What is leadership? What makes for a good leader? There's a lot of advice in books but that's all it is -- advice. Two people can read a book on leadership, but neither will become a great leader simply by reading the book. There's something intangible that separates a good leader from someone simply "in charge of things." So, in an informal poll (read: having lunch with several people), I put the question out there and tried to capture the essence of a true leader. I was glad to see that my colleagues in this industry agreed with me that my sense of a leadership vacuum was not just a figment of my imagination. This is what my colleagues and industry partners told me.

Sincerity - The majority of the feedback I received was that people need their leaders to be believable. Often, the sense is an oft-delivered message becomes so packaged that it sounds like a sales pitch. Politics immediately comes to mind because sound bytes and canned responses ring hollow. In business, it's the buzzwords. Maybe at one time, it made the leader sound professional and sophisticated. Today, buzzwords seem more like a safety net when the leader doesn't know the answer.

Authenticity – When I first heard this comment, I thought this meant that larger-than-life leaders were somehow cold and unapproachable and therefore did not come across as sincere. After probing a bit, I realized that my colleagues were talking about a trust issue. Related to, but quite different than sincerity, authenticity means that the words match the actions and the leader's humanness is reflected in their approach to people. People want leadership that is affected by the problems of the organization and invigorated by the promise of the future. Anything else is cheerleading.