We believe that Progress Makers presents a unique and valuable approach to recently emerging challenges in our organizations, communities and world. Traditional approaches to leadership often try to suppress the inherent uncertainty in the world. Progress-making leaders, on the other hand, embrace the uncertainty and inspire others to do so as well.

Traditional approaches to leadership typically fall into one of three categories:

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1. There are authors who focus on the skills and attributes of leaders. Great leaders are intelligent, visionary, inspiring, persistent, knowledgeable, driven, ethical and confident. They are also emotionally intelligent, effective time managers, skilled communicators, strategic thinkers, exceptional problem solvers and socially skilled, to name a few. Who wouldn’t want their leaders to possess all these characteristics? Yet, short of Superman or Wonder Woman, is it even possible for a single person to possess all these skills and attributes?
    

2. There are authors with a more academic orientation who present scholarly theories. They tend to either review the relevant leadership research or propose a particular leadership theory. Many readers find the academic debates exhilarating and enlightening. Yet, the theoretical debates often leave little room for discourse on strategies and the related tactics. What should the aspiring leader do based on these ideas?
    

3. There are authors who focus on the leadership “secrets” of successful leaders. An almost dizzying array of titles has emerged. There are the leadership secrets of Jack Welch, Elizabeth I, Winston Churchill, Abraham Lincoln, Hillary Clinton, Mahatma Gandhi, General Patton, Alexander the Great and even Harry Potter. Apparently, many readers find this “admire and emulate” strategy quite attractive. Yet, how does a leader know when a situation requires a Gandhian or Churchillian approach? After all, they deeply disliked and distrusted one another.

 

Troubling questions aside, aspiring leaders could clearly benefit from any one of these three approaches. Many leaders have been enriched by thoughts gleaned from one or more of these approaches.

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Progress should be at the center of any discussion of leadership. Aren’t leaders supposed to make progress? Yet relatively few leadership experts devote much attention to the issue.