The single most important leadership quality…

If you could only pick one leadership quality, what would it be?

At the weekend, while my Bakewell lemon tart was browning, I made a list of ‘Important Leadership Qualities’ on a yellow Post-it note. Leadership matters; it was a long list. Below are the words I ended up with (I crossed off positivity and innovation because I felt they were very similar to optimism and creativity). Before looking at mine, why don’t you make your own list now, to compare?

My list: Integrity; Clarity; Vision; Communication; Flexibility; Goal-orientation; Enthusiasm; Empathy; Listening; Delegation; Solutions-focused; Responsibility; Kindness; Perseverance; Decisiveness; Creativity; Reliability; Wisdom; Courage; Optimism; Diligence; Team-orientation; Competence; Gratitude; Prioritisation; Steel; Resilience; Compassion; Selflessness (lack of ego); Self-awareness; Openness; Loyalty; Passion; Humility; Trust; Empowerment; Self-confidence; and Judgement.

I’m sure you can think of qualities that aren’t on my list, and maybe some on my list wouldn’t make it onto yours. I realise, too, that many of the qualities I’ve listed transcend leadership – they’re just great qualities to have. And, for sure, different qualities come to the fore in different contexts (Gandhi and Churchill and Steve Jobs…). But which one quality would you put first, if you could only choose one?

I would choose judgement. For this reason: I’ve been in school leadership positions ever since I got a job as Head of Languages (Woking High School, 1993), and I have found judgement to be the most useful quality of all, because it’s constantly in use – a hundred times a day there’s a decision to be made; and when making a decision, you’re stuffed without sound judgement.

My point here is that judgement is the most useful quality because it’s the most used one; it certainly is for me. After I’d written my list, I Googled ‘Leadership qualities’ and list after list of ‘Great leadership qualities’ awaits consumption; I couldn’t see ‘Judgement’ on a single one of them. Why not?

Here’s a question: do ‘leadership’ qualities have to relate to how we are with other people? Is leadership necessarily about influence?

You can ‘steal’ a vision and an action plan; you can force yourself to delegate a bit; you can always put on a brave face; you can work on being better at how you work in teams. But judgement can’t be stolen, easily absorbed from a book, or copied from someone else. It accrues through experience, and thinking, I guess, but if you haven’t got it, you aren’t getting it quickly. And yet we may well need it a hundred times a day in busy, complex jobs.

Which makes me think of James T Kirk, and Spock, in the original Star Trek series. Their judgement was pretty good, wasn’t it?

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2 Comments

  1. Jamie Jeffs

    Judgement is often an underestimated quality but is also subjective. It is often tested many times a day and sometimes questioned by others around you.

    Results often determine if you are perceived by others as having “good judgement” but the key Is to back your own judgement, learn from your mistakes and don’t be afraid to admit when you got it wrong.

  2. Mark Patterson

    I agree entirely, Jamie! Mostly, we know about whether our judgement is sound from the feedback we get from others as a result of the decisions we make, and/or through the consequences of those judgements/decisions – i.e. if we get a great outcome or, conversely, if a decision ‘backfires’ on us!

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