Marcus Buckingham in his HBR article reflected on great leaders:
In my research, beginning with a survey of 80,000 managers conducted by the Gallup Organization and continuing during the past two years with in-depth studies of a few top performers, I’ve found that while there are as many styles of management as there are managers, there is one quality that sets truly great managers apart from the rest: They discover what is unique about each person and then capitalize on it.
This takes getting to know people beyond their roles and stereotypes. This is what makes great leaders great, and what makes great teams great.