President Obama announced Friday morning that he has picked Jim Yong Kim, the president of Dartmouth College, to lead the World Bank. His nomination of Kim comes a month after current head Robert Zoellick said he would be stepping down.

Some say experience is what you get when you don’t get what you want. Perhaps. But I say experience is only as valuable as what we do with it.

As part of an annual tradition here at On Leadership, every December we ask a panel of prominent leadership experts which leaders they think think deserve top accolades for their performance over the course of the year. Experts from On Becoming a Leader author Warren Bennis to True North author Bill George to In Search of Excellence author Tom Peters weighed in. See which leadership expert nominated which leader in our photo gallery.

Check out the biographies from any “who’s who” list of the most successful leaders, and you will find an impressive catalog of achievements. That’s because most leaders are competitive people driven by challenges; they play to win and usually do.

Perhaps the most pervasive axiom on the topic of leadership is that leadership is all about people. This simple statement reveals two critical principles of effective leadership. First, leadership is more than accomplishing a goal or mission. Second, seeing as the word “people” is plural, the focus of who benefits from leadership should be on the followers, not the leader.

We’ve all had leaders who are really taken with their image in the mirror, so impressed by the power and influence they seemingly wield. They’re the center of attention, and pleasing them becomes the focus of all our efforts. It's easy for us to notice their selfishness as they push the people in our organizations to increase the bottom line. And yet they’re often unaware of just how easily we see through their shallow veneer.

Of all the facets of character, integrity might be the most critical – it builds valuable trust between people – and yet also the most esoteric. I’ve heard many sage leaders say, “Integrity is doing the right thing when no one is watching.” That definition relies too much on habit. I can be without integrity, yet trained to behave predictably in a certain manner. Of course, discipline is valuable; but I want to know that my hands are disciplined as a result of the integrity of my soul, not my ability to follow rules without thinking about them.

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]]> http://feeds.washingtonpost.com/click.phdo?i=5d9dd6ed0637875eff1eb610e38b75f6 http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/guest-insights/post/whats-washingtons-problem/2011/04/04/AGmecPpH_blog.html?wprss=rss_guest-insights http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/guest-insights/post/whats-washingtons-problem/2011/04/04/AGmecPpH_blog.html?wprss=rss_guest-insights http://www.washingtonpost.com/Fragment/SysConfig/WebPortal/twpweb/rss/mobile/blog-entry.jpp?id=6.1.2727476754 http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/guest-insights/post/whats-washingtons-problem/2011/04/04/AGmecPpH_blog.html?wprss=rss_guest-insights http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/guest-insights/post/whats-washingtons-problem/2011/04/04/AGmecPpH_blog.html http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/guest-insights/post/whats-washingtons-problem/2011/04/04/AGmecPpH_search.html 6.1.2727476754 bd583562-a1b0-11e0-b11b-7f39c99b8910 Tue, 28 Jun 2011 13:03:00 EST Tue, 28 Jun 2011 16:07:22 EST 20110628210722 The Washington Post /WashingtonPost/Content/Blogs/guest-insights/201106/whats-washingtons-problem-debt-ceiling-tweet-feed.xml /WashingtonPost/Content/Blogs/guest-insights/201106/whats-washingtons-problem-debt-ceiling-tweet-feed.xml BlogStory BlogStory The Washington Post This piece is the first installment in a six-part series on leadership character by Col. Eric Kail.

Are you a courageous leader?

The question often leads the imagination to extreme examples such as rushing into a burning building without hesitation in order to save someone. And it’s easy to assume that someone simply has that ability to be courageous or they don’t. Yet not only is the example flawed, the subsequent assumption is flawed. Let’s make the question more relevant. Would you speak up for a coworker if your boss were speaking inappropriately about them, or is that something you just pretend you would do?