The Hidden Superpower of Every Great Leader: Dr John Hillen On Uncovering the Traits That Separate Good Leaders from Exceptional Ones
An Interview With Cynthia Corsetti
Adaptability is an outstanding executive competency, but so are grit, determination, and consistency. It depends on the situation, the goals, the obstacles, the kind of team one is leading….and much else. So, adaptability is not always what a leader must do, let alone thinking of it (or anything else) as a so-called superpower. The real wisdom related to this or any other trait of leadership is to know when to use it — and access it if it is called for. Stubborn people who react poorly to change can rarely access adaptability when they need it. On the other hand, flexible thinkers who are always ready to turn on a dime and try something new might struggle to access grit and continuity when that might be the right move. You want all these clubs in your bag as a leader and mostly the wisdom to know which club to use when.
What is it that makes certain leaders stand out and achieve extraordinary results? Beyond technical skills and strategic thinking, great leaders often possess hidden superpowers — those intangible traits that set them apart. These traits enable them to inspire others, foster trust, and drive innovation even in challenging environments. As part of this series, we are interviewing John Hillen.
The Honorable Dr. John Hillen is a board chairman, corporate director, popular college professor, and sought after speaker. In addition to his board roles, he teaches strategy and leadership at Duke University, Hampden-Sydney College, and in the MBA program at George Mason University — where he has won several teaching awards. A former public company CEO who has built and sold four mid-sized companies, he is an award-winning leadership author, a former senior US government official, a decorated combat veteran, and an executive coach.
John’s newest book, The Strategy Dialogues, is a critically acclaimed guide to thinking and acting strategically. Called by Patrick Lencioni “practical as it is entertaining…John Hillen makes strategy actionable and understandable” and by Marshall Goldsmith “a must-read for anyone looking to get clarity and bring these tools to their businesses.” John uses his decades of strategic leadership experience in several fields to reveal for audiences the secrets of strategic thinking and how to shape the future for their organizations — skills that every executive needs to master.
An experienced speaker, facilitator and teacher, he moderates leadership seminars for The Aspen Institute and writes often on strategy and leadership. His previous book, What Happens Now: Reinvent Yourself As a Leader Before Your Business Outruns You (co-authored with Mark Nevins) was named one of the top 30 business books of 2018 and is in its third printing.
Unanimously confirmed by the Senate in 2005, Hillen served as the Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs in the second half of the Bush administration and in that capacity spent much of his time with U.S. and allied troops in war zones from Iraq to Afghanistan to the southern Philippines. He has written or edited several books on international security affairs and has published articles in dozens of journals and newspapers, including Foreign Affairs, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post. He has appeared on every major television network and was an on-air commentator for ABC News for a number of years.
Hillen, who served for 12 years as an Army reconnaissance officer and paratrooper, was awarded the Bronze Star for his role in the Battle of the 73 Easting during Operation Desert Storm. He recently spent nine years on the Chief of Naval Operations Executive Panel, the federal advisory committee supporting the head of the U.S. Navy and received the Navy’s Meritorious Public Service Award in 2017. He was the military advisor on the original Call of Duty video game series set in World War II. In 2020 he was inducted into the US Army ROTC Hall of Fame.
Dr. Hillen graduated from Duke University with degrees in public policy studies and history and was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship after graduation. He holds a master’s degree in war studies from King’s College London, a doctorate in international relations from Oxford University, and an MBA from the Johnson School of Management at Cornell University. He was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws from Hampden-Sydney College in 2019.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series. Before we dive into our discussion, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you share with us the backstory about what brought you to your specific career path?
I have had four different careers: first, as a professional Army officer, then as a public policy expert and senior US government official, then as a CEO of technology services firms, both public and private, and finally as a college Professor and author. What ties all those different career episodes together is my passion for leadership. Every organization in the world, from the largest multinational corporation to the small church choir, has one thing in common: a group of people working together trying to accomplish something. I dedicated my life to understanding that process as a leader and trying to shape it effectively — be it in the Army, The State Department, on Wall Street, or on campus.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career?
For some reason I cannot really fathom, I’ve been at the center of a number of cataclysmic events. My Army unit was patrolling the Iron Curtain between West and East Germany the night the Berlin Wall came down. During Desert Storm, I was in the middle of the biggest tank battle since World War II. I was the COO of a financial services firm in downtown New York City on September 11th, just a few blocks from the World Trade Center. And I did an IPO in the middle of the recession in 2009 — one of a handful of successful IPOs in the American economy that year. So, I’ve been blessed or cursed, depending on your outlook, to be in high-stakes leadership situations from the very start of my career.
What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?
