What is the most cherished leadership secret of all time? What is it that executives pay tens of thousands of dollars a year to learn? And corporations pay millions of dollars a year on training employees to learn?

Here is the number one leadership secret of all time ... there is no secret!

Effective leadership is based on good relations, caring, and the establishment of trust. How much of a secret is that? Judging by performance, that is a huge secret.

And the most powerful idea about leadership, about which most leaders know very little? And seem to care even less about? What do you think that might be? How about this:

It doesn't matter how much you know! Knowing more is highly over-rated. Knowing more is definitely not going to get you where you want to be.

What does matter is to do what you know. And yet, doing what you know is the most under-rated source of power on Earth. Folks are still looking for a magic formula - take for example the title of this little article. There is no magic formula. The magic is in the quality of relations one develops with others, and how people respond when they are treated with respect and trust.

While doing what you know is the crux of personal and professional success, it is not easy to get started on. Why is it difficult to do what you know? Because we have been programmed with multiple inhibitions, and self-imposed limitations. Even the most advanced people are heavily burdened, and for the most part, barely aware of it.

There are some powerful and simple steps you can take towards greater personal and professional effectiveness.