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that hard times are the crucible in which character and leadership

are forged: “It is not in the still calm of life or the repose of a

pacific station that great characters are formed,” she counseled.

“The habits of a vigorous mind are formed in contending with

difficulty. Great necessities call out great virtues.” Just as World

War II forged the leaders of the second half of the twentieth cen-

tury, I predict that 9/11 and the dot-com implosion will be the

crucibles that create a whole new generation of leaders. If so, we

will have reason to celebrate as well as to mourn.

In addition to the qualities I describe in On Becoming a

Leader, all leaders have four essential competencies. First, they

are able to engage others by creating shared meaning. They

have a vision, and they can persuade others to make that vision

their own. Hitler is a ghastly example of this ability, and a re-

minder of the under-appreciated role that rhetoric and per-

formance play in leadership. One reason that leaders are able to

promulgate their vision is because they are exquisitely attuned

to their followers and feel their pain, their wants, their needs.

Leaders, in every field, are richly endowed with empathy.

Second, all authentic leaders have a distinctive voice. By

voice, I mean a cluster of things—a purpose, self-confidence,

and a sense of self, and the whole gestalt of abilities that,

thanks to Daniel Goleman, we now call Emotional Intelli-

gence. Voice is hard to define but terribly important. One of

the reasons cited for Al Gore’s loss of the 2000 presidential

election was his lack of voice. Those of us who know Gore are

struck by his intelligence, his decency, his vision, and his wry

sense of humor. Yet, during his campaign, the public was never

able to hear his true voice. President George W. Bush, on the

other hand, has a distinctive voice that projects a likeable, low-

key persona that even people who reject his politics respond

Introduction to the Revised Edition, 2003

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