Leadership and being a good person

I’ve had a little experience leading people now, and it seems to me that despite all the fuss made about it, leadership really comes down to just two things:

1. Know what you’re talking about: widget A, profit margin B.

2. Be “a good person”: honest, kind, generous, compassionate.

We can go to schools to learn the former, and most leadership training concentrates on tactics for effectively conveying it to others. But learning the latter, despite its fundamental nature, is a foggier path. Maybe that’s because it is traditionally the domain of non-PC practices like religion and spiritual training, and thus not emphasized in scientific methods.

I guess my point is that I don’t see business people encouraged to spend a lot of time and effort specifically trying to become honest, kind, generous, and compassionate, and in my experience that’s the thing that makes leaders truly great. When I do see it, it’s amazing. By no means have I mastered this…but it seems like a good way to try.