What makes a leader successful? As the Director of Research at the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center's (VICC) Clinical Trials Office, the author had to think of new ways to engage employees when becoming the director nearly 15 years ago. The staff started a GLUE (Greater Loyalty Utilizing Empowerment) Committee. The committee was established to help keep the employees happy and build connections. The author quickly learned that keeping all employees happy at all times was impossible, but the GLUE committee provided an avenue for bonding that built many much-needed bridges during challenging times. After nearly 30 years in this field, she believes that effective leadership is the ability to build relationships with "all" customers. The author describes 5 rules that make a leader successful.