Authentic leadership involves more than potential. It requires even more than proven character in someone called by God to a leadership position.

Authentic leadership exists in actions.

It's one thing to talk leadership, and quite another to demonstrate it. So here are ten fundamentals you'll need to master; let's review these together to see how you're doing.

1. Leaders set an example.

If you want people to follow you, give them something worth following.

As a leader, how you live your life is far more important than where your name appears on an organizational chart. How you treat your spouse, how you treat your children, how you honor God—all matter.

The highest compliment I ever received came when a man at church walked up to me after church one Sunday and said, "I've been watching how you get along with your teenagers. Man, I want to take lessons from you. That's what I want with my four-year old when he gets to be that age."

I nearly cried. Here was a man who believed that my relationship ...