What Makes a Great Leader?

My son came to me this morning as I was working in my office and he asked me a very thought-provoking question. It's a questions that I think those who want to become great leaders should ask themselves. He asked, "What makes a great leader?"

I'll give you a minute to ponder this question. I see a lot of things here on LinkedIn about what makes good managers and leaders, but one singular answer came to my mind when my son asked this question. What struck me at the moment he asked me was how much my idea of leadership has changed over the years. As a 12 year old, like he is, I thought leadership was the ability to tell others what to do. As you can imagine here in my late 40s, I have found that to be the lowest quality of leadership. Anyone can bark orders or try to demand respect from others, but this does not make someone a good leader.

I watch reels from Tom Brady, Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant. They display a lot of qualities of what it takes to be a great leader, and I think many look at their skill and their discipline and say, they were leaders because they produced so well, or they could put their money where their mouth was. But if you look underneath all of this, I see a quality that escapes most people in leadership. You only find it in the most elite leaders of the day.

Great leaders are always curious. Curious to learn the things they don't know. I am not yet a great leader. I wish I could say that I am, but most of the leaders I know choose to get by on what they already know instead of engaging in a relentless pursuit of what they don't know in an effort to become better.

Your curiousity can develop you into a great leader. If you are always learning, then you are always open to opportunites when the come and you are able to exploit those to your advantage. As you enter this new year, I challenge you to get curious. Ask yourself the following questions and see how they serve you in 2025.

Instead of saying "I can't," say "If I could do this, how could I?"

Instead of saying, "This is the way we've always done it," say, "I wonder how we can improve on the way we've always done it. What is not serving us now like it once did?"

Instead of saying or thinking, "It's my way or the highway," say, "I wonder how what my team is bringing can improve how we do things here."

Instead of looking at the current state of things and asking, "Why is this happening to me (us)?" ask, "I wonder how this is happening for me (us)?"

Practicing the habit of curiosity produces understanding and a deeper knowledge of how to effectively lead others. I think it is this quality that drives improvement in all other areas. If Tom Brady had decided he was the best there ever was and he did not need to improve after any one of his Super Bowl wins, it would have been over. If Michael Jordan had decided in college that he worked just as hard as anyone else and that was just okay with him, he would never have won six rings. If Kobe did not ask so many questions to all of the players he looked up to and decided that he would be determined to learn to do it better every day, he would never have brought home five for the Lakers. Decide that learning is the pathway to greatness and you will be on your way to becoming an excellent leader.

I wonder which of these questions you needed to read today? I'm so grateful my son came in and asked this questions because I'm already seeing opportunities I know I was missing before because I looked at them as problems.