Unforgettable Leadership Experiences

What are the traits that can make one a true leader? Can leadership be taught at business schools? Who is a good leader? Is there a theory of leadership that can be learnt and replicated in the real world? I have often wondered how to explain leadership because there are so many subtleties and human beings are complex and different. They respond to many patterns of thought and feeling that make them human. They respond differently to different styles of authority. Some respond to the stick some to the carrot. Some respond to empathy and some respond to genius. Dale Carnegie’s famous prescriptions in his How to Win Friends and Influence People mentions the major principle of leadership as a variation of the Golden Rule: “treat others as you would like to be treated.” Until this Golden Rule became popular the traits of a strong leader were almost the opposite. We were told to treat people exactly as espoused by the military bosses-tough no-nonsense brook no dissent. So over the past fifty years we have moved back and forth “from theories of dictatorial helmsmanship to a benevolent empathetic boss” both extreme styles finding their own proponents. And then there were many who spoke of leadership styles that fell in between these two extreme positions.