When you think of the word “leader,” what comes to mind? You might imagine someone powerful or inspiring. It could be a person who always seems to be one step ahead of others. You may think of someone specific—someone famous, or someone you know personally. You may even think of yourself.

The truth is, leadership can take many forms, and can look many different ways. Yet finding a true leader is like coming across a rare gem—it doesn’t happen every day. You see, while the idea of being a leader excites folks, often they’re actually only interested in what it will do for them. Perhaps they want power, control, wealth, accolades, or improved status. But the true leaders I’ve encountered in my life are those who view leadership not as a benefit to themselves, but as an obligation to others.

That’s why my favorite definition of leadership, which you can read right there in the dictionary, is this: “an example for others to follow.” A defining characteristic of some of the greatest leaders I’ve had the privilege of knowing is that they design their lives according to an obligation to others. They’re aware that people around them are depending on them and modeling their lives after them. Accordingly, these leaders strive to become better people. This is the unsexy secret of becoming a truly great leader—and honestly, there aren’t many people willing to take on such enormous responsibility. I think this is one of the primary root causes of the leadership gap so many people are talking about in the business world these days.

But I don’t mean to paint a dismal picture or discourage you. I actually see the challenge of becoming a great leader as a profound opportunity. The best leaders aren’t necessarily those who are born with some special “gift.” They’ve made a decision to take on the enormous responsibility of becoming an example for others—and you can too. Anyone can. Assuming the mantle of leadership is a choice anyone can make. Great leadership is a skill you can develop. That’s what “Intelligent Leadership” is all about.

If you’re someone who truly wants to evolve as a leader, and you’re comfortable with becoming “an example for others to follow,” then this book will show you a pathway to do so. It’s based on research, both formal and informal, that I’ve conducted over decades as an industrial psychologist and leadership coach. I’ve worked with some of the best leaders in the business world—some famous, others relatively unknown—and I’ve developed an approach to leadership that anyone can use to become a truly great leader—and human being.

We’ll go into great detail about Intelligent Leadership in the chapters that follow, but first I want to explore just what “great leadership” looks like.

Identifying the Goal

When you’re trying to achieve something, it’s important to have as clear a picture of your goal as possible. So before we go any further, I want to do a little exercise with you: Envision two different people who you consider to be great examples of leadership. One of those leaders should be someone famous: a Martin Luther King, Jr. or a Ronald Reagan or a Sheryl Sandberg-type character who, to you, best embodies the true essence of leadership. Your second example should be someone from your own life. It could be a boss, a mentor, teacher, pastor, coach, or parent. Choose someone who has been an example you’ve followed in your life and who has inspired you to do more, or to be better.

Now that you have your two examples in mind, I’d like you to think about what makes each one a great leader. What are the qualities, characteristics, and capacities they embody that inspire others? Be as specific as you can.

Examples that come to my mind include the late Steve Jobs, a former client of mine, who was an innovator and trendsetter. He always seemed to be at least two steps ahead of everyone else. I think of the pioneer Amelia Earhart, who wasn’t afraid to do things no one before her had ever done. My old baseball coach, who was unwilling to allow any of his players to settle for anything less than their best, continues to inspire me. I think of great athletes, like Lebron James or Alex Morgan, who are so personally dedicated to consistent improvement that they inspire others to do the same.

Now, go ahead and make a list of two individuals and their leadership qualities, and keep it handy. We’ll use it for reference as we move through the book.

The X Factor

I’m going to go out on a limb here and assume that, in addition to the qualities you listed, both of the leaders you thought of have an indefinable quality, something about each of them that can’t easily be articulated. This is a kind of “X factor” beyond their specific attributes giving them an extra leadership glow—a seemingly irreducible quality that’s difficult to point to, yet powerfully present in the greatest leaders.

This elusive quality contributes to the false assumption that people are born as great leaders—that they have a God-given talent for inspiring others that just seems to flow naturally from the core of who they are. And while I do believe that some people are “born leaders,” I’ve also come to believe, through countless experiences, that this leadership quality isn’t necessarily something you’re born with. It can be developed. You may never shine as brightly as Nelson Mandela or Bill Gates, but you can significantly evolve your own ability to be an example to others, and that’s what we’re going to spend the rest of this book learning how to do.

In my experience, this “X factor” of great leadership comes from cultivating a powerful connection to what I call your “inner core.” We’re going to spend a lot of time defining the inner core in the next chapter, but for now let’s use the metaphor of an iceberg. If you visualize an iceberg, you can see the white or blue ice towering above the waterline. But below the surface, what you can’t see, is a giant mass that makes up the vast majority of the iceberg, and that accounts for its movements through the ocean. So, like that iceberg, your inner core is everything in you that lies below the surface, all the “invisible” qualities that anchor your personality and that result in the skills and actions that people see.

Now, not everyone describes the inner core in this manner. Theologians and psychologists, and people far more intelligent than I from various disciplines and philosophical orientations, have different definitions for the inner core, whether it be the soul, the spirit, or the subconscious. To me, one’s inner core is the combination of self-concept, character, and values that, together, most deeply influences how we move through and respond to the world.

The greatest leaders, in my experience, are those who are not only deeply aware of their inner terrain, but also skilled at accessing it, changing it, and using it to guide and shape their actions in the world. Their connection to their inner core is the “glow” of great leadership. It’s the indefinable quality that makes great people tick.

The Intelligent Leadership (IL) model is designed to help you zero in on and cultivate your inner core so that you can start to exude the X Factor of great leadership. It may sound grandiose, but IL essentially breaks down the mysterious and often elusive qualities of great leadership and shows you, very practically, how to improve them in your own mind, heart, and soul. It essentially “reduces the irreducible” and gives you a concrete framework and blueprint for leadership development.

