Embodying Leadership Characteristics

In his sustainable capitalism keynote at Stanford Graduate School of Business, Al Gore also speaks to leadership, the climate crisis and its solutions. While the bulk of the former Vice President's speech focuses on global warming, there are several important takeaways for businesses that he touches on at the beginning of his speech.

The three main principles of leadership are vision, values and goals. If success is a team sport, a leader needs to coach and motivate individuals on that team by taking responsibility for the organization's vision. This vision of what the team is trying to accomplish must be completely embodied. A leader is also responsible for all individuals agreeing on an ethical and business criteria for decision making. Leadership requires a time ordered sequence of priorities to reach outlined goals, and ensuring this time line is met. The sustainable capitalism keynote states enforcing and embodying these three things is key to success.