In my mind and experience, a good will drive intent through a mindset, a road to an attainanable set of ideals or goals. The path to these goals however should be more of a motorway.While some may travel in the fast lane, the majority will be in the middle, and there will of course the slow drivers and hard shoulder stoppers. A good leader will not take everyone on the fast lane, but realise that people are free thinkers and their own individual leaders. But of course the "hard shoulder" should always be kept free from blockages! My best experience of this was working for Virgin in both UK and Asia, the mindset of the leadership was clear,dynamic and empowering, each employee had a clear vision of what Virgin was trying to achieve and how it would get there, a framework in which employees could think but still follow...

I think there are three main cornerstones to a successful leader: 1. Communication - motivating your followers and gaining their complete trust and respect by: leading by example, being charismatic, passionate and energetic about intent, confident, level-headed and 'walking the talk'. 2. Strategy - Demonstrating that you are 'smart' and can lead your followers to 'success'. 3. Negotiation - with employees, suppliers, competitors, stakeholders...etc - to keep your followers content and willing to follow and to combat threats internally and externally.

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