What Makes a Leader?

I'm fascinated by leadership and great leaders. That's why Jonathan Yardley's review of Private Lives/Public Consequences, in today's Washington Post, has got me curous.

According to Yardley, the author makes some important (though not necessarily, original) points about what creates leaders:

"...One is that "overcoming adversity, having to fight daunting circumstances, often provided a critical incentive toward developing traits that later made it possible to overcome insuperable obstacles to success." More succinctly, ambition often is fueled by resentment, rejection or envy: "I'll show them." Another is that sometimes people's lives are shaped by "moments of crisis that shaped their future decisionmaking": polio for FDR, wartime for JFK, his brother's assassination for RFK. Yet another is that "for some, future decisionmaking was shaped less by particular crises than by gradually developed patterns of behavior designed to suppress fear or failure," patterns especially notable in the lives of Nixon and Clinton."

If you've read this book, I'd love to hear from you. Email me at MLewis@campaignleadership.com.