What Does It Take to Be a Leader? Skills, Qualities and How to Develop Them
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What does it really take to be a leader? Leadership requires genuine ability to move people toward goals they wouldn’t have reached alone. It has little to do with title or salary level. There is no shortage of opinions on the subject, but when you cut through the noise, several consistent themes emerge.
These themes point toward a model of leadership that is more about service and relationship than authority and control. Benedictine University’s online Master of Science in Management and Organizational Behavior (M.S.M.O.B.) program focuses on this human side of leadership, preparing professionals to lead effectively across industries and organizational contexts.
What Differentiates a Leader From the Crowd?
Leadership is not about position. Many people who are not leaders hold managerial titles. Many people without formal authority lead teams, movements and organizations with profound effectiveness. The distinction comes down to behavior and motivation, not structure or titles.
Leadership is the ability to move a group toward a desired set of outcomes in a way that generates sustained commitment rather than mere compliance. Compliance can be commanded. Commitment must be earned. And it is earned through the qualities leaders demonstrate consistently, not just in high-visibility moments.
3 Core Themes Across Leadership Frameworks
Research and practice across leadership theory converge on three themes that appear consistently regardless of industry, organizational type or leadership style. These themes surface in foundational texts like Warren Bennis’s On Becoming a Leader and in more practical guides like Mike Thompson’s The Anywhere Leader. Each theme reflects a specific, learnable behavior rather than an innate trait reserved for a few naturally gifted individuals.
1. Leaders hold themselves and others to high standards
Leaders expect the best from themselves first, then create the conditions for others to deliver their best as well. In team contexts, this means being the first in and the last out, because the leader genuinely cares about the team’s success more than their own comfort. Leaders are focused on group outcomes, not on managing perceptions of themselves. That orientation toward team success over personal image is what establishes credibility over time.
2. Leaders stay motivated and motivate others
Effective leaders remain engaged and energizing even under pressure. This does not mean performing relentless positivity. Most effective leaders are honest about challenges, concerned about outcomes and realistic about difficulty. What distinguishes them is that they do not get immobilized by worry. They acknowledge the challenge and focus on finding solutions, and they do so with enough energy and direction that others are drawn forward rather than paralyzed.
3. Leaders share credit and build collective ownership
The pronouns a leader uses reveal a great deal about their orientation. Leaders who consistently use “we” when describing successes, and who take personal responsibility when describing failures, build the trust and intrinsic motivation that sustains high performance over time. People respond positively to recognition and negatively to having their contributions appropriated by others. Effective leaders understand that dynamic and apply it deliberately.
Leadership Styles and When to Apply Them
Understanding what it takes to be a leader also means understanding that leadership style is not one-size-fits-all. The most effective leaders adapt their approach based on the situation, the team and the goal. Benedictine’s online M.S.M.O.B. program examines each of these styles in depth, preparing students to apply the right approach in real organizational settings.
Servant leadership: Prioritizes the growth and well-being of team members. The leader’s primary question is “how can I help you succeed?” This style is particularly effective when building long-term culture, developing talent and creating environments of high trust and intrinsic motivation. For more, see Benedictine’s Famous Servant Leaders: Real-World Examples in Business and History.
Transformational leadership: Focuses on inspiring teams to work toward a shared vision. This style is most effective during periods of significant change or when building toward an ambitious organizational goal.
Situational leadership: Holds that the most effective style depends on the readiness and capability of the individuals being led. A leader may use more directive behaviors with a new team member and more delegative behaviors with an experienced one, shifting the approach based on the developmental stage of the person and the task.
What Does It Take to Become a Leader? Practical Development Steps
Someone’s ability to lead is not fixed at birth. According to McKinsey & Company, the most effective leadership skills develop primarily through on-the-job mentorship, coaching and structured feedback rather than natural talent alone. These qualities can be cultivated through deliberate practice and consistent learning. Here are five key practices that can be developed.
- Seek honest feedback:Most people have significant blind spots about how their behavior affects others. Formal 360-degree feedback, honest conversations with trusted colleagues and regular one-on-one check-ins with direct reports all surface information essential for growth.
- Study leaders you respect:Leadership is learned in part through observation. Understanding why certain leaders are effective, not just that they are, builds a repertoire of approaches you can draw on in your own context.
- Build self-awareness before trying to lead others:Understanding your own values, motivations, emotional triggers and default behavioral patterns is foundational. Leaders who lack self-awareness tend to be inconsistent, reactive and difficult to trust.
- Take on increasing responsibility:Leadership capability is developed through experience, not just study. Actively seek opportunities to lead projects, teams or initiatives, even informally. The discomfort of responsibility is where the most important growth happens.
- Invest in formal learning: Graduate programs in leadership, organizational development and management provide frameworks that help leaders understand what they are observing and why. This kind of structured study accelerates development beyond what experience alone provides.
These five practices reinforce each other rather than operating in isolation. A leader who seeks feedback but never acts on it, or who studies great leaders without applying what they observe, makes only partial progress. Consistent practice across all five areas is what turns leadership potential into leadership capability.
What Does It Take to Be a Good Leader vs. a Great One?
Good leaders execute the fundamentals. They communicate clearly, make decisions, hold their teams accountable and deliver results. Great leaders do all of that while also developing the people around them, building cultures that outlast their own tenure and creating the conditions for others to lead.
The difference is often described as a shift from performance to development, from focusing primarily on what the team produces to focusing on who the people on the team are becoming. This shift requires a deliberate commitment to the growth of others in addition to the delivery of results.
Develop Effective Leadership Skills Through Benedictine’s Online M.S.M.O.B. Program
Leadership is not a destination. It is a practice, developed through experience, sharpened through feedback, deepened through study and expressed through consistent, values-aligned behavior over time.
The question is not whether you have the qualities of a leader right now. The question is whether you are committed to developing your leadership capabilities. Graduates of Benedictine University’s online M.S.M.O.B. program emerge with the in-demand people skills and technical skills needed to effectively lead teams toward organizational goals in any industry.
Learn more about Benedictine University’s online M.S.M.O.B. program.
Frequently Asked Questions
The following questions about leadership come up often. The answers draw on the same research and themes covered throughout this article.
Is leadership a skill or a trait?
Both. Certain personality dispositions correlate with leadership effectiveness, but most of the specific skills that define effective leaders are learnable, including communication, decision-making, emotional regulation and strategic thinking. Research strongly supports that leadership ability can be developed.
What are the most important qualities of a leader?
Across frameworks, the most consistent answers include integrity, the ability to communicate vision clearly, emotional intelligence, decisiveness under uncertainty and genuine investment in the development of others.
Can introverts be effective leaders?
Yes. Research consistently shows that introverted leaders can be highly effective, particularly in contexts that reward listening, careful decision-making and deep relationship-building.
How does servant leadership connect to leadership development?
Servant leadership provides a motivational foundation for leadership development, since leaders genuinely invested in the growth of their people tend to develop stronger, more capable teams over time. The three themes covered in this article, high standards, sustained motivation and shared credit, are all consistent with servant leadership principles.
About Benedictine University’s Online M.S.M.O.B. Program
Benedictine University’s online Master of Science in Management and Organizational Behavior program focuses on the human dimensions of leadership and management, including leadership theory and practice, organizational behavior, team dynamics and strategic change. The program is delivered in flexible 8-week terms with no GMAT required.
Benedictine University was founded in 1887 by the Benedictine monks of St. Procopius Abbey and is based in Lisle, Illinois. The university is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission (HLC) and grounds its academic programs in the Benedictine values of community, hospitality and lifelong learning.