What Does it Take to Make a Good Leader?

I recently had an article forwarded to me entitled Caring and Respectful Equals Successful by Harvey Schachter.  It was a summary of a study completed by Fred Kiel who determined that companies with Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) with strong moral principles deliver better results.  In Kiel’s book entitled Return on Character, he noted that what he describes as a virtuoso CEO delivered close to five times more of a return on assets than a self-focused CEO would, and achieved a 26 percent greater level of work force engagement as well.  Their organizations also tended to have better audit findings and fewer lawsuits.

Kiel’s virtuoso leader had four key character traits:  1) integrity, 2) responsibility, 3) forgiveness, and 4) compassion.  Integrity is about telling the truth, acting in a principled manner, and keeping promises.  Responsibility is about owning up to faults/mistakes, and working for the common good.  Forgiveness begins with letting go of your own mistakes, as well as the mistakes of others, focusing on what is right versus what’s wrong.  Finally, compassion is about empowering others, caring for them and committing to develop them.

Kiel’s research is interesting, in that it highlights how leaders who are more concerned about helping others are more likely to have positive results than those who are concerned about themselves.  We have a leadership team of city employees that has had the opportunity to look at topics related to this over the past three years.  One of the books that we spent time looking at was entitled Good to Great by Jim Collins.  Collins emphasized the need for what he called Level 5 Leaders:  “Level 5 leaders channel their ego needs away from themselves and into the larger goal of building a great company.  It’s not that Level 5 leaders have no ego or self-interest.  Indeed, they are incredibly ambitious –but their ambition is first and foremost for the institution, not themselves.”  Collins also noted that the good-to-great leaders they studied were continually described as “quiet, humble, modest, reserved, shy, gracious, mild-mannered, self-effacing, and understated….” 

Our leadership team spent a lot of time talking about the paradox of traits that makes a good leader.  Society often focuses on big, charismatic personalities, yet these are not the character traits that are emphasized in these publications.  Kiel and Schacter, in these more recent publications, reiterate these counter-intuitive traits.  We are trying to build a culture within our organization that focuses on servant leadership, living a life and performing a job that emphasizes high ethical standards and trying to work for the common good.  I would not say that we have a team that is comprised totally of what is called virtuoso leaders.  My hope and goal, though, is that we are trying to work, as a whole, towards that goal over time.

We as a community could gain much by this level of standard.  Tell the truth, keep promises.  Admit our shortcomings.  Work for the Common Good (you can refer to my post about an article on the Common Good by Andy Crouch).  Focus on what is right rather than what is wrong (stop negative discussions).  Show compassion to others.

These are difficult standards, and require balancing.  We cannot meet the perceived needs of everyone at all times when we live in a community, similar to what happens in a family.  We can, though, show a spirit of humility and respect as we interact with each other.