Leadership, and the attributes that constitute a leader’s repository, are one of the most extensively discussed and written topics gaining both the academic’s and the practitioner’s attention.

Scholars have pursued a diversity of perspectives on leadership, and on what constitute effective leadership within organisations; in fact, there are almost as many models of leadership as there have been studies on the topic. Scholars, for example, have explored the personal characteristics of leaders (a trait-based approach), the relationships between leaders and subordinates (leader-member exchange), the role of leadership in organisational change, and the differing effectiveness of various leadership styles in different settings and environments. Our Cover Story for this issue of the ISBInsight probes the leadership attributes that are demonstrative of a leader’s personal character.

While leadership is always important to corporate performance, current leadership models are more about the responsibility of changing the way in which people think and act in the background of an increasingly changing business landscape. A leader has to don the role of a Cognitive Tuner, a People Catalyser, a Systems Architect, and an Efficacy Builder, in order to be a successful navigator through the rocky process of altering mindsets.

It is also important to note that success, undeniably, has gone to those leaders who have created ‘value out of values’. Such leaders have built successful, sustainable, and socially responsible organisations by allowing their values to guide their actions. The conflicting agenda between value creation and living the values is a subject that needs more research, which could help evolve an integrative approach that allows us to create value by taking the best from spirituality practices, technology tools and business measures, and help develop global leaders.

On the subject of enhancement of value, it has been observed that GEO leaders – leaders displaying the characteristics of Generosity, Energy and Enthusiasm, and Optimism, can make a big difference in a successful organisation. Not only do such leaders enhance value directly, they also enhance the value created by others around them, thus having a ‘contagious’ GEO effect for the organisation.

As long as business is around, there will be a need to continue to probe the underlying qualities of true leadership. Businesses will continue to be challenged to meet their needs in finding and cultivating leaders, and academia will continue to come up with research into the factors that contribute to a leader’s success or failure. And there will always be as many opinions as there are questions.

But of all the facets of leadership that one might investigate, the Power of Principles in a leader’s repository remains paramount. Leading executives agree that integrity can avoid ethical quicksands, and lead to growth. We capture their perspectives, along with those of our faculty who teach and research the subject – all packaged as our Cover Story. Read on…