What Makes a Great Leader?

By ALAN MURRAY, Wall Street Journal - When you think about great leaders in history, is it a George S. Patton who comes to your mind – the outspoken general who was once relieved of command for slapping a soldier recuperating in a hospital?

Or are you more likely to think of Abraham Lincoln – quiet, thoughtful, tortured to the edge of mental illness by his own doubts?

Is it the dictatorial Julius Caesar who is your model? Or the inquisitive Socrates? Do you fashion yourself as the next "Chainsaw Al" Dunlap? Or do you relate to the unassuming Sam Walton?

Leaders come in all shapes, sizes and styles. But the question that has to be asked is: Is there a "right" way to lead an organization?

If there is one strong conclusion that emerges from the best work on leadership, it is this: Great leaders exhibit a paradoxical mix of arrogance and humility. Leaders must be arrogant enough to believe they are worth following, but humble enough to know that others may have a better sense of the direction they should take.

Often, it's in the humility department that modern leaders fail. Think of Carly Fiorina, who as CEO of Hewlett-Packard had her own picture inserted on the wall between those of the company's iconic founders, Messers. Hewlett and Packard. Ms. Fiorina's leadership of H-P foundered in part because she was perceived as devoting too much time to cultivating her own image, and too little to fixing the company's internal management problems.