What Makes A Good Leader?

To have success there must be leadership and communication. Chris Ruisi, The Coach, believes leadership can increase your business results with a little bit of help and motivation.

Source: Harvard Business School Bulletin

"Is it the ability to navigate in the choppy waters of change? Do leaders see the hidden opportunity in every setback? Is there really any such thing as a “born leader”? Five HBS faculty and some prominent alumni offer their perspectives on an increasingly essential quality for managers at the dawn of the 21st century.

A stroll through the business section of any large bookstore these days reveals an astounding array of titles related to leadership in business. There has been an explosion of books, articles, instructional tapes, and CD-ROMs aimed at defining, analyzing, and honing the qualities that have raised the likes of Jack Welch, Bill Gates, and Jeff Bezos to the status of revered icons.

HBS professor John P. Kotter — a distinguished authority on leadership — sees this phenomenon as a sign of the times. “The transition from the industrial age to the information age is a huge shift,” he notes. “In all of human history, there have only been two other socioeconomic revolutions of this magnitude: the move from hunting and gathering to agriculture and from agriculture to industry. We know that leadership is very much related to change. As the pace of change accelerates, there is naturally a greater need for effective leadership.”

“Times of upheaval require not just more leadership but more leaders,” says HBS professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter, a renowned expert on change. “People at all organizational levels, whether anointed or self-appointed, must be empowered to share leadership responsibilities.”

Leadership has been central to the mission of Harvard Business School since its inception almost a hundred years ago. “Our primary purpose has always been to educate leaders,” notes Dean Kim B. Clark. “Our students learn to be managers here, but they also learn that it is important to make a difference in the world — to bring commitment, integrity, and a sense of values to their work.”

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