Leadership resources abound. There are books, courses, conferences, coaching, and mentoring.

I can't even pretend to make any significant contribution to the discussion. But there is one area that fascinates me. It's the matter of the leader's personality. Again, I know that a plethora of materials and data exist on personality assessments and characteristics, so I'm probably not going to make any new discoveries. But in the process of over two decades of research and consultation, I've seen and worked with a lot of leaders, most of them in churches or other Christian organizations.

Some of them are effective. Some are not.

And I've found that some of the most effective leaders share common traits. That is not to suggest that they are personality clones. They do, however, have some things in common.

Seven common traits

Since my research is more subjective than not, I don't want to suggest that this list of personality characteristics is exhaustive. Nor do I want to suggest that the order is ...