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ost of us are good leaders. Most of us aspire to be great leaders. Few are. What does it take to transcend “good” and become “great?” What’s the secret?

There isn’t one.

The differences between a good leader and a great one boil down to a handful of traits that inspire people to follow you and achieve outstanding results. Fortunately, all of them are skills you can build over time. In my experience, there are a dozen traits that are required before a leader can even hope to be great.

Building and demonstrating these traits doesn’t guarantee greatness, not by a long shot. But the absence of any one of these 12 traits will definitely hold you back from being great. In no particular order, here are some key leadership differentiators. Great leaders are:

Authentic. What you see is what you get. Great leaders share their hopes, fears, dreams, and failures. They truly care to know you as a person and want you to know them the same way. They strip away the façade and reveal their true selves to their team every day.

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