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School of Hard Knocks
Sam Cece Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
November 25, 2008
Commonalities of Successful Leaders
I would like to complete the list of the top 10 common attributes of successful leaders and draw this blog topic to a successful conclusion.
Here is the list (in no particular order), based on our collective experiences:
- Assembling a great team - See my thoughts in previous linked post.
- Fierce Sense of Urgency - Ditto
- Persistence - Ditto
- Vision - Defining, communicating and inspiring a clear, easy-to-understand vision, especially in challenging times.
- Capable - The ability to consistently demonstrate limitless capacity to solve problems.
- Humble - The ability to overcome the instinct of self-preservation, to fly under the radar and to make decisions that are best for the company.
- Trustworthy - The proven ability to empower their team and deliver as expected.
- Decisive - The ability to make timely, often tough decisions, in an unwavering fashion.
- Genuine - The ability to garner respect because of who they are and how they lead, instead of what they’ve done.
- Responsible - The ability to take responsibility for all team decisions that they’ve participated in, regardless of the success or failure of those decisions.
Tom Peters probably phrased it best: “Management is about arranging and telling. Leadership is about nurturing and enhancing.” I want to thank all of you who have sent me your thoughts via email. I still marvel at the similarity of your recommendations and thoughts on these commonalities.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
Posted by: Sam Cece at 11:32 PM
Categories: Business , Experience , Lessons
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Sam:
I always enjoy your thoughtful and revealing observations about leadership.
My favorite 2 of the 10 above attributes: Humble and trustworthy. And from your previous post - fail fast. I used it just today with my EVP.
Cheers,
kap
Comment by Kathy Phelps – December 3, 2008 10:07 PM
Great Blog! The only thing I would add is passion for what you're doing. By sharing your personal experience and teaching the type of character required you are equipping those who have the natural tendency to no be average leaders but great leaders. Great job!
Comment by RMG – February 3, 2009 12:45 PM