The Leadership Gap

There is a tremendous amount of intellectual power in the corporate world today. I’ve sat in boardrooms of some of the world’s biggest companies, and I’m awestruck by the sheer intelligence and cognitive capacities of those surrounding me. Companies have done a very good job of finding and cultivating their intellectual capital. And yet, in spite of all that, study after study and book after book find the same thing: there’s a lack of strong leadership in virtually every industry.

What does this tell us? I see a simple but often difficult to perceive truth: good leadership requires something more than just intellectual power. If you were to chart the intellectual and leadership abilities of most companies, like in Figure I.1, you’d see a skewed bell curve. The Y-axis represents the number of leaders, and the X-axis represents their capacities. As you can see, there are more leaders with high levels of cognitive capacity (represented by the curve on the right) than there are leaders with high levels of leadership capacity (represented by the curve on the left).

So why the gap? Why are there more leaders with high levels of intellect than there are leaders who possess a high degree of leadership strength? What’s missing? That’s what this book is all about. In order to translate intellectual power into strong leadership ability, you need to tap into the invisible elements of your inner core.

The Whole Enchilada

Now, before you think that this book is going to go “soft” and focus only on the hard-to-define subjective qualities of the “inner core,” I want to stop you right there. The whole point of the Intelligent Leadership process is to drive real, measurable results. In fact, one of the things that makes this unique amidst the panoply of leadership development techniques and philosophies on the market today is the way it combines an appreciation for both the inner core elements and the “outer core” capacities that drive your performance in the real world.

There are literally thousands of new leadership books published every year, and most of them tend to skew in one direction or the other. Some focus primarily on the subjective, inner experience of the individual; these tend to lack accountability or direct connections to how this inner work can translate into improved performance. Others try to skip over the important inner work that I’ve found is required to make real, sustained change in our “outer” capacities a reality.

I say that it’s all important. Unless you’re giving equal weight to both your inner core and your outer competencies, then you’re not going to develop in significant ways. Intelligent Leadership, which is made up of seven dimensions that we’ll spend the good majority of this book exploring, is the key to unlocking this powerful connection between the inner and the outer, the subjective and the objective, the invisible world below the surface and the visible qualities and capacities that make us great leaders.

We’re All Leaders

So who should read this book? My short answer is: anyone who wants to become a better human being.

One of my pet peeves is that many people have an unconscious assumption about who is and isn’t a leader. People in leadership circles tend to ascribe a lot of significance to titles and positions, which I’ve found can sometimes get in the way of the real essence of leadership development. In fact, if you read some of my previous books, you’ll see that I have, to a degree, succumbed to that same assumption. Much of what I’ve published in the past has been very specifically focused on helping people who are in formal positions of leadership in the business world—managers, VPs, CEOs—to become more effective.

The truth is that in the work I’ve done with thousands of people over the years, I’ve found that the principles driving great leadership are similar, if not identical, to the principles that drive any realm of human development. At the end of the day, what is a good leader if not a good human? Remember, the definition we’re using for leadership is “being an example for others to follow.” And who isn’t an example to someone? Even if you’re not in a position of formal leadership, you’re probably a parent, a coach, a teacher, or simply a friend.

Just by getting out of bed in the morning and entering the complex world of human relationships, you have influence on others. You’re an example of something to someone, whether you like it or not. And we all have room to change and improve the kind of example we are.

The Road Ahead

In the first chapter of this book, we’ll take a deep dive into the complex relationship between your inner core and your outer capacities for leadership. We’ll explore the many practical ways that focusing on your inner core will provide the foundation for your outer capacities to flourish and shine. We’ll talk about the developmental process itself, and how best to approach the inner and outer work we’ll be doing together.

Once we’ve established a baseline understanding of how the inner and outer core work together to unlock your leadership potential, we’ll spend the next seven chapters exploring the key elements of Intelligent Leadership. We’ll define these seven principles using stories, models, and examples, and give you concrete actions you can take to develop in regard to each. This will be the core of the book and the key to mastering the art of Intelligent Leadership.

We’ll then complete our journey together with an exploration of the subtle and important connection between leadership and culture. We’ll talk about the direct ways that your development as a leader can help to influence the culture of your team, your employees, your workplace, your family, and I’ll show you how to translate IL to the people around you.

Establishing Your Network

One of the most important elements of Intelligent Leadership is the use of feedback from others to help you identify your strengths and weaknesses, and to help track your developmental progress. Before we dive into the meat of the book, I’d like you to identify a few key people you can count on for feedback. Ideally, you want to select people you trust will be honest—a friend, co-worker, boss, employee, spouse. In each chapter of the book, I’ll ask you to reach out to your network to give you reflections on how they perceive you in relationship to the particular dimension we’re discussing. This information will be absolutely invaluable. Their feedback will not only give you an accurate sense of what you need to work on, but also confidence that you’re developing!

An Invitation to Go Deep

I have confidence in the power of Intelligent Leadership to transform those individuals who take it seriously. I don’t mean this to be self-congratulatory. The IL dimensions are something that I’ve discovered through my work with thousands of leaders and aspiring leaders. Some days I feel like an archaeologist of the human mind, heart, and soul, discovering new patterns in the geology of leadership through every interview, coaching session, or interaction I have. This book is where I’m publishing my discoveries—the code for leadership transformation that I’ve uncovered.

I invite you to open your heart and mind as much as you can as you read and work through this book. “Going deep” and exploring the subtle territory of your inner core can be a difficult experience. It requires vulnerability. It requires courage. It requires a kind of inner strength that we all have inside of us if we choose to exercise it. I guarantee that it will be worth your effort. I’ve seen too many success stories to think otherwise.