Everyone believes “things will be different around here when I’m in charge!” But different isn’t necessarily better, now is it? Consider these characteristics of very strong leaders that I’ve observed in recent conversations:

I have been interviewing founders and leaders of a wide variety of international manufacturers over the past several months as part of writing my new book. Each has been a wonderful exchange with amazing people. 

This group of leaders is hardly an unbiased sample, as I am intentionally reaching out to those I suspect have “enduring business” encoded in their DNA. Through those conversations I have noted a few dominant commonalities shared by all.

It is easy to build passion, to try to be trustworthy, and to understand leadership’s role in responsibility. It is much more difficult for none of those to be situational. They must be the normal condition, unwavering. That is the hard part of leadership.