The first trait we all admire in our leaders is HONESTY. I think we all appreciate candor and openness from our leaders as in many cases our leaders represent us to the larger community. For example, the US President represents all American citizens, even those who did not vote for him/her, to the world community. While President Kennedy had very many secrets that are now coming to light, his acceptance of responsibility after the Bay of Pigs fiasco went a long way to engendering a sense of honest open government that has led most presidential scholars to rank him as an outstanding president. On the other hand, the secrecy, underhanded tactics, and criminal actions , with no admission of guilt have resulted in the determination that Richard Nixon was perhaps our worst president.

The second trait that people admire in their leaders is a sense of vision. The ability to look forward and develop a vision and goals for an organization enable effective leaders to spur organization members to take action to make visions become reality. Former Vice President Al Gore has developed a very clear vision of climate change and how it is affecting our ability to survive on this planet. His view, as laid out in the movie, An Inconvenient Truthlays out the current problem and illustrates possible solutions to the mess we find ourselves in. Throughout the world governments and non-governmental agencies alike have taken action to help alleviate the current crisis. Gore's leadership abilities have been rewarded with both an Academy Award and a shared Nobel Peace prize.

The inspiring rhetoric and communication abilities of President Reagan helped carry our country through some of our darkest hours. After the Challenger shuttle disaster that resulted in the death of seven astronauts, a major setback to our space program, Reagan delivered one of his most inspiring speeches. It concludes, "We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye and slipped the surly bonds of Earth to 'touch the face of God." His ability to comfort the nation in this time of despair won him favor with democrats and republicans alike.

The fourth trait that people look for in their leaders is competency. That is the ability to get the work done as shown by a track record of success. The foremost example for me of a competent leader would be Lee Iacocca. He was heavily recruited by Chrysler to lead them out of bankruptcy and back into viability due to his previous work at Ford. Of particular interest to Chrysler was his ability to think outside of the box and operate effectively in the development of Ford's highly successful Mustang line of cars. His track record helped Chrysler stakeholders to follow this leader back from the abyss into a successful company.

Kouzes and Posner combine these four traits into an overall trait they call credibility. To be credible a leader needs to exhibit all four of these traits to a certain degree. Knowing this now, and having it illuminated in such a concise manner will allow me now to speak much more specifically about what does and what does not make leaders effective or not.