Leadership consists of three separate but interdependent components: character, personality, and skill.

Recent scientific research (especially in neurology) suggests the following:

o Qualities of character can be altered (for better or worse) only by traumatic experience.

o Attributes of personality can be shaped by influence (e.g. role models, culture).

o Only skills (e.g. communication, decision-making) can be developed by formal training and “deep practice.”

In fact, most of the great leaders throughout history had character flaws and/or personality defects and/or a weak skill or two.

That is certainly true of each of the four U.S. presidents selected for Mount Rushmore and it is also be true of other leaders that range from Alexander and Julius Caesar to Elizabeth I and Catherine the Great to Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr.

Here’s my take:

1. With rare exception, great leaders attract followers by earning their respect and trust.
2. Most great leaders seem to have a “green thumb” for “growing” the people who follow them.
3. At some point, the shared vision becomes more important than the great leader who articulates it.
4. With regard to charisma, I view it as an expensive fragrance: Enjoy the aroma but don’t drink it.

I remain convinced that the greatest leaders — the extraordinary leaders — are those who lead otherwise ordinary people to extraordinary achievements…often against “impossible” odds. That is the key point in this passage from Lao-Tzu’s Tao Te Ching:

“Learn from the people
Plan with the people
Begin with what they have
Build on what they know
Of the best leaders
When the task is accomplished
The people will remark
We have done it ourselves.”