Common Traits of Great Leaders (Part 1)
- jss2594
- Nov 12, 2025
- 3 min read
By Guy Picken - Guy Picken Consulting In 2023 McKinsey and Company produced research that suggests only 12% of CEOs have a high impact! This small group of leaders almost always deliver. People want to follow them. They build the careers of others and share the rewards.
There are thousands of books written on Leadership and while many different leadership styles can be successful, I have observed that the very top performing leaders share common traits.
It has been a hobby of mine to study high-performing teams and leaders, and in this paper, I will share some of the common behaviours I have observed that in my opinion set great leaders aside from the poor, mediocre or even very good leaders.
While I have tried to draw inspiration from business, professional sport and the military I do acknowledge that a disproportionate amount of the examples come from the military probably due to the stakes being so high. I have however, only included examples from the military that I believe can be used in business or everyday life.
It is important to understand that in doing so, I have intentionally applied ‘survivor bias’ to this paper. When you measure the speed of antelopes, you are not measuring the average speed of the antelopes because the slow ones are dead. You are measuring the speed of the survivors in the same way, I am only passing on my observations of high impact leaders, not the 95% who are less than great.
“Leadership is the art of accomplishing more than the science of management says is possible.” – Colin Powell
1. Great Leaders are force multipliers
A force multiplier is a leader who gets more out of their team than can be reasonably expected. In military terms it means 100 men fighting like they are 1000 and in business it means someone who consistently gets more out of their team than their competitors.
They understand to get a geared result they not only have to be a great leader, but they also must produce other leaders, build the team and generate the culture to outperform in a purposeful way.
Technically, being a force multiplier is not really a trait. It is an outcome of the 9 traits below. The leaders most important task is to build the organisations culture and invariably a team’s ability to outperform expectations is the result of the culture the leader builds. While most of the good leaders are highly charismatic, from my observation most of the great ones also set standards that they are not prepared to compromise on and develop a culture in a very purposeful way to ensure that their teams have the recruitment processes, team alignment, training and discipline to meet the standards they set. The process guarantees success.
"Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier." – Colin Powell
2. Great leaders have the integrity and courage to do what is right.
Greatly leaders always make honourable decisions even when it is uncomfortable for them, ignoring or better yet dealing with the short-term consequences that may result, ensuring a superior culture that drives long-term outcomes.
“There is no right way to do the wrong thing” – Nick Saban
Great leaders have the strength to make courageous decisions. Sometimes this leads to upsetting people, it is inevitable if they are honourable. They choose to be respected over being liked. They know if you try too hard to be liked, you will compromise your integrity, but if you are impartial, fair and consistent, you will be respected.
Great leaders do not allow the tail to wag the dog. For instance, in a circumstance where they may be weakened by staff losses, they do not allow remaining staff to ‘blackmail’ them for more money or dictate the culture because they fear the short-term consequences of losing them. Ideally, they will have ensured the organisation has options, but even when faced with a situation where options are limited, they will accept short term pain to preserve the organisation’s values.
“Being weak is a choice not a biological condition” - José N. Harris
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