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“Leadership Qualities” vs. Competence: Which Matters More?

Harvard Business Review

There’s sometimes a disconnect between how we talk about leadership qualities (we tend to use words like authority , power , and emotional intelligence ) and what we actually require from the people leading teams and other working groups (arguably, competence and a deep knowledge of the specific work that needs to get done).

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The Best Leaders Allow Themselves to Be Persuaded

Harvard Business Review

Anders Ericsson studied what separates the masters from the mediocre in a wide range of cognitively complex skills (from chess to violin), he discovered that the quality of practice determined performance. As Cornell psychologist David Dunning says, “The road to self-insight runs through other people.”