Tapping the Fount

Each year, scores of books are published on the subject of leadership. They're written by academic giants like Noel Tichy and Warren Bennis, great CEOs such as A.G. Lafley, and by sports legends like Duke University basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski. I wrote a bestseller called The 100 Mile Walk...A Father and Son on a Quest to Find the Essence of Leadership. Those of us who aspire to be better can learn something from any of these books. But there's one thing that's so simple it's often overlooked in even the best leadership tomes.

The one defining characteristic I've seen in all great leaders is that they strive to do the right thing. For instance, Sir Harry Evans, editor-at-large of The Week, and his wife Tina Brown, former editor of Vanity Fair and The New Yorker, persuaded the owners of the RMS Queen Mary 2 to host a benefit for the American Institute of Stuttering. Some famous stutterers were invited, including Jack Welch of GE, John Stossel of 20/20, singer Carly Simon, and Kenyon Martin of the Denver Nuggets. For months, Evans and Brown worked tirelessly to make certain the event was a success. Together they raised $1 million for the study and treatment of stuttering.