I’ve led four different companies, public and private, and in all of them, we had two things that I treasured — and to which I attribute our successes. First was a great culture — people in the companies I was privileged to lead really wanted to be there. They loved the mission, the people around them, and the value system of the company. Second, we were strategically oriented. My companies were constantly trying to reposition in the market, to shape the competitive landscape — disrupt things — and not just accept the environment. The mid-sized companies I helped build are now in the hands of large public companies, who at the end of the day, found it compelling to merge our efforts into theirs because of that strategic impact we had on the market.
You are a successful business leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?
I call these the ‘Keys to the Leadership Kingdom.
First, be an emotionally intelligent leader. It is not enough to be smart, determined, authoritative, and all the rest. Those fine qualities are not enough to build a first-class team and generate followership. Almost every success I had stemmed from channeling my emotional intelligence — building relationships through empathy, showing self and social awareness for how my teams were feeling… and performing.
Second, be an ethical leader. Not enough leaders are comfortable making calls about right and wrong. That must be in a strategic leader’s comfort zone — CEO could just as well stand for ‘Chief Ethical Officer’. I was once interviewing the head of a big organization and asked him who was in charge of ethics in his enterprise. First, he offered up HR (no), second, the general counsel (no), and finally, the organizational chaplain (no). I told him all those people can help with ethics, but he must own institutional ethics as part of his responsibility. People want to trust their leaders to do the right thing — to have judgement, not just business smarts.
Finally, and no surprise given my work and most recent book on strategy — leaders need to think strategically. They should always have an eye on the future, the big picture, and the changing dynamics of the ecosystems in their competitive landscape. Too many business leaders outsource this to so-called strategy firms. As Harvard Professor Cynthia Montgomery reminds us, strategy is not a distraction from a leader getting things done, it is at the heart of their responsibility!
Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. What makes someone exceptional?
There is no one definition of ‘exceptional’. Now, having said that, all leaders need to produce results — and do them in the right way, as I just mentioned with ethics. But there are many roads to get there. I have seen exceptional leaders in all 16 Meyers Briggs categories, with every possible combination of Clifton Strengths, or with any one of the six leadership styles that Daniel Goleman identified. Leaders of all different sorts can be exceptional if they generate followers — that is the purpose of leadership, after all. Exceptional leaders accomplish good and important things for their organization, sustain success, and earn the trust and respect of their stakeholders.
How do exceptional leaders leverage emotional intelligence to inspire and influence their teams?
My own experience in leadership reflects the general research findings on emotional intelligence, which is that the higher the leader goes, the more EI is critical to their success than simply smarts or determination. At the highest levels of leadership, leaders don’t need to be the ones crunching the data, doing the detailed planning, or approving the engineering process…. or any similar processes. Rather, they need to inspire the organization, align the talents, set the cultural tone, model and enforce the values, and influence stakeholders. These are all heavily reliant on emotional intelligence skills.
What role does humility play in the success of great leaders, and how is it demonstrated in their behavior?
I do think leaders should be humble and empathic as a general rule. James Collin’s old concept of the ‘Level Five’ leader — who is humble but determined — is a sound one. I don’t think humility is the goal per se. The goal is to succeed organizationally, do it the right way, generate followership, and earn trust from all stakeholders. Sometimes confidence and ego are key ingredients there — it is situation-dependent. I think the best general rule of thumb is for leaders to always express things in a team fashion. Use “we” and “ours” rather than “me” and “mine.” I am consistently struck by how tone-deaf leaders can be on this — too often I hear CEOs refer to themselves AS the organization in the way they speak. “I need to win another $100M in contracts….,” “My EBITDA dipped a bit this quarter….” As we might call it in Vegas, that is a sure ‘tell’ of a leader who needs the humility of recognizing that they lead a team of people, and the leader is NOT the story.
How do exceptional leaders navigate difficult conversations and foster open communication in their organizations?
Dr. Mark Nevins, with whom I wrote a leadership book in 2018, is an amazing authority on this question. One of his pieces related to your question is still very popular on Harvard Business Review’s website (https://hbr.org/2018/12/how-to-collaborate-with-people-you-dont-like). Having difficult conversations, learning to listen rather than simply broadcast, collaborating with people you may not like, and inspiring an organization-wide culture of open communication is a very necessary skill set for an institutional leader. And it’s not easy! So, there are books and books written on this, but my short answer is: work at it — just like you might work at a certain element of a fitness improvement regimen. Put that skill into your ‘Leadership Fitness Plan’ — an exercise I use for my leadership students.
What makes adaptability a superpower in leadership, and how do the best leaders exemplify it?
