My Highly Philosophical View of Leadership (sarcasm)

Ok so here we go….what I have been contemplating as of late is the difference between a good leader and a successful leader.  For some of you there may be no difference, however my thought is people can go their whole lives being a good leader without ever being a successful one, I know completely depressing.  To make matters worse I also believe a bad leader can be a successful leader, now if you’re still with me this may be the point where you are going oh god what is wrong with this girl; there is hope however, I do believe a good leader can be successful as well. 

Now please, take a deep breath you are about to read my opinion on where it all went wrong, it all starts with charisma.  Insert poor metaphor: Charisma is something we have been trained to admire in people. It’s nobody’s fault people naturally gifted with charisma just have this bright, shiny, and enchanting glow about them, but then again so does the sun and if you look at that for too long, yes I’m going to say it, you go a little blind.  Now, I know that was tough for many of you to hear, many of you picked charisma as a trait you admired, and let me address your concerns upfront I am not saying you are wrong.  In fact I am going to go as far as to say charisma is a major element to becoming a successful leader.  This next point however, may be where we differ I do not believe charisma is a necessary part of being a good leader.  To be clear I am operating under the assumption that you can be a good leader without being a successful leader, some of you may treat the words good and successful completely differently, so for the sake of following my argument I am going to say just go with it.

So now you may be asking yourself what is it that I do think makes a good leader.  And my answer is you must read on because first of all I have gone over the 300 word limit and I am unsure how strict that limit is and secondly well it just makes more sense to address that in the Traits I Admire post.  However, I do want to leave you with a few thoughts, I know shocking I want to talk some more.  I want to challenge everyone to think of three traits they admire that aren't charisma and in the future, when we are successful managers holding interviews of our own and looking for people to inspire our employees look for those three traits first because that person may be someone who was only going to be a good leader, but us with our vast insight and knowledge of leadership, let’s hope we have accumulated some by that point, can help them become a successful leader, the good kind, not the bad.  Oh, and if they are naturally charismatic that’s totally a bonus.