The challenge of finding good leaders

by Joe Molony, senior advisor to the S. Dale High Center for Family Business and professor of business at Elizabethtown College

Why is it so hard to nail down the qualities needed to be a good leader?

Maybe it’s because under different circumstances different qualities are needed. Sure, there are some common elements like visionary, ethical, steadfast, decision maker, etc. But aren’t military leaders different from political leaders? And aren’t CEOs of public corporations different from the heads of family-owned businesses? And how about the demands of various industries--don’t they require different skill sets given the employment make-up and a whole host of other differences like service versus manufacturing enterprises?

Perhaps we should explore these differences of leadership requirements and include CEO’s of public corporations in these discussions to expand our understanding beyond the family business perspective. Or will we be content to just feel our way along and rely on an occasional inspirational quote from some leader of a different time and place which may or may not have any relevance to our situation?

In the case of family businesses, by establishing a board of advisors, executives of family-owned firms can have the best of both worlds--retaining the autonomy and intuitive approach to running their business that allowed them to be successful in the first place combined with the suggestions and perspectives from other business leaders serving in an advisory capacity.