Section III

Attributes of Successful Leaders

Attributes, competencies—what’s the difference? While competencies are more about the skills and knowledge leaders need, attributes are about the traits and qualities they must embody to be effective in their organizations. Leadership is not simply about style, a list of skills, how-tos, or achieving high scores in a 360-degree assessment. It is also about the personal qualities, values, habits, and motives that make up a leader’s moral fiber. Attributes go beyond skills; they describe the leader’s character. Thus attributes are not just what leaders are capable of doing but also what they actually do.

Try Googling “leadership attributes.” Go ahead. I dare you. My results included these as the top eight:

• 14 attributes of a leader
• leadership attributes for business success
• connecting leadership attributes (our own Ulrich, Zenger, and Smallwood got a mention)
• 11 leadership attributes
• eight key leadership attributes
• six essential leadership attributes.

Leadership can be difficult to define; it is even more difficult to practice. Leadership is about behavior first, skills second. Leaders are followed because people trust and respect them, rather than the skills they possess. Someone’s willingness to follow a leader depends on qualities such as integrity, honesty, humility, sensitivity, empathy, compassion, courage, commitment, sincerity, passion, confidence, and determination. Sometimes this combination may be called “charisma,” on which the Zenger-Folkman-Edinger team sheds some light in their chapter in this section.

This section addresses attributes such as inspiration, authenticity, honesty, ethics, and integrity, and its exploration of these attributes is bookended by two important chapters. It opens with Jim Collins discussing what leaders do in “great” organizations. It ends with Bill Gentry sharing his advice for how leaders can avoid derailment—when things go awry.

In chapter 17, “Good to Great: What Leaders Do,” Jim Collins explores those practices that do not support change in organizations and what leaders must do to create a great company, on the basis of his best-selling book Good to Great.

Ever wonder about that elusive attribute called charisma? In chapter 18, “Unlocking the Mystery of Inspiring Leadership,” Jack Zenger, Joe Folkman, and Scott Edinger share their research about how they came to define charisma, the 10 behaviors and qualities that set inspiring and motivating leaders apart from others, and approaches used by leaders to make an emotional connection with others.

In chapter 19, “The Authentic Leader,” Bill George uses personal stories and lessons learned from his own experiences to discuss the five qualities of an authentic, principle-driven leader. He also discusses the process by which leaders develop their talents.

A leader’s personal character and leadership attributes are truly tested when things go wrong. In chapter 20, “Leading in Turbulent Times,” Priscilla Nelson and Ed Cohen present 10 practices to lead employees through turbulent times based on their personal experience at a large high-technology firm in India.

In chapter 21, “Leadership Ethics and Integrity for the 21st Century,” Ken Blanchard, long respected for his values and compassion, introduces five ethical practices and clarifies servant leadership for the reader.

In chapter 22, “Trends Shaping Future Leadership Attributes,” Karie Willyerd and Jeanne Meister explore the workplace shifts that will affect a leader’s ability to be effective and then present the five leadership capabilities that will be required for success.

In chapter 23, “Derailment: How Successful Leaders Avoid It,” Bill Gentry presents the history of leadership derailment research to support the five problem areas of derailed leaders, based on extensive research conducted at the Center for Creative Leadership. And he takes this discussion further by offering strategies for avoiding derailment and explaining what to do if a leader has already derailed.