The Anatomy of a Leader
10 Essential Traits of Great Leaders
Think about your body for a moment.
When it's functioning well - when your heart is steady, your mind is clear, your feet are grounded, and your hands are moving with purpose - you feel balanced, focused, and capable of handling whatever comes your way.
Each part contributes in its own way.
And when one part fails, everything else compensates until you feel the strain.
Leadership is no different.
A great leader, like a healthy body, relies on a set of interdependent traits—each with its own role.
Vision without execution is a daydream.
Courage without safety gets you into trouble.
Strategy without communication goes nowhere.
Just as your brain, heart, muscles, and nerves need to work together for your body to function optimally, your leadership traits must also operate in harmony.
And just like nobody has a perfect body, there’s no such thing as a perfect leader.
In this post, I’ll explore the anatomy of a leader and discuss ten important traits of great leaders, as well as how they relate to the corresponding functions of the human body.
You’ll see how each trait shows up in the workplace, and what happens when it’s underdeveloped. Think of this as a leadership health check—and maybe even a bit of a workout. 💪
Ready? Let’s begin!
1. The Brain = Strategic Thinking
Your brain is what helps you process information, spot patterns, and make sense of the world around you. It filters out noise, focuses your attention, and helps you plan your next move.
As a leader, your brain is your ability to think strategically. It’s easy to get caught up in the urgent stuff—putting out fires, running from meeting to meeting, crossing off endless tasks.
As a strategic leader, you know when to pause. You zoom out and ask, Where are we going? Why does this matter? What happens next if we make this move?
Strategic thinking is about making sure today’s actions are taking you closer to tomorrow’s goals—not just keeping you “busy.”
In Mastering Strategic Leadership with These 5 Chess Principles, I discussed how strategic thinkers are like chess grandmasters, always thinking several moves ahead in the game.
Example:
Imagine you are a manager leading a customer support engineering team.
Your team is overwhelmed with an endless number of tickets tied to unstable code. It feels like no matter how fast you respond, the queue never really clears (Argh!) I have faced this situation many times over. A reactive approach would be to keep pushing your team for faster ticket resolution and tighter SLAs, hoping you can stay afloat. Go. Go. Go!
But if you step back and think strategically, you start asking bigger questions. You dig into the data, look for patterns, and realize that two specific modules are causing most of the issues. Instead of running harder, you propose building a small strike team to fix the root problems.
It’s not flashy work, and it may not get immediate applause, but after a few months, the number of incoming incidents drops by 40%. Now, your team finally has breathing room to work on improvements instead of living in fire-fighting mode.
If you hadn't paused to think bigger, your team would still be drowning in daily chaos, and slowly burning out.
👉🏼 Don’t just fight fires. Lift your head and see the bigger picture.
2. The Heart = Empathy
Your heart doesn’t just keep you alive, it gives meaning to your existence. In leadership, empathy is the emotional core that helps you build trust with your team.
When you show real empathy—by understanding what your team is going through—you create a sense of safety. Your team feels seen, valued, and supported.
Empathy also helps you lead through the messy, unpredictable parts of work—missed deadlines, team conflicts, personal struggles. It’s what allows you to coach someone through a rough patch instead of judging them. It’s what helps you ask, “How can I support you?” instead of just asking, “When will this be done?”
In The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Leaders, we discussed how cultivating empathy is a cornerstone habit of great leaders.
Example:
Imagine you’re leading a high-performing product team about to hit a major deadline.
One of your engineers, usually consistent and reliable, shows a sudden drop in performance — he skips standups, and his code quality drops, with many issues reported by the QA. Seeing this, you may be tempted to confront him publicly and hold him accountable.
But instead, you check in privately in a one-on-one. Through the conversation, you learn that he’s been dealing with a family emergency and is trying not to let it affect his work.
So, rather than pushing him harder, you offer some flexibility, temporarily reassign some of his tasks, and let him know he’s supported. That single act of empathy builds loyalty and trust, not just with him, but with the rest of the team as well. Your team knows you care, and you will support them when they need it.
