After leaving the university, I spent nearly five years researching a book on leadership. My goal was to find these leaders’ common traits, a task that required more probing than I had expected. For a while, I sensed much more diversity than commonality among them. The group included both rational and intuitive thinkers; some who are well-spoken, articulate speakers and laconic, inarticulate ones; some aggressive types and some who were the opposite.
After several years of observation and conversation, I defined four competencies evident to some extent in every member of the group: management of attention, management of meaning, management of trust, and management of self. The first trait apparent in these leaders is their ability to draw others to them, not just because they have a vision but because they communicate an extraordinary focus of commitment. Leaders manage attention through a compelling vision that brings others to a place they have not been before.
After leaving the university, I spent nearly five years researching a book on leadership. My goal was to find these leaders’ common traits, a task that required more probing than I had expected. For a while, I sensed much more diversity than commonality among them. The group included both rational and intuitive thinkers; some who are well-spoken, articulate speakers and laconic, inarticulate ones; some aggressive types and some who were the opposite.
After several years of observation and conversation, I defined four competencies evident to some extent in every member of the group: management of attention, management of meaning, management of trust, and management of self. The first trait apparent in these leaders is their ability to draw others to them, not just because they have a vision but because they communicate an extraordinary focus of commitment. Leaders manage attention through a compelling vision that brings others to a place they have not been before.
大学毕业后，我花了近五年的时间研究一本关于领导力的书。我的目标是找到这些领导人的共同特点，这是一项需要比我预想的更深入的任务。有一段时间，我感觉到其中的多样性多于共性。该集团包括理性与直觉的思想家；有的人说的很好，善于表达的演讲者和简洁，口齿不清的人；一些激进的类型，有些人则相反。
经过几年的观察和交谈，我在小组中的每一位成员中都明确地定义了四种能力：注意管理、意义管理、信任管理和自我管理。这些领导者最明显的特点是能够吸引他人，而不仅仅是因为他们有远见，而是因为他们传达了非凡的承诺。领导者通过引人注目的愿景来管理别人的注意力，使别人进入一个他们从未去过的地方。
