The five sure signs of an excellent team.

Individuals don’t have to be well-rounded, but teams should be.

Without an awareness of your strengths, it's almost impossible for you to lead effectively. We all lead in very different ways, based on our talents and our limitations. Serious problems occur when we think we need to be exactly like the leaders we admire. Doing so takes us out of our natural element and practically eliminates our chances of success.

Too many executive teams are neglecting to have thoughtful discussions about their leadership pipelines. Yet forward-thinking organizations know they need leaders and a leadership succession plan that deliver results.

Gallup has been researching top-performing leaders for more than 40 years. One crucial discovery has been that top performance is strongly correlated to seven main leadership activities or "demands." Those demands are: visioning, maximizing values, challenging experience, mentoring, building a constituency, making sense of experience, and knowing self.

Focusing each leader's growth on the seven demands can accelerate leadership development. This artcle outlines the seven demands and suggests probing questions for developing leaders in these key areas.

Most people are certain that leadership is about direction, about giving people a sense of purpose that inspires and motivates them to commit and achieve. Leadership is also about a relationship between people -- leaders and followers -- that is built on firm ground; enduring values build trust. Few would disagree with these views.

Not everyone, however, offers the same answer to this question: What's the best way to develop talented leaders to achieve sustained high performance? Indeed, Gallup Organization researchers have long been intrigued with this question. Having studied leadership talent for more than 40 years, Gallup set out to discover the demands that leaders must meet to be successful. We also wanted to uncover the developmental framework that would enhance leadership performance.

Our research confirmed the importance of two rather obvious demands -- visioning and maximizing values. What was surprising was the presence of five other important demands that are essential to the development of all great leaders.