What makes a great leader?

Leaders such as Churchill, Mother Teresa of Calcutta, Gandhi, Mandela, Napoleon, Darwin or Einstein seem to have special capabilities that set them apart from the rest of us. People commonly regarded as great leaders, no matter what sphere of activity, whether it be in business, politics, the arts, the military, academia or sport, tend to have certain characteristics. These may be manifested in different ways in different walks of life but there are underlying features:

Six characteristics of great leaders

• Determination – single-mindedness. This can be evident in many ways.  Perhaps the best recent illustration comes from the resolve shown by the Burmese pro-democracy campaigner and leader of the National League for Democracy party (NLD) Aung San Suu Kyi. Sentenced to a further 18 months of house arrest in August 2009 after being found guilty of violating security laws, 64 year old, Nobel Peace Laureate, Suu Kyi, has spent 14 of the last 20 years in some form of detention. In 1990, the NLD won the last elections to take place but was not allowed to take power and the country has been controlled by a military junta ever since.

Suu Kyi has become an international symbol of heroic and peaceful resistance in the face of oppression. This is an interesting example of leadership - through her moral resilience and determination not to succumb to compromise.

• Energy – endurance, tirelessness. Autobiographies of great leaders frequently describe punishing work regimes: long hours and tremendous physical and mental demands. James Dyson, best known as the designer of a revolutionary vacuum cleaner, illustrates the tenacity and directed energy of a great leader during his fight to ensure that the patents on his design were not breached by pre-existent large manufacturers. 

• Capacity to inspire respect – whether reflected in love or fear. Many ingredients call forth respect, they differ according to context. In sport, being the best at the game might do it. In business, making vast profits might do it.  But in essence, respect is offered according to the value system of the group concerned. 

A person gains respect through embodying quintessentially the qualities that are valued, and these differ across groups. In 2005, Lance Corporal Johnson Beharry received the Victoria Cross for twice saving members of his unit from ambush in Iraq despite incurring serious injuries himself. He showed great courage and professionalism, behaviour stereotypically valued by the military and the respect his leadership earned is undoubted.

• Capacity to action solutions to problems – different from finding the solution in the first place. High levels of intelligence are linked to success in leadership. However, great leaders are often not the most intelligent person in the teams they lead. Great leaders are more likely to be able to recognise the talents of others and then to use them in concert to effect a solution to a problem or to be creative. Picking the right subordinates and then marshalling their contributions to maximum effect is the mark of a great leader.

• Self-confidence – self-belief, self-esteem. Leadership means taking decisions that are difficult and, if wrong, will have fearsome consequences. Unless you are convinced that you are good and are most likely to do the right thing, taking hard decisions becomes nightmarish.

Great leaders usually have self-confidence in abundance. Sometimes they have unrealistic self-confidence and it can ultimately lead to their downfall. Yet, without it, it is impossible to achieve or retain a leadership. Followers are sensitive to the leader’s self-confidence – if it deserts, they are not far behind.

• Ability to communicate fluently and effectively – not always verbally, sometimes through action, sometimes personally embodying the message by being themselves.

The best leaders know that their communication style needs to change according to circumstance. Researchers showed that revolutionary leaders who failed to change their communication style after they achieved power did not remain in power. On a more mundane level, as Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher dramatically altered the way she spoke in order to meet the expectations for a leader in power prevailing at the time.

Strangely, just being more talkative in a group tends to get you singled out as a potential leader. Nevertheless, it is worth remembering that communication is not just about talking, it is also about listening. Great leaders tend to be adept, if selective and purposeful, listeners.

To the leadership born?

The ‘great person theory’ of leadership, originating in the writings of Plato and reinforced in the 19th century by Francis Galton’s examination of the hereditary background of great men, suggested that some are born with the qualities that result in them becoming leaders. The theory no longer has credence but there is some evidence that leadership potential is acquired early in life when experience leads to the formation of a specific constellation of personality characteristics.

Nevertheless, people can be trained to lead. Training can give people the opportunity to understand and practice the competencies that leadership demands. Leadership is a process and it can be analysed and explained. Just having the chance to lead a group can itself prove transformational. People can find strengths they never expected they had. In fact, good schools tend iteratively to offer their pupils the opportunity to test themselves as leaders.

Trying out your leadership skills in a range of small groups, with restricted tasks and timescales, and with constructive feedback will often produce excellent results – particularly through engendering realistic self-confidence.

The right situation, the right style

Different situations call for different leadership approaches. Some require a leader who will focus on the task in hand – the instrumental problem-solver. Some require a leader who will focus on the interpersonal relationships between followers in order to meld the group into a stronger more harmonious unit – someone with an emotional or transactional orientation.

Groups like leaders who can shift styles. They perceive this as part of the competence for the job. However, given a choice, groups also look for leaders that embody the ideal qualities of the group. So, the great leader is someone that the group can recognise as representative of the identity of the group itself, but he or she must also be capable of taking the group forward.

Thus, a great leader must epitomise the qualities and attitudes of the group but be sufficiently different to be able to initiate change. It is possible that leaders manage this by conforming to group expectations initially and thus build up credibility that will subsequently justify innovation.

Becoming a good, if not a great, leader

All of this suggests that it may never be too early, or indeed too late, to learn about the skills of leadership. The six features that characterise great leaders may not be easy to acquire but it is possible to understand much of the process of leadership. The fact that different styles are required in different situations means that your style may be just right in some situations.

Have your say

Who do you think makes a great leader? Barack Obama, Joanna Lumley, Fabio Capello… Do you agree with the comments above? Post your message below