Leadership is the lifting of a man’s vision to higher sights.

The leader who basically focuses on himself or herself is going to mislead. The three most charismatic leaders in this century inflicted more suffering on the human race than almost any other trio in history: Hitler, Stalin, and Mao. What matters is not the leader’s charisma. For leadership is not magnetic personality—that can just as well be demagoguery. It is not “making friends and influencing people”—that is flattery.

Leadership is the lifting of a man’s vision to higher sights, the raising of a man’s performance to a higher standard, the building of a man’s personality beyond its normal limitations. Nothing better prepares the ground for such ...

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