“Leadership consists of nothing but taking responsibility for everything that goes wrong and giving your subordinates credit for everything that goes well.”
DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER, attributed, Stars: A Study in Military Character and Leadership
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“Outstanding leaders go out of their way to boost the self-esteem of their personnel. If people believe in themselves, it’s amazing what they can accomplish.”
SAM WALTON, attributed, The 101 Greatest Business Principles of All Time
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“Great leaders genuinely care for and love the people they lead more than they love leading itself. Leadership without love degenerates into self-serving manipulation.”
RICK WARREN, Ladies’ Home Journal, Oct. 2008
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What are your thoughts on good leadership?
Would you know it when you see it?
Would you make a good leader? (Which is different than asking if you personally crave leadership!)
© 2026 – SoulSequel
2 responses to “What makes a good leader?”
Good leaders can see a bigger picture. They seem to reside at the 30,000 foot level and can observe more than the followers beneath. They don’t make the followers feel bad about trudging in the mud. They somehow encourage them to feel good about the productivity they are able to attain in challenging circumstances.
I’m a trench walker who enjoys the challenges of overcoming obstacles. I know that about me. My experience with leaders is that some have illustrated their capacity to make you want to follow and others that should just get the f out of the way because they belong in a position where they just follow orders. They lead towards a failure of all who follow.
I’m a better tactician than strategist. I understand strategy, but I’m better at doing, Connect me with an effective strategist and we’re unstoppable.
Really great leaders sometimes have no choice to lead. They are almost forced into the positions by the vacuum that exists at that level. The ones that ignore their in-capacities and try to force fit themselves into positions of power can do a lot of damage. You have to give them credit for taking the initiative, but if they can’t see the big picture and focus only on the tactical executions; end goals aren’t achieved because they are not targeted in the first place.
A lot of big corporations are failing because the leadership is only worried about short term objectives. That’s how bonuses are determined in the higher ranks. Make the quarter; receive a bonus. make the half; receive a bonus. Make the year; receive a bonus. Cut staff to meet an immediate profit goal, but prevent long term development because they don’t have the hands to meet the productivity goals.
Short sightedness, does not an effective leader make.
A good leader should be able to know the difference between someone that is worth investing in and someone who is not. This can often mean taking someone that is perceived as a failure or nonperforming individual, and putting them in the right environment to flourish.
On the flipside, there might be people that can baffle everyone, but aren’t effective. The difficult choice is whether or not there are any redeeming qualities in certain individuals, or whether they need to be cut loose.
Another aspect of good leadership isn’t just from leadership down, but at the peer level. At leadership levels, there are meetings or alignments with other leaders. These meetings can be difficult, and perception is huge. A good leader will know when and how to obtain or force a conclusion or decision among leader peers, and when to compromise, without putting people under the good leader at greater risk.
Leadership is oftentimes about enabling those under you to grow and flourish. Whether or not someone is a good leader can oftentimes be gathered by the quality of the people under them, and their growth while being in that person’s leadership structure. If people under a leader aren’t growing, or are stagnant, this reflects poorly on the leader’s ability to lead effectively.
Another point of good leadership is being able to take a fall or apologize for those under you. If someone under you makes a minor mistake, own it, and stand up for that person. If it’s such a huge and ghastly mistake that it makes sense to get rid of that individual, then the leader must decide the best course of action.
Good leaders will also know when to allow people to fail. Personally, this one is hard for me. I want to fix things, and make things run smoothly. If I see the train about to hit the end of the track, but everyone on board wants to keep the train going, I need to sometimes just let the train crash, and be OK with it. Everyone on the train needs to learn not to drive trains off tracks. It’s hard for me, as a leader, to step aside and let groups just drive a train off tracks. But a good leader will know when the right moment to step in and save a situation, or let the situation progress toward failure. With the failure a few things can happen, the failure can be so great you’re able to cull ineffective individuals, or the effective individuals have a learning experience that they can grow from and be made better through the tragedy.
Leaders shouldn’t be overly swayed by emotion. Outbursts of rage, decisions made with the heart, and pushing personal goals onto those under the leader should be minimal to nonexistent. Steve Jobs was a terrible leader, same with Musk. They might be big dreamers, and have the money to enable their dreams, forcing a deliverable, but in terms of being a good leader, they don’t qualify.
Another quality or trait is that a good leader will surround themselves with a wise council of differing points of view, and these people should be bold enough to give their leader direction, even if they know it might not be something the leader wants to hear. The leader in turn should meditate on the advice given, and with a very clear and logical mind accept or deny the advice based on evidence and other factors at play.
A good leader should be able to set aside personal victories for the greater good of what the leader represents.
All this to say, good leaders are rare, and hard to find. If you’re under a good leader, stay there. You can learn a lot, both about yourself and how may have what it takes to also be a good leader.