The greatest leaders know how to be patient and maintain control while showing empathy and respect.
For context, I had lunch with
the greatest leader in America the other day, Frances Hesselbein, and asked her about World War 2.
However, as different as leaders are today, there are some things
great leaders do every day.
Trick question, because
all great leaders are called to be followers sometimes.
When Google sifted through immense troves of data to determine what makes
a great leader, what quality did they come up with?
If you can't stomach failure, then you will never be
a great leader.»
Nice people can play it safe, but
great leaders can't.
If you want to be a truly
great leader, «let people talk without interjecting or commenting.
Like Jobs,
all great leaders know why they do what they do.
There's the popular image of
great leaders involving lots of stern - faced seriousness and pointing confidently into the future, and then there's real - life great leadership.
Why is this the hallmark of
a great leader?
If entrepreneurs who have the passion and innovation to start their own businesses can develop these five skills of
great leaders, they will be most effective in leadingthose businessess into growth and a bright future.
A great leader, though, will do one thing that the others don't: he or she will make the people around and below better.
I believe that other
great leaders, thinkers, doers, and people with legacies worth making will also start sharing everything they know for free.
I asked why so many
great leaders emerged from sports, how to overcome fear, how to learn to trust teammates, and so on.
Becoming
a great leader doesn't have to be a soul - searching journey, nor is it dependent on your natural charisma.
Great leaders spend way more time listening.
There's a thousand different ways to become a leader but there's only a few ways to become
a great leader.
But I was especially interested in the last section of her talk, which focused on what she feels are the factors that consistently — and often abruptly — derail
great leaders who looked to the outside world to be cruising along.
This isn't required to be
a great leader, but it is to be a respected leader, which can make all the difference in your business.»
«
Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers, who can cut through argument, debate, and doubt to offer a solution everybody can understand.»
«
The greatest leader is not necessarily the one who does the greatest things.
Great leaders do more than offer great returns.
To be
a great leader you must be a great interviewer, since the quality of your organization depends on your ability to find and hire the right people.
«
A great leader once told me, «persistence beats resistance.»
Great leaders look at problems not as nuisances, but as opportunities to get better.
Great leaders get people to change their behavior and become more happy for it.
These are indeed admirable qualities for a person to have and, in some situations, displaying them will serve you well, but both research and history suggest that
great leaders aren't always paragons of unbending moral correctness.
Below are 20 quotes from
great leaders and high achievers, to help inspire you when you feel burdened or just low on mental gas.
By understanding the types of bosses that are most commonly cited as problematic, you can correct your habits and position yourself as a great boss, a great coworker, and
a great leader overall.
«No man will make
a great leader who wants to do it all himself, or to get all the credit for doing it.»
«All of
the great leaders have had one characteristic in common: It was the willingness to confront unequivocally the major anxiety of their people in their time.
But if you can get people to follow you to the ends of the earth, you are
a great leader.»
To keep them engaged,
great leaders talk about their work — a lot.
We all know
great leaders excel at articulating their vision.
Great leaders, on the other hand, value truth and honesty and see feedback as a gift to improve upon their leadership so they can serve others and their mission better.
Think you know what makes
a great leader?
And
the great leaders of the world are ideally placed to help us with that often overlooked stage in the journey.
It is the sustaining aspect of your character that makes
you a great leader.
You may, in other words, evolve into
a great leader yourself, but that usually comes after a period of signing up to support another person's vision.
Have you ever promoted a wunderkind expecting him or her to become
a great leader only to end up with more of a Darth Vader?
For the past 10 years, I have served as Intuit's fifth CEO, following in the footsteps of
great leaders such as Scott Cook, Bill Campbell and Steve Bennett.
While disconnected leaders are concerned with policies,
great leaders are leading with culture.
Great leaders have walked a mile (or several thousand) in someone else's shoes and in a world driven by decisions and dollars, experience — good and bad — is a vital asset.
In my ongoing studies of the world's
greatest leaders, I have realized that there are actually three strong reasons that we need to thank our critics:
Before we can become
great leaders, we need to be great followers.
Great leaders look for people that will replace them.
Great leaders know that in order to be successful they have to be hard - nosed ahd not letting their reactive emotional responses get in the way of a current business opportunity.
What differentiates
great leaders from the rest is they not only have plenty of ideas but also commit to carrying them out.
Great leaders, like the ones we are celebrating in this issue, are building companies for the long haul: companies that can weather storms and anchor the nation in good times and in bad.