What makes a leader?

I have been thinking about how I can become better in a leadership capacity.
Like anything we can always improve.
This is a list that I like to use and reflect on and ask how am I measuring against them.

• Personal initiative.
• The adoption of a definite major purpose.
• A motive to inspire continuous action in pursuit of a definite major purpose.
• A Master mind alliance through which you may acquire the power to attain your definite purpose.
• Self-reliance in proportion to the scope and object of your major purpose.
• Self-discipline sufficient to insure mastery of the head and the heart, and to sustain your motives until they have been realized.
• Persistence, based on the will to win.
• A well-developed imagination, controlled and directed.
• The habit of reaching definite and prompt decisions.
• The habit of basing opinions on known facts instead of relying on guesswork.
• The habit of going the extra mile.
• The capacity to generate enthusiasm at will, and to control it.
• A well-developed sense of details.
• The capacity to take criticism without resentment.
• Familiarity with the ten basic motives that inspire all human action.
• The capacity to concentrate your full attention upon one task at a time.
• Willingness to accept full responsibility for the mistakes of subordinates.
• The habit of recognizing the merits and abilities of others.
• A positive mental attitude at all times.
• The habit of assuming full responsibility for any job or task undertaken.
• The capacity for applied faith.
• Patience with subordinates and associates.
• The habit of following through with any task once begun.
• The habit of emphasizing thoroughness instead of speed.
• Dependability, the only requirement of leadership that can be stated with one word – but no less important to success on that account.

Food for thought.

Fraser