Unusually Excellent: The Necessary Nine Skills Required for the Practice of Great Leadership

Part I. CREDIBILITY: Earning the Right to Lead Through Character

I hope I shall always have the firmness and virtue enough to maintain, what I consider the most enviable of all titles, the character of an honest man.

—George Washington

Figure P1.1. A Matter of Character

Leaders come to their leadership role along many pathways. Constituents elect them, they are appointed by the more powerful, they seize it from the weak or earn it through merit. Sometimes they volunteer to fill an existing void. Leaders also appoint themselves—when they start companies or organizations and declare it is they who will lead the effort.

But however they come to the task, ...