Leadership: emotional intelligence, passion and … what else?

The purpose of this paper is to present the outcome of a business and management cohort's contemplations on leadership qualities that can be considered applicable under practically all circumstances.

The subject scope was organizational leadership. The methods used were written interviews. The topic was approached by: explaining the general disconformities of leadership qualities, depending on situations and followers; examining leadership students' perceptions on generally applicable leadership qualities; clustering the listed qualities; and presenting a model.

There are some leadership attributes that are generally applicable, regardless of situation and followers. The findings listed in this paper are not exhaustive but should rather be used as a pragmatic tool for further research on the topic.

The population used for data was limited, as it consisted of business and management students with a leadership emphasis. The themes to be collected were also limited, due to the pre‐set restriction for each student to list only one additional leadership quality. The findings were only gathered from one cohort, later enriched with additional interview findings, and might provide increased themes when extended over multiple courses in multiple semesters, or when applied in additional qualitative or quantitative studies on the topic. Applying this study on other populations for a greater foundation in findings.

There are some qualities that work in leadership all the time and everywhere, and leaders could use this list as an encouraging reflection onto their practices.

In these times when all leadership sources claim that successful leadership is as dispersed as the situations and natures of followers, this paper provides a refreshing viewpoint that there are qualities in existence that will enhance a leader's performance, regardless of the nature of the constituents.