"...research points to seven attributes essential to leadership. Taken together they provide a framework for leading knowledge workers:
- Technical competence: business literacy and grasp of one's field
- Conceptual skill: a facility for abstract or strategic thinking
- Track record: a history of achieving results
- People skills: an ability to communicate, motivate, and delegate
- Taste: an ability to identify and cultivate talent
- Judgment: making difficult decisions in a short time frame with imperfect data
- Character: the qualities that define who we are
"Senior executives seldom lack the first three attributes; rarely do they fail because of technical or conceptual incompetence, nor do they reach high levels of responsibility without having a strong track record. All these skills are important, but in tomorrow's world exemplary leaders will be distinguished by their mastery of the softer side: people skills, taste, judgment, and, above all, character.
"Character is the key to leadership, an observation confirmed by most people's personal experience, as it is in my 15 years of work with more than 150 leaders, and in other studies I've encountered. Research at Harvard University indicates that 85 percent of a leader's performance depends on personal character. Likewise, the work of Daniel Goleman makes clear that leadership success or failure is usually due to "qualities of the heart" (see "The Emotional Intelligence of Leaders," Fall 1998). Although character is less quantifiable than other aspects of leadership, there are many ways to take the measure of an individual"
