Seven Essential Qualities of Exceptional Leaders
| From the archives of Jerry Panas and Philanthropy Counts. |
I am sitting with Placido Domingo. I’ll explain.
The Washington Opera is a client. I’m conducting a board retreat, and the towering tenor will be one of the speakers. He is the Music Director of the Washington Opera.
I guess everyone would consider him one of today’s greatest tenors. Perhaps the greatest in memory. Caruso, Domingo— a toss-up.
We’re having lunch. I am completely awe-struck. He’s bigger than life — like Gulliver among the Lilliputians.
I’m thinking I want to appear poised, as stylish, and sophisticated as possible. But I find myself speaking in a hushed, reverential voice, as a Cardinal might speak to the Holy Father.
He puts me completely at ease. The conversation flows. My nerve returns. I start asking questions.
“Why does one singer, someone like you, become a living legend while other performers, as good as they may be, never gain true prominence? What exactly makes the difference between the star and the superstar?”
“That’s easy,” says Domingo. He takes a moment to finish a last bite.
“Most stars play it safe because they feel they have too much to lose. Superstars throw caution to the wind, improvise impulsively, and are willing to go for the high note. Take Leontyne Price, for instance. She hits a perfect A above middle C and sustains it. That takes the talent of a star, but also the fearlessness of a superstar.”
That’s it, I thought. A willingness to go for the high note. Superstars give everything they’ve got and hold back nothing at all. They abandon their comfort zone. Ability. Aura. And audacity.
That luncheon and discussion with Placido Domingo was one of the special moments in my life, a feast of rare serendipity.
Essential Qualities
1. I find that the great leaders I’ve known and worked with, all have piercing recall. Their memory is like an internal computer that’s forever bringing up information, data, and names from the past. Whether they consciously or unconsciously work on it, it is part of their being.
2. To communicate with blinding conviction, unshakable confidence, and transcendent authority. No need for theatrics or flaying arms — just to speak with words that, as Hemingway said: “Burn with a hard, gem-like flame.”
3. Leaders see the big picture. They are visionaries. They have a way of galvanizing others to their barrier-breaking thresholds. No easy task, this — having others accept and acclaim your dreams.
4. To follow your dream takes audacity. It means leaving familiar land and sometimes navigating an obsolete and tired vessel past uncharted reefs and unfamiliar waters. It means working with board and staff, patching over old ways, plugging tried and tired leaks, and hoping not to be pitched overboard while rolling from port to starboard.
5. We learn from the author, Guy de Maupassant, that humility is prolonged patience. It requires a dauntless spirit of resolution, inner-strength, and determined self-confidence. Humility is the seed that blossoms in every leader.
6. The Persian poet Hafez wrote: “Keep in your heart a shrine to humility and on that altar let the fire never die.”
7. True leadership depends not only on outstanding ability, but also on sacrifice, self-denial, and humility. All of these qualities are important, but a leader with humility is endlessly inspirational.
