Even in the chain of command, leaders know that their capacity to succeed depends upon inspiring followers.

In uniform, I never got beyond Wolf, which is the next-to-bottom rank in the Cub Scouts. But I did study leadership years later at the Army War College, and I have a .58-caliber Minie ball from the Gettysburg battlefield and a crisp khaki Army hat to prove it. I also got management training from some smart faculty members from Northwestern and Penn and Harvard, back when I worked for a big media company.

Here's one lesson that I got from those experts: Leaders need followers. And to inspire “followership,” leaders must exhibit some key traits — like common sense, integrity, transparency and reasoned judgment. And one more attribute that’s perhaps most crucial: Leaders need to actively listen to the people they lead, in no small part because that yields critical information on whether you’re headed in the right direction. Good leaders rarely need to use force — “Because I said so, …