On the other hand, if you had ignored the signs and pushed for results, the engineer might have lost hope, made a critical mistake, or quietly started looking elsewhere.
👉🏼 Use your head, but don’t forget to lead with your heart.
3. The Eyes = Vision
Your eyes help you see what’s ahead and move with confidence. As a leader, your vision does the same thing for your team—it shows them where they’re headed, especially when things feel unclear or uncertain.
Vision isn’t just about setting big goals. It’s about painting a picture of the future that your team can believe in and get excited about. It’s about helping them see how their daily work connects to something bigger that really matters.
When your team knows where they’re going—and why it matters—they bring more energy, take more ownership, and get more creative. However, if you don’t provide them with that vision, they work below their full potential and energy. They get stuck just trying to survive the day instead of building something better for the future.
Looking for some inspiration? Check out "The Golden Circle: Use This Simple 3-Step Framework To Lead With Purpose" and "Ikigai: The Secret to Leading with Purpose and Fulfillment," where I discuss two popular frameworks that you can use to set the vision and purpose for your organization.
Example:
Let’s say you’re leading a backend platform team that handles internal APIs for other teams in the company. I have been doing this for many years throughout my career.
The work is technically deep but often invisible, as the APIs don’t appear directly on your customer’s screens. They don’t “see” the APIs when they use the product. Your team never hears any customer testimonials about their latest API enhancements. To bridge this gap, you take time to articulate a vision: “We’re building the connective tissue of this company’s products. Every single customer experience relies on the reliability of the systems and the APIs we own.”
You start highlighting dependencies during planning, bringing in stories from other teams about how your work enables theirs, and how this is going to show up for millions of customers. Suddenly, a ticket isn’t just a ticket—it’s a piece of infrastructure powering millions of customer actions. That shift in narrative lifts the team’s morale and arms them with what matters most: purpose.
👉🏼 If you can’t see the future clearly, your team won’t either.
4. The Ears = Awareness
Your ears help you pick up on things you might otherwise miss—what people say, how they say it, and sometimes, what they don’t say at all.
As a leader, listening and awareness are two of the most powerful skills you have, and most people don’t use them enough.
It’s not just about sitting through meetings or nodding along. It’s about paying attention to what’s underneath the words—the mood in the room, the hesitation in someone’s voice, the energy shift when a tough topic comes up.
Great leaders make space for the quiet voices, the half-formed ideas, the people who need a little more time to speak up. That’s how you uncover issues before they blow up.
In 5 Quick and Easy Ways to Earn Respect As A Leader, we discussed how “listening, not just hearing,” plays a key role in earning respect as a leader.
Example:
Imagine you’re running a project planning session, and you notice two engineers who usually work well together starting to avoid direct interaction with each other. It’s subtle—no shouting, just tension in the air—but you can hear it loud and clear.
Instead of brushing it off as “just a bad hair day”, you schedule 1:1s with each of them and give them space to share while actively listening to their point of view. You discover that one engineer feels her ideas are getting dismissed and overshadowed. By spotting this early and addressing it, you realign expectations and prevent a small tension from escalating into a full-blown conflict. If you had ignored the signs, you could have ended up dealing with resentment, passive-aggressive behavior, or even losing someone from the team.
👉🏼 Listen closely—what you don't hear might matter the most.
5. The Spine = Integrity
Your spine keeps you upright. It’s your structural foundation—and in leadership, that foundation is your integrity.
Courage and integrity are what help you do the right thing, even when it’s not the easy thing, even when it might make you unpopular.
Leaders are tested not when things go well, but when stakes are high and your reputation is at risk. Do you speak up when you see something wrong? Do you stand by your team in front of an aggressive exec? Do you hold your peers accountable even if it’s uncomfortable? These moments define your reputation far more than your wins.
In Confessions of a Middle Manager: Secrets, Regrets and Guilty Pleasures, I discuss several situations and ethical dilemmas in which great managers must uphold their integrity and stand for what is right.
Example:
Imagine your team is under pressure to deliver a release on time, but deep down, you know the product isn’t ready. There are quality issues that could hurt customer trust. It would be easier to push your team harder, cross your fingers, and ship anyway.
