In this interview segment, Richard Milligan, a leadership coach who has worked with 758 leaders over the past year, explains what distinguishes a true leader. He emphasizes that real leadership hinges on having a clear vision, a well‑defined core value system, and consistently acting in alignment with both. Milligan notes that such clarity is rare in the business world, describing it as a "golden unicorn," and suggests that only a tiny fraction of leaders truly embody these qualities.
Chapters
Use 3 descriptors to finish this sentence. A leader is—
I think it comes back to, and you're going to hear me say this again and again, it comes back to vision. It comes back to being clear in like where you're going and who you are. I'm a coach, and so over the course of last year, I coached 758 different leaders either in group sessions or in one-on-one sessions. And one of the things that I found now, a little over 2 years into this, is that it is rare for a leader to be clear in where they're going. Okay? Because of now this experience of where I come in and I coach people, I say, let's talk about your vision. Let's talk about your core value system. We start there. Like, one of the things I'm very aware is that it's a golden unicorn in the business world for someone to actually have clarity around this piece. So I think a real leader, like, and these are going to be like the 1/10 of the 1%ers, are going to be someone who's clear on where they're going, someone that has clarity around their value system. But even more important than that is like someone who lives and acts in accordance and in alignment with that vision, that value system.
