Being a leader

Over the last 3-4 years, I've thought hard about what it means to be a leader. Its not an easy question when you're someone who like to put structure around any concept and hence like to disaggregate concepts. Some of the questions I've been thinking about are,

• We know what effective people do right (7 Habits of Highly Effective People), but what are more fundamental intrinsics of leaders?
• Are their different types of leaders, or are leaders just leading different things?
  
• There's a "trust equation" (The Trusted Adviser); is their a leadership equation?
• What kind of a leader do I want to be?
  

I'm far from figuring these questions out, but I'm happy to note that I'm making progress. My work allows me to see a lot of effective people in leadership roles. By stepping aside and observing them more thoughtfully, I've been able to start putting some thoughts together.

Here are some emerging hypotheses from observations,

1. Leaders are bold and embrace risk. They may not always welcome it.
   
2. Leaders don't seem to think too much about failure.
   
3. Leaders know they can't do it all themselves. A good leader builds a good team.
4. Leaders drive towards milestones, not finish lines.
5. Leaders have a clear sense of priorities, and practice that judgment every day.
   
6. Leaders often seem to have time to do urgent & important things, but also seem to have time for their family and atleast one other personal passion.
   

Food for thought I think.