What do you think makes someone a good leader? I heard a quote lately that really made me think: “A leader is someone with the ability and facility to make things that weren’t going to happen anyway… HAPPEN.”
I love the simplicity of this and the emphasis on action and results, untethered to innate qualities or developed skills.
I’ve been immersed lately in planning a leadership development retreat for a local philanthropy board on which I serve. In the process I’ve done a lot of research and thinking about qualities and behaviors that are believed to characterize leaders. Some of the ideas fit easily with commonly held beliefs. For example, leaders are often those with great vision and a capacity for perseverance that lets them drive toward the unrealized vision in the face of obstacles or doubt.
Other attributes I’ve come across seem sometimes at odds with each other, or possibly suggest that leaders vary at least as much as they overlap in style and attributes. Some see ego as essential to leadership– the belief that you are special, unique, or at least have a personal sense of stake in what you are driving towards. Others believe humility is key, that seeing one’s individual sense as subordinated to a collective or more universal purpose is important to being a good leader.
What qualities do you think are most important in being a leader? What skills or behaviors are necessary? Do you think leadership stems more from qualities, more from skills, or a mix? Or from something else? Some people feel circumstances pull forth leadership as much or more as anyone’s inherent orientation to perform as a leader! Life unfolds in so many ways.
Let us know your thoughts on leadership, including any leaders you particularly admire and why or how they earn your respect.
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