4 Truths of Great Leadership

David Maister offers up Sad Truths for Leaders. It’s an interesting title for his post because we can’t be sure if he’s demoralized as a leader, and saying, “Leaders: Realize this is the sad truth of things,” or if he’s saying, “You’re a crappy leader if you don’t realize these things.”

Here are David’s 4 sad truths:

1. Those you lead will never have a longer-term horizon than you do
2. Those you lead will never operate to higher standards than you do
3. Those you lead will never be more optimistic than you are
4. Those you lead will never live the vision if you don’t

I’d like to think David is presenting these in a motivational way — leaders need to recognize that they’re the ones who need long-term goals, high standards, optimism and vision if they want to succeed as great leaders. And that would be completely true. The list is a great combination of intangible and tangible elements. Vision and optimism are intangible; they’re essentially personality traits. Long-term goals and higher standards are more practical. A great leader is a balance between the tangible and intangible, the vision and the practical.