There is a world of difference between the personality traits and behaviors it takes to be chosen as a leader and the traits and skills you need to be able to lead effectively.

Good leadership requires intellectual capital. The key components of intellectual capital—domain-specific expertise, experience, and good judgment—not only enable leaders to perform their specific roles, but also give them credibility with their followers.

Finally, good leadership requires psychological capital, that is, how individuals will lead and whether they will make use of their capabilities.

As a consequence, organizations often assume that a leader’s career success reflects his or her performance—the more senior a leader, the more talented the person must be.

To improve the quality of leadership, then, we cannot simply focus on merit. We need to be clearer about the leadership qualities we are looking for: emotional intelligence, intellectual capital, social capital, and psychological capital.