But you choose to stand your ground.
You escalate the concerns with your leadership, recommend a short delay to fully address the quality gaps, and take responsibility for the delay. It’s not the popular choice, but it protects your team’s reputation and, ultimately, the customer's trust in your product.
If you had folded under pressure, your team would have learned that deadlines matter more than quality or values, and that’s not a lesson you want them to learn.
👉🏼 Stand tall for what’s right, even when it’s hard.
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6. The Hands = Execution
Hands get things done. In leadership, execution is where intentions become outcomes.
You can have a grand vision and an empowering strategy, but if you don’t deliver, none of it matters. Execution is what turns vision into reality.
Execution is about crisply defining what success looks like, setting up systems for accountability, and creating momentum. It also means removing blockers—whether technical, organizational, or interpersonal—so the team can actually get work done and deliver value.
In The 48 Laws of Power⚡️in Leadership, I discussed how Execution Power is a key pillar for leadership success.
Example:
Imagine you’re leading a cross-functional project with engineering, experience design, and marketing teams. Everyone’s excited after the kickoff, but a month later, nothing really moved. When you look closer, you find that decisions are still pending approval, and ownership of key work items isn’t clear.
As a leader who cares about execution, you don’t let it drift. You step in, work with your cross-functional stakeholders to set clear ownership, move decisions forward, and establish accountability and milestones. Things start moving again, and the project is back on track.
If you had stayed hands-off, the project might have fizzled out completely, and everyone would be wondering why it failed.
👉🏼 There’s nothing wrong with having grand dreams, but results come from getting your hands dirty.
7. The Legs = Resilience
Your legs keep you moving, especially when the road gets tough. As a leader, grit is what shows up after the third setback, the fifteenth “no,” or the feature that didn’t land the way you hoped.
Resilience isn’t just about bouncing back—it’s about learning, adjusting, and staying steady when things feel shaky.
It’s easy to lead when everything’s working. But real leadership shows up when projects miss deadlines, customer feedback stings, or you get an ‘urgent’ call from your CEO. That’s when your resilience becomes the thing your team leans on to keep moving forward.
Looking for a practical framework you can use to manage risks and unknowns? Check out: The Animal Risk Matrix: How to Spot, Prioritize, and Manage Risks Like a Pro.
Example:
Imagine your team launches a new feature after months of hard work and anticipation, only to find that your customers barely use it in the field. Everyone in the team feels defeated and demoralized. As a leader, you may feel tempted to hide the results and move on quickly and quietly.
But you choose a different path. You organize a retrospective (some call it blameless portmortem), and frame the experience as a valuable learning moment. Together with your encouragement and support, the team identifies insights they’ll apply to the next release. By staying resilient and solution-focused, you turn a failure into a stepping stone.
Without that grit, your team might have become fearful, and hesitant to take risks in the future.
👉🏼 When the going gets tough, the tough get going.
8. The Throat = Communication
Your throat connects your thoughts to your voice. It’s what allows you to speak clearly, share your ideas, and be heard. Without it, even the strongest thoughts stay stuck inside.
As a leader, your throat represents your ability to communicate clearly, calmly, and confidently. It’s how you guide your team, set direction, and build trust, especially when things feel uncertain. If you don’t communicate clearly, your team is left to guess and feel confused.
When times are stressful or uncertain, your team pays close attention not just to what you say, but also to how you say it.
In The 3 Stages of Communication in Leadership, I discuss a simple framework you can use to master the art and science of communication.
Example:
Imagine your company announces a big reorganization. Naturally, your team is full of questions - some you have answers to, and some you don't.
Instead of avoiding the topic, you pull everyone together. You share what you know, acknowledge what you don’t know, and commit to updating them regularly. You invite their questions and concerns. Your presence, honesty, and openness ease a lot of the anxiety.
I have seen weak leaders hide behind closed doors in such situations, or read out scripted answers to the team, leaving nothing but gaps. And when they do that, the team fills the gaps with rumors and misinformation.