Adaptability is an outstanding executive competency, but so are grit, determination, and consistency. It depends on the situation, the goals, the obstacles, the kind of team one is leading….and much else. So, adaptability is not always what a leader must do, let alone thinking of it (or anything else) as a so-called superpower. The real wisdom related to this or any other trait of leadership is to know when to use it — and access it if it is called for. Stubborn people who react poorly to change can rarely access adaptability when they need it. On the other hand, flexible thinkers who are always ready to turn on a dime and try something new might struggle to access grit and continuity when that might be the right move. You want all these clubs in your bag as a leader and mostly the wisdom to know which club to use when.
Ok super. Here is the main question of our interview. What are your “Five Traits That Separate Good Leaders from Exceptional Ones”? If you can, please share a story or an example for each.
1 . They are self-aware and play to their strengths, while assembling a team with complementary skills to cover down on their weaker areas.
2 . They commit time and effort to building and maintaining their leadership networks, seeking to manage external stakeholders effective and building relationships that may be needed in the future.
3 . They feel equipped and are unafraid to be the Chief Ethical Officer, the Chief Explaining Officer, or the Philosopher in Chief of their organization. Too many leaders view their role narrowly and based on their technical and tactical skills acquired as they climbed through the ranks. Those skills are NOT the source of authority for a leader — the higher-order strategic and interpersonal skills are.
4 . They think strategically and spend time working ON their business (oriented towards the future) rather than just IN their business (oriented towards today’s issues). They not only practice thinking strategically, but they embrace that role as the heart of their responsibilities and refuse to delegate it.
5 . They are willing to be a values-setter and a values-enforcer. If culture can be defined by values, systems of belief, and patterns of behavior, leaders must own the culture.
How do great leaders balance confidence with vulnerability to create stronger connections with their teams?
Yes, balance. I like this concept better than ‘super-powers,’ which can lead leaders to over-rely on one trait or attribute rather than being attentive to what the situation might demand for effective leadership. Vulnerability can be an asset — when twinned with competence, vision, and inspiration. I show my students a film clip about the Crossing of the Delaware River during the American Revolution. Before the operation, George Washington, realizing that his track record as a leader at that point was pretty spotty, referred to himself in front of his top team as “a bumbling Virginia farmer.” But he followed that immediately with a bold plan of action, a well-thought-through strategy to achieve it, and an alignment of people and resources that was compelling. So, he was vulnerable and confident at the same time. Too much one way or the other can be debilitating.
What strategies do exceptional leaders use to consistently recognize and nurture talent within their organizations?
The ones that work! This is another question on which volumes and volumes have been written. And there are many different ways to work and promote executive development and leadership development. But, I will make one over-arching point here on it. Great leaders think of leadership development as a key part of their responsibility and one that they cannot entirely delegate. They invest their own time and effort in it. Conversely….and sadly….I see too many leaders entirely delegate this to HR or OD experts, thinking that those people have the expertise and experience to oversee talent development while the leader does not. Leaders create other leaders. Leaders need to own that as a personal responsibility.
You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)
Leaders are servants; internalize that. Serve the mission, serve the people.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
My latest book is The Strategy Dialogues: A Primer on Business Strategy and Strategic Management. Currently the #1 release on Amazon in several business categories, it is available at: https://www.amazon.com/Strategy-Dialogues-Business-Strategic-Management/dp/3903386316/
More about the work I have done and the things I write and speak about can be found on my website: www.johnhillen.com
These are some of things leaders are saying about it:
“When an author can make something as practical as it is entertaining, you have something special! John Hillen makes strategy actionable and understandable in a way that everyone will be able to navigate, grasp and put into practice.”
-Patrick Lencioni — New York Times bestselling author of 13 books, including The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, with over 8 million copies sold worldwide
“John Hillen masterfully breaks down the fundamentals of what strategy is and how to use it to make your company and life more effective and meaningful.”
-Arthur C. Brooks — Harvard Professor and #1 New York Times bestselling author
“John Hillen has reproduced a masterclass on how to think and act strategically in book form.”
-Professor Sir Lawrence Freedman — Author of Strategy: A History
“A brilliant combination of wisdom, practicality, and storytelling!”
-Dr. Marshall Goldsmith — Thinkers50 #1 Executive Coach and New York Times bestselling author of What Got You Here Won’t Get You There
Thank you for the time you spent sharing these fantastic insights. We wish you only continued success in your great work!
About the Interviewer: Cynthia Corsetti is an esteemed executive coach with over two decades in corporate leadership and 11 years in executive coaching. Author of the upcoming book, “Dark Drivers,” she guides high-performing professionals and Fortune 500 firms to recognize and manage underlying influences affecting their leadership. Beyond individual coaching, Cynthia offers a 6-month executive transition program and partners with organizations to nurture the next wave of leadership excellence.
