Chad Silverstein presents a short talk answering the question: what attributes are essential for leadership. He argues there are four universal, non-negotiable traits—honesty/integrity, a clear vision, competence in the leader's domain, and the ability to inspire others—and explains why lacking any of these makes leading difficult. The talk is framed by a workshop anecdote and closes by inviting audience feedback.
Chapters
I was recently in a practice where a question got teed up from someone who asked, what are the most important things, most important attributes of a leader? So we do what we do in Build to Lead. Everybody wrote about it, put some thought into what they thought the most important attribute of a leader is. And as the room shared, we heard lots of different things. And the one thing that stuck out for me was that a lot of the things that I heard people saying, I thought to myself, well, there can be someone who doesn't have that, and they can still be a really strong leader. So as I was taking it all in, I was thinking, what attributes do I feel like if someone doesn't have, they can't be a leader. And so that was easier for me to kind of walk through my head. And there are four universal attributes that through studies and research, you know, when you ask all leaders, you know, what they think about this question, that there is a common theme. The first one is going to be that, you know, you have to be honest. You know, no one wants to be led by someone who's dishonest. So integrity and honesty, you have to have. You have to have that if you're going to be a strong leader. And the reason being is at the first sign that you're not being honest, you're not going to have many people following you. So being honest is maybe not the coolest answer and, you know, the best attribute, but it's probably the most important one because without it, there's no way you can lead. And the next one is going to be the one. What's more inspiring, and that is that leaders who have a vision, you know, if you don't have a vision, it's going to be really hard for you to lead anything. People want to have leaders tell them where we're going. You know, I help a lot of people in my community, and there's a lot of organizations that I'm connected to. And I'm always thinking about, you know, that leader and, you know, what I'm supporting. And I want to know where we're going if. Whether I'm philanthropically giving money or I'm giving my time or I'm giving over resources or tools, I want to know I'm giving it to an organization that is heading in the right direction and not, you know, basically, you know, one. One step away from dying. So I think as a leader, it's really important that the attribute of having vision and knowing where we're going is just critical, and it's going to Be really hard to lead anything if you don't have a strong vision. The next thing is going to be that you have to be competent. If you're not competent, no one's going to follow you, no one's going to trust you, no one's going to be able to see that, you know, you can do what you say you're going to do. So, you know, every leader has to have competency in whatever it is that they're leading, whatever it is they're doing. You don't have to know how to do everything. You know, one of my favorite concepts is who, not how. Because there's tons of stuff I don't know how to do, but I know who can do it. So I find my who's and I let them do their unique ability and I don't have to know how to do everything. You know, I can lead in a certain way when I don't have the expertise or the skills, but I'm competent in what I can do. And again, you're not going to lead anything if you're not competent. Whatever it is that your specialty, your niche, your industry, whatever it is that you do and that people have signed up to be connected to you through, whether it be your company or an organization or a social impact, whatever, whatever it is, you have to be competent. And the next one is going to be inspiration, the ability to inspire others around you. When you have someone who, I like to say, like a brick wall, it's like talking to a brick wall. And you just have zero passion and zero enthusiasm and you just lack the ability to inspire people with whatever it is that you do or you say or you are building or you're providing. It's going to be hard to lead. So again, it's not the be all, end all. It doesn't mean that there's not other attributes that are more important, but these are four universal attributes that leaders need to have. And you can still be a great leader if you have, you know, maybe three or the four. But it's going to be hard and you're going to have to make up for it somehow through either having the right people around you or people who have taken it upon themselves to do what you can't do. And you'll lose a little bit of that credibility if you can't do it yourself. Doesn't mean you can't lead. But to be a really strong leader, you're going to have those, those qualities. And I'm curious to know what you think. Feel free to share whatever it is that you feel is the most important attribute that a leader needs to have, and I'd love to hear what you think.
