard and soft” skills. In other words, leaders are expected to take responsibility, aggressively pursue business, be flexible to market changes and offer significant project leadership strengths. In addition, they must build and lead strong, collaborative teams, be creative and have good listening skills.

Although as Canadians we sit on the sidelines of the U.S. presidential election primaries, it is interesting nonetheless to see how things unfold. One of the dynamics occurring is how contenders and news leaders alike are continually exposing the personal frailties of Newt Gingrich by raising the issue of his personal ethics and reputation for off the job behaviour. While the question recently posed by CNN threw Gingrich a little off balance, he quickly lashed back by saying his personal life is no one else's business. And now that the North Carolina primaries have put Gingrich in the lead, some voters might suggest this proves ethics indeed don't matter.

Economic uncertainty no time for anxiety, indecision at the top of your organization.