When is the last time you worked with a truly talented leader? I don’t mean a senior manager, or someone in authority. I mean a person you wanted to follow. Someone who motivated you. Someone who set a clear direction and then gave you the support you needed to succeed. And then, whoa, maybe even recognized you and gave you credit for the successful project. Now compare that to the number of times you’ve worked with or for someone who did the opposite. Of everything.

I asked a group of friends the other day if they could name some great leaders in their lives. Sadly very few people could do so. I’m wondering why that is.

A few people said that they found some great leaders in their church community (and not necessarily their pastor or priest).  What differentiated this group was motivation and the related organizational culture and goals. Their primary purpose was in building people up and helping them succeed. The success of the people was the marker for the success of the organization, and the leaders were focussed on this goal. I think we might find some talented leaders in other community organizations for similar reasons. Their focus is on people.

I think the motivation in a work environment is focussed on the success of the organization, where you achieve profit in the private sector or re-election in government. It can also be about competing to get ahead as an individual. That doesn’t have to be a bad thing. But if that means bullying others to get ahead, or being driven to push, or punish people rather than support them, it seems to be accepted as long as it gets the job done.

Yet at the same time, everyone seems to agree that an exceptionally successful organization is most often led by an exceptional leader. And if life were fair (and by the way, it’s not) the organizations with lousy leaders would fail. Instead, they seem to get along well enough. I just like to think that those with great leaders have happier, more motivated and, dare I say, fulfilled employees.

But I still don’t know where those great leaders can be found, and what qualities they exemplify that defines their leadership skills. If you know of some great leaders (like you’ve met them, not read about them in a book), what is it that they’re doing right? And can any of us learn from them in the hopes that we can spread this around a bit and create more great leaders in future.