Over the ages, nearly every mum in the world has had a special recipe for the home cooked roast. Each time making a delicious mouthwatering meal that you cant eat enough of.
Is there a perfect recipe?
Well it makes me ask the same question about being a leader. Is there the perfect recipe? Is there a perfect model to being a leader? I would say that there is no perfect recipe or model for being a leader.
Each notable leader over time has had qualities, good and bad that have been unique to that person and allowed them to display leadership that has been admired by others.
Adolf Hitler, Vladamir Putin, Aung San Suu Kyi, the Dalai Lama, Cleopatra and Fidel Castro are all great leaders.
So too are the captains of local football sides, factory floor team leaders, school principals, police officers, nurses in charge of hospitals and mums with their children, they are all great leaders who others look up to and follow.
So what is the perfect recipe? Is it courage, having a dynamic personality, having good management skills, being friendly, being able to communicate, or is it just possessing a special aura that people look to and admire?
People say I am a good leader and yet I don’t think I have any special qualities that make me unique to anyone else. I certainly haven’t been to University or participated in any leadership courses that have given me qualities that improve my leadership capacity.
The top 5 University Leadership courses in the world all teach different leadership qualities, the Forbes top 10 leadership qualities are different to the Harvard Business School leadership qualities and the Australian Military’s leadership qualities differ from the leadership qualities displayed by the great Chinese Military General Sun Tzu.
So when it comes to leaders that I admire, I cant tell you what it is that makes them a great leader. But like mums roast, no matter how she cooks it, it is always perfect to me.
I would love to hear what qualities you think makes the perfect leader.