Innovative Leadership

Here’s How to Recognize Distinguished Leaders

Prominent traits that attract us to exceptional leaders

Photo by Library of Congress on Unsplash

Introduction and Context

I have been researching leadership in various settings for several decades. In one of the leadership articles, I introduced 26 key characteristics of excellent leaders. My research revealed the difference between excellent leaders and distinguished leaders.

Distinguished leaders are particularly interesting to me as they operate at a higher level than excellent leaders. They pay significant attention to their physical and mental health.

They also care about the health of their followers especially recognizing their stress levels. Therefore, my research is inclined toward the cognitive, psychological, and business capability traits of these leaders.

I also used the model for my professional development, which added an extra dimension to the study. The method used for research manifested as a combination of ethnographic and case studies deemed to be optimal for qualitative research.

In this article, I want to share a dozen of traits which are observable in recognizing distinguished leaders. To set the context, I want to define leaders in this…