Search for "leadership qualities" on Amazon and you'll find 1027 books. Do a search on Google and you'll get 1,380,000 hits. One leadership online testing site even has a LPI - the Leadership Potential Indicator. It's clear that people all over the world continue to seek the answer to the question: "What make a good leader?"

Just consider my own leadership experience on that journey. I have read over 150 books on leadership, earned a Master's degree in leadership, and attended extensive courses, seminars and whole conferences dedicated to improving leadership qualities and capacity. I'm not sure there can be a definitive list of qualities attributed to the world's greatest leaders due to the subjective nature of such a list. However, in an effort to create a short list, one that is easily put to memory and therefore used, I have sifted through pages and pages of literature to determine, for myself, 3 of the most important qualities of a leader.

Quality #1: Be courageous, honest, and credible - These three qualities, I believe, have to remain together in one single quality. One cannot be present without the other. In her blog post from August 2008, "What I Learned about Leadership at Summer Camp", Jill Geissler of the Poynter Institute quoted Robert E. Kelly's "In Praise of Followers" to describe one of four key qualities of leaders: "They are courageous, honest, and credible." Going one step further, I would say that a leader must be courageous enough to be brutally honest with herself and her people in order to build and maintain credibility.

In my career as an educational leader, I have been put into countless "turn-around" situations where staff and customers alike have suffered through past transgressions of the previous manager. In each of those cases, I had to gird my loins and pick up the broken pieces. In order to build credibility I had to follow through with change without "bad mouthing" my predecessor. I had to be brave enough to walk into a "den of lions" at each monthly staff meeting until I could set the place aright and show progress. And when asked "why", I had to answer honestly without spinning the response.

Quality #2: Know your people - Former President of South Africa, Nelson Mandela, demonstrated a quiet sense of strength in his leadership. Read his articles and books, watch "Invictus", and you will understand that one of the most powerful qualities he possessed was his ability to connect with people. One would have to walk a mile in his shoes to truly comprehend the difficulties which he faced as a leader in that particular situation and place in time. Yet he persevered in his quest to unite his country by making deep and meaningful connections with those around him and in turn with his countrymen. He felt that no one person was more important than himself. Each had a place and a purpose, and it was extremely important that he recognize that fact whenever he spoke to an individual or to a group.

I can only relate to this through my own experience running educational organizations. I made it my purpose to recognize the faces of each of my 1000+ students and 80+ staff, and to try to connect on some level. While I might not have remembered the name of each student, when I walked into a room I could remember the face and a situation connected with that person. I took the time each day to meet with each of my staff - this meant that I needed to be on campus evenings at least twice a week in order to not miss someone. It also meant weekends, since my campus offered Saturday and Sunday classes. In time, when I needed to ask more of a person, a team or a group of students, I encountered no resistance. One student told me, "If you can be here for us at 10:00 at night, then we can be here for you when you need us."

Quality #3: Inspire passion and interest - My friends at the Disney Institute say that a leader should focus her attention on "...conveying values, guiding strategy, and inspiring passion and interest." While these could easily be among the top 3 qualities, I believe "inspiring passion and interest" is a skill which a good leader must possess and continue to develop. Through consistent practice of the first two qualities - being courageous, honest and credible, and knowing her people - a leader will have little difficulty inspiring passion in her staff and creating a sincere interest in meeting with daily challenges in order to eventually build a successful organization.

I challenge you to dig deep within and to develop three qualities of leadership you believe you must possess in order to lead your organization to the next level. In the end, what those qualities are is not as important as your consistent attention to them and how you grow them in yourself and your team.