👉🏼 Say it clearly, say it often, and say it like you mean it.
9. The Feet = Humility
Your feet keep you steady and connected to the ground.
As a leader, staying humble and grounded means staying close to your team and the real work, not living in an ivory tower of your own. It means admitting when you’re wrong, asking questions, and knowing you don’t have all the answers.
Being humble isn’t about giving in; it's about being genuine. It’s about knowing your limits, being open to feedback, and being willing to learn from anyone, no matter their role or title.
As discussed in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Leaders, great leaders embrace humility and vulnerability, and show up with authenticity wherever they go.
Example:
Imagine you take over leadership of a new team. You’re excited, and you have a ton of ideas on how things could be better.
But instead of jumping in with “changes” and “fixes”, you take a few weeks to observe, listen, and understand what’s already working well. You learn that some of the team’s practices—though different from your past experiences—are actually strengths. By showing humility, you earn their trust. You make better decisions because you’re building on real context, not assumptions.
If you had rushed to “fix” things without listening, you would have alienated the very people you needed most.
👉🏼 Stay grounded. Your team can tell when you’re out of touch.
10. The Gut = Judgment
Your gut is that little voice that tells you when something feels off, even if you can’t explain it yet. It’s built from your experience, what you’ve seen before, and what you’ve learned about yourself.
As a leader, your gut isn’t there to replace data or insight, but as a useful lever when the situation demands it.
In System 1 and 2 Thinking: When to Trust Your Gut and When to Think Twice as a Leader, I discuss how leaders can use the power of System 1 thinking (instinct) and complement it with the power of System 2 thinking (insight).
Example:
Imagine you’re hiring for a key engineering leadership role. One candidate has the perfect resume, unmatched experience, and has nailed every interview question so far. But during conversations, something feels off—maybe it’s how they downplay team contributions, or how they dodge questions about past failures.
You trust your gut and decide not to move forward, even though on paper, they looked ideal.
If you had ignored that instinct, you might have brought in someone who disrupted your team’s culture—and it would have taken months, if not years, to undo the damage.
👉🏼 Trust your gut, but train it with experience.
In Summary: The Anatomy of a Leader
In this article, we discussed the essential parts of the human anatomy, and their correlation to leadership traits:
Brain = Strategic Thinking: See beyond the daily chaos and focus on what will truly move your team forward.
Heart = Empathy: Lead with care and meaning, because people do their best work when they feel valued.
Eyes = Vision: Paint a clear picture of the future so your team knows where they’re headed, and why it matters.
Ears = Awareness: Pay attention to what's said, and what's not said, to catch small issues before they become big ones.
Spine = Integrity: Stand firm for what’s right, even when it’s uncomfortable or unpopular.
Hands = Execution: Turn ideas into action by making sure things actually get done, not just discussed.
Legs = Resilience: Stay steady and strong when things get tough, and help your team keep moving forward.
Throat = Communication: Say what needs to be said clearly, honestly, and often, especially when times are uncertain.
Feet = Humility: Stay close to your team and open to learning, no matter how senior you get.
Gut = Judgment: Trust your instincts when things are unclear, but keep sharpening them with real experience.
Each part of the leadership anatomy serves a purpose. They don’t all have to be perfect, but none of them can be ignored.
You can have empathy (heart), but if you can’t execute (hands), your team will stall.
You can think strategically (head), but without resilience (legs), you will crumble when faced with setbacks.
You can listen deeply (ears), but if you lack courage (spine), you’ll avoid the hard decisions that matter.
The best leaders are always tuning and strengthening these parts.
So ask yourself today: Which of your leadership muscles are strongest, and which one needs more attention? Let me know in the comments! 👇
👋🏻 Let’s stay in touch - connect with me on LinkedIn.
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I love how you describe leadership and made it memorable. Great article!
Fantastic article! I like the analogy, especially when you consider how human cognition shapes leadership traits. I couldn’t help but think of some of the work of Iain McGilchrist’s exploration of the brain’s duality and Daniel Kahneman’s insights into cognitive biases.