"Leadership" - Just What the Hell is It?

Yes, I had to study it in grad school, and yes, I had study it in the military.  But wait...what the hell IS leadership really?! Reduced to its purest elements and in no particular order, I would say it, at least the successful "it," consists of nine critical factors:

1. Sincerity - Believe in people.  If you are not sincere in this, they will pick you off from a mile away.
2. Enthusiasm - It's infectious...really!
3. Curiosity - The search for understanding...for knowing what is right, and what is wrong.
4. Innovation - A hunger to do things better.
5. Decisiveness - You have to be ready to get out on that limb when it's called for.
6. Compassion - The desire to help
7. Humor - To diffuse stress and discomfort in yourself and others when the pressure is on.
8. Smile - A killer, light up the room sort of smile.  If you don't have it that's okay...see #7.
9. Tolerance - Of ambiguity that is.  This is a biggie.  If you can't do this...you can't do it period.

Aside from whatever schools might teach you, I believe these elements have to be part of you...going in.

Now here's some old fashioned and modern day "click bait" (Without links...you can Google them ok?) for wannabe' leaders:

• High Reliability Organization
• Lean Management
• Management by Objectives
• Zero Defects
• Performance Improvement Program
• Six Sigma

Yeah man; these and others like them will have you buried in the books for a while. While I generally shy away from newly spun management fads, certain elements of all these programs can add value for a leader and his gang.  Examples include wrapping some measurable objectives (MBO) around your organizations goals and using statistics (6S) to help you track and locate areas you can improve.

From my old "I Love Me"
Collection.  It's about "spirit."
Thanks Charlie Brown!

As an aside and personally, I would like to have a Certified Project Manager at my elbow to help me and my gang figure out the best way to get from point A to point B. Assuming of course...we are headed in that direction.  Also assuming we have a bunch of independent and dependent variables to consider.  (Now I am really wandering off course here right?!)

So a successful leader has to have some built in attributes and should cherry pick some useful management tools.  What attributes and tools would you add?  Or do you think a good leader should be something else entirely?

My credentials?  I have worked for some of the most amazing bosses. I have led some wonderful Air Force health care teams.  I have also led dozens of wonderful, whacky, sometimes toxic and most often talented multi-disciplinary health care contract teams in well over half the United States.  (For more on this, Google "herding cats.")