5 Marks Of A Great Leader

Posted on July 23, 2009 by Ronald T. Brown, Ph.D.

In “The Nature of Leadership”, Joseph White writes,“To be a great leader, you have to be successful at achieving change - important, consequential change… Making change successfully is a leader’s most important, yet greatest challenge.”

To this end a great leader utilizes the following 5 qualities to produce results:

1)

INNOVATION

: Great leaders are original thinkers, and often contrarians. They are usually guided by a few big, yet revolutionary ideas. ** For Abraham Lincoln, it was eliminating slavery. For Ronald Reagan, it was crushing Communism.

2)

RISK TAKING

: Great leaders are informed risk takers, who also have a consistent track record (yet not perfect record) of success. They act decisively, not recklessly, to utilize change in a positive way. ** Herb Kelleher took full advantage of the deregulation of the airline industry in 1978 by launching Southwest Airlines.

3)

SPOTTING TALENT

: Great leaders have an insatiable appetite for outstanding talent. They know they need people different from themselves - who are stronger and smarter - so they can achieve their highest aspirations. ** Steve Jobs, a very smart entrepreneur, recognized that he needed strong, professional leadership for his promising start-up. He set his sights on John Sculley, an outstanding executive slated to become CEO of PepsiCo, as the ideal CEO for Apple Computers. Steve then set out to lure Sculley to join the team at Apple.

4)

HELICOPTER VIEW

: Great leaders have an extraordinary sense of perspective. They routinely position an immediate challenge into the larger context of the past - and future - while keeping the organization’s mission and practical realities firmly in mind. ** In his directive for America to send a man to the moon by the end of the decade, President John F. Kennedy understood, despite the enormous challenges, reaching that goal would unify and position the United States as a technological leader for decades to come.

5)

THE SPARKLE FACTOR

: Great leaders have a compelling presence. Every great leader, regardless of his or her personality, has a special, compelling something. There’s no formula for development this type of “sparkle.” But you know it when you see it. ** Ronald Reagan was courageous, well spoken, warm, energetic, and thoughtful. He had a compelling and courageous presence - which gave him persuasive influence when he sought positive change in America, an throughout the world.