LEADERSHIP - WHAT IS THE ONE MOST IMPORTANT QUALITY FOR A LEADER?

At dinner the other night with several friends, one of the people asked, "what do you think is the one most important quality of a leader?" I replied, a leader must have 'confidence'. One by one they offered other 'most important' qualities such as, competence, honesty, integrity, trustworthy, vision, good listener and others.

After listening to all the other entries and considering them, I am sticking with confidence. First, people want to follow someone who is confident, not arrogant, confident. People who are confident are also competent. If they aren't competent, they will not be confident.

Confident people are very often honest because their self-confidence is such they don't need to be dishonest. Dishonesty is in fact a product of a lack of confidence. Confident people most often have integrity because they feel good about themselves. The confidence also makes them trustworthy because they have no need to show off or misuse someone's trust. The confident people also are more often than not good listeners because they want to learn and have no driving need to always being the one to speak.

So, I am sticking with 'confident'. If a person is confident they will often have most of the other qualities of a good leader.

What quality do you think is the most important?

Cheers, Mike