Comments on: Four Characteristics of Inspirational Leaders

By: Five Characteristics of Weak Leaders | Leading & Learning

Five Characteristics of Weak Leaders | Leading & Learning — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 04:45:15 +0000

[...] Four Characteristics of Inspirational Leaders [...]

By: Dominick Stanley

Dominick Stanley — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 19:52:59 +0000

Regardless of the historical truth of Braveheart the facts lie in what a writer who is grounded in the here now saw. The writer portrayed this threw the movie and what he stated was truth. Having these characteristics are useful to anyone willing to adopt them and add them to their tool belt.

By: lynn

lynn — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 20:10:01 +0000

Braveheart wasn't history, wasn't real – its fiction. Find real life heroes where you live – here and now.

By: Merrie Destefano

Merrie Destefano — Sun, 06 May 2007 01:32:41 +0000

I loved this post. To me leadership is similar to the call to holiness; a desire to go forward into the invisible unknown and just happen to bring an army with you.

I especially enjoyed the fact that you used one of my favorite quotes. “What we do here today will echo into eternity,” from the movie, Gladiator. I am fascinated when the secular media, whether knowingly or not, communicates an idea that resonates with biblical truth.

By: Janet

Janet — Thu, 03 May 2007 20:32:37 +0000

Marc V definitely has a point. Inspirational leaders – think of Lech Walesa – are seldom good at managing the victory. If anybody could think of an example of such a leader who proved a capable manager of life’s daily nitty-gritty afterwards, I’d love to hear about it. I suspect that this is the exception, not the rule. This may be partly because daily life, with its myriad little challenges and irritants, rarely lives up to the dream that people bought into when following the inspirational leader. The legitimate answer: “But things are better than they used to be” is nice enough, but doesn’t get the blood pumping. People have to come off the mountaintop and are then rarely content in the valley, however green it may be.

This was an excellent post, with some good stuff to chew over.

By: peach

peach — Thu, 03 May 2007 06:55:38 +0000

Great post. I found #3 to be true in my life today. Thank you for your example.

By: Larry Wilson

Larry Wilson — Wed, 02 May 2007 01:47:30 +0000

I think your characteristic #2 is the most important. People want hope, and that’s true w/in organizations. Those who lift up a positive vision will always get a following.

By: Marc V

Marc V — Tue, 01 May 2007 17:04:59 +0000

The difficulty with inspired leaders comes when the mountain has been conquered and the team is left with the daily “small-scale” problems. The type-A inspirational leader typically looks for another conquest somewhere else. It is quite a challenge for an organization to retain this type of leader after the initial victory.

That may be an interesting follow-up post: What Happens After the Triumph. We work so hard to scale the mountain we sometimes don’t know what to do at the top!

By: Regular Visitor

Regular Visitor — Tue, 01 May 2007 05:48:04 +0000

GREAT post on leadership – excellent reference to two of my favorite movies (not that MY favorite movies make your post great, of couse!)

Seriously, great “real life” examples on each point…very well done.

Thanks.