You try so hard to be a leader, but they need so much out of you!
Heh, I just wanted to use your trigger words. You're right; it does make a spineless victim out of "you".

The one phrase that triggers me into action is "I cannot". Now, I understand and fully accept that there are things a lot of people CANNOT do. They may be physically, economically, mentally restrained from completing something. Whenever someone drops that phrase -- whether it's me or someone else -- I automatically go into "explore" mode to see why I or that person says they cannot do something. Often, I find it's more out of laziness or seeing something as undesirable; I don't accept those excuses. Maybe I'm too strict, but rather, I like to think I value people's capabilities too highly and refuse to believe that they "cannot" do something.

If you're interested in learning more about yourself from what your employees -- your followers -- think of you, head over to http://www.employeesurveytoolkit.com/leadership-survey/ for FREE, ready-to-launch surveys.