It’s a good question—but it’s also an impossibly large one.
Libraries are filled with books on the subject. I’ve read leadership advice from John Maxwell, and biographies of leaders ranging from Abraham Lincoln to Robert E. Lee to Attila the Hun. Different eras. Different temperaments. Different moral legacies. All called “leaders,” and all studied for what they supposedly got right—or wrong.
If this were a question that could be effectively answered in a single blog post, people wouldn’t be filling entire volumes with their opinions about it.
So instead of pretending I can solve the question here, I can tell you what I saw.
I had two dads who led in very different arenas.
I worked for my stepdad twice—once at a ministry that trained churches in leadership, and later at a church where he served as priest-in-charge. He was exceptional at setting vision and mission, and he delegated better than anyone I’ve ever known. He surrounded himself with effective, capable people and then gave them room to succeed. He was committed to continual self-improvement, and that commitment quietly set the expectation that everyone around him should keep growing as well. Above all, he was a man of integrity, and that made it easy for people to follow him anywhere.
My dad was a newspaper publisher, and I worked for him during high school. Much of what he knew he learned from his own father—my grandfather, the kind of man people would do anything for. My grandfather could tear someone to shreds for poor performance, and they would apologize for disappointing him and promise to do better. And then they did.
My dad inherited that gravitational pull, but expressed it in his own way. He was a visionary who saw trends long before they arrived. He hired strong leaders to run his departments and worked closely with them to ensure they, in turn, hired strong people beneath them. He created a family environment where people genuinely loved coming to work. He scheduled regular celebrations—often around major holidays—so there was always something ahead to anticipate. And he rewarded his employees well, including offering outstanding benefits. Both of my dads did that, actually. People are often willing to work for less salary when they know they’re cared for.
Both men kept a finger on the pulse of their organizations and adjusted when they needed to. Both loved their employees, and their employees knew it. As a result, turnover was remarkably low.
I couldn’t reduce what made either of them good leaders to a tidy list. But I know this: people trusted them, grew under them, and stayed with them. And that may be as close to an answer as a short post like this can honestly get.
Copyright © 2026 Doug DeBolt.
