The List

Leadership doesn’t happen overnight.
Since it encompasses many aspects e.g. character, skill-set, knowledge and drive, leaders are to be “incubated” ,  field tested and launched just like a product.
I remember VP Gerald Ford (more for Chevy Chase’s SNL rendering of him bumping clumsily against the door”) and how straightforward his speech was to the nation “our national nightmare is now over” in post-Nixon/Agnew era.
It did usher in a period of reconciliation ( a peanut farmer in the White House), of the Me generation (Voulez vous coucher avec moi ce sois?), the Iranian hostage crisis which then paved the way for the rise of the Moral Majority.
The Rand corporation has been a think tank who brainstorms scenarios  e.g. in crisis X, these are the predicted outcomes, but rarely do we see when Y is in leadership, these are the likely turn-outs.
CVS recently took a bold strategy by announcing that it planned to pull cigarettes off the shelves.
We are now officially entering the age of differentiation (health care pharmacy vs general drug store) and of reputational currency.
Just like the new chief of MS. He will have to make bold moves, risking profits and popularity to gain shares (obviously he has been groomed and fitted to be at the helm – black T-shirt …the Calvin Klein look).
We embrace global reach via satellite and broadband connection, yet we have no glue how to reposition our enterprises in this borderless 24/7 world e.g. outsourcing, off-shoring, insourcing, re-shoring etc… with regulatory, taxation, cross-market and labor complexity. (Greg Satell has a piece in Forbes on this very subject).

Leaders of the future will have to have:

– Core competency
– Transparency
– Vision
– Inter-disciplinary knowledge
– Skilled in diplomacy
– Ability to lead and step back
– Team building

– Delegating

– Decision making
– Understanding of market trends
– Understanding of people
– Control in crisis
– Passion for products, followed by profits
– Experience being a follower
– Empathy
– Ethics
– Optimism
– Communication and media-handling skills
– Leadership by example
– Change agentry skills

You know a great leader when you see one.
We self-project onto them all the time.
We want to grow up becoming like them.
We haven’t seen many great leaders , because we haven’t invested in grooming them.
Tomorrow’s leaders might come out of dysfunctional homes, failed states and bankrupted companies.
A few made it by sheer force of their own charisma e.g. Tesla’s CEO, Virgin’s CEO (screw if, let’s do it) , Steve Jobs of Apple, Bill Clinton from Hope…

Underneath, we still behave in fight-or-flight mode as we have always.
Leaders are one-in-a-million type of people.
But some day, they will rise from the ashes. Fearless and undefeated, magnanimous and empathic.
They might be sitting in the wing (G Ford) or outside of the White House (Hillary). But watch and wait!
History has more patience than we do. And when it’s time, the right people will be in the right place to bring about reconciliation and healing “Our national nightmare is finally over”. Short, simple and straight to the point.