From the course: Lessons in Enlightened Leadership

Qualities of an enlightened leader

- Well, I love talking about the difference between an effective and an enlightened leader. It's actually something that I'm studying as a part of my Henry Crown Fellowship at the Aspen Institute. And if you look at the course of history, there are countless examples of really effective leaders, but those leaders are people that I would never want to be like. Those are people that could have been effective in their mission, and impact, and accomplishment, but they way they did it, and actually how they did it, were things that I would never want to emulate. And so as we think about the difference between an effective and an enlightened leader, I think about the qualities of an enlightened leader, qualities that I wish I had been taught many, many years ago. And those qualities are things around empathy, vulnerability, authenticity, generosity, intellectual curiosity. Those are the types of qualities that an enlightened leader has versus an effective leader. An enlightened leader brings their humanity to what they do. They make decisions based on what's right for people and the betterment of people and society, as opposed to just trying to get a task done.

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