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Leaders devise and implement strategies to achieve their goals. This means thinking ahead, assessing what is likely to happen, weighing the importance of multiple factors. Leaders set priorities among issues that confront the group, so that the course ahead is more manageable and they are not trying to do everything at once.
…they [examples] involve shifting combinations of persuasion, strategic calculation, example, incentives, threats, sanctions, and rewards.
But leaders must be able to make decisions and move on.
Good decision makers improve their skills through practice but do not perpetually second guess themselves.
Leaders routinely face stubborn obstacles, unclear alternatives, stiff opposition, and resistant materials; they often need tenacity and perseverance to stay the course.
Most women leaders display a mixed style of leadership, with some apparently feminine features and others that are more like those of a typical male leader.
Some women in some contexts do lead differently from most men; but insofar as there is a pattern here it stems from socialization and cultural expectations, rather than hormones or genes.
…a few of the personal qualities often useful in leadership are “innate”–more like having perfect pitch than something you can pick up over time. These include the basic intuitions or sensitivities that ground good judgment, personal integrity, and the kind of intelligence that works strategically.