ABSTRACT
In Chapter 1 we looked at what is meant by leadership and Chapter 2 explored the role of ethics in leadership. This Chapter looks at the role of character or, at least, the personal characteristics that effective leaders possess. It starts with the simple principle that most people can learn to be leaders and rejects the common belief that leaders are ‘born and not made’. It was once thought that leaders were a special breed and that only a few were born to lead. This ‘great man’ theory (and it was assumed that leaders could only be men) had the big advantage of only allowing a certain ‘class’ of men to become leaders. If the ability to lead was somehow innate, it was likely to be inherited, so only the sons of leaders could become leaders. That was why the army did not need to train its officers and allowed them to buy their commissions – they would have the ability to lead because they could afford to become officers!
