‘How will you behave when your ethics are tested?
How will you respond to suggestions that you help the organization by looking the other way while laws are violated?’

Stephen H. Baum & Dave Conti

‘Ordinary beginnings are not an impediment to becoming a great leader.’

‘Self-knowledge is critical as you move ahead in your career, and you need to understand the strengths and weaknesses in your own character.’

‘As you move from stage to stage, you test your ability to lead, you assess your satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the outcome.’

‘The test comes the first time there are real personal stakes on the table and a choice has to be made that would have a serious monetary, career, and reputation consequences.’

‘The development starts early, but character is completed only by experience- your sense of ethics, your integrity, fairness, and compassion, all become sound and reliable only when they are tested in the world.’

‘Character means doing the right thing when no one is there to see as well as when your actions are visible or will likely be revealed to the world at large.’

‘Leaders are able to transcend their own fears and self-doubt when facing challenges.’

Stephen H. Baum & Dave Conti

‘Being ready to lead means being able to confront issues and make decisions without regard to your own insecurities and self-limiting beliefs, your personal job security, or your reputation.’

‘Leaders learn to act quickly and wisely and lead in the face of life’s many surprises. As a leader, you not only exhibit the emotional readiness to act when others avoid or recoil from the risk and stress that action would entails, but you also exhibit the critical thinking to do so wisely.’

The question is, ‘How did they develop these traits in the first place?’

Source:

Stephen H. Baum & Dave Conti (2007). What Made Jack Welch Jack Welch: How Ordinary People Become Extraordinary Leaders