What do penguins have to do with leadership and changing your toxic team culture? More than you realize.

The power of a few can influence the behavior of many. Leadership, as John Maxwell suggests, is really nothing more than influence.

Have you ever heard—or asked—questions like these at work? “Who dropped the ball?” “Why can’t that department do its job right?” “When will we find good people?”

These questions lead us into the dangerous traps of blame, victim thinking, and procrastination—ones that leaders work hard to avoid while on the job.

But what if the person asking these questions was also a parent and later returned to their family, asking: “Who made the mess in here?” “Why won’t he ever listen to me?” “When will my spouse help out more?”

When you’re in charge, it’s easy to get accustomed to having the people follow your wisdom simply because you’re the leader.

But when was the last time you took a real risk, putting yourself out there with the possibility of failure? Have we become so used to leading that we’ve forgotten what it took to get us there?

Last year was crazy. In six months, I received a publishing contract, started speaking for live audiences, and launched a writing career—all without having to quit my day job. How did it happen? I built a platform. But what does that mean?

If you want to find and lead your “tribe,” you are going to have to be intentional about the process. The first place to start is with building relationships. I’ve cultivated three important habits that have helped me do this.

I love it when I get to spend time with my friend Randy Ingermanson who runs AdvancedFictionWriting.com. I always come away from our conversations challenged and changed.

Our recent conversation happened in a hotel lobby in Dallas where he shared about something he learned about goal setting.

Rainy days. Flat tires. The worst case scenario. As the saying goes, it happens. And so does poor leadership.

Leadership failures are often the result of:

• Poor planning
• Inexperience
• Stubbornness
• Lack of vision
• Pride

It happens more often than we would like to admit, especially when it is our fault.

There’s an instructive scene in the Star Wars movie, The Empire Strikes Back. Yoda is instructing Luke Skywalker in how to use the Force. He asks Luke to retrieve his disabled spaceship out of a bog where it has sunk, using only his mind.

Luke, of course, thinks this is impossible. Sure, he has been able to move stones around this way. But a spaceship? That’s completely different. Or is it.

The old model of leadership is all about having the answers. According to the theory, you get to the top by being able to answer the tough questions and come up with compelling answers—usually on your feet.