On ITV’s Pop Idol, Will Young (the housewives’ favourite) won the show, while on BBC Lemar Obika came third in Fame Academy. Five years later and both singer/songwriters release their fourth studio albums this autumn, continue to receive critical acclaim and generate commercial success.

What about all the rest? The other contestants on those shows, the people who beat Lemar into third place and the pundits’ favourite, Gareth Gates, runner up to Will Young – what happened to them? More interestingly, what was it that made the difference for Will and Lemar: the magic ingredient?

From my work with emerging leaders over the years, I believe that the magic recipe is a combination of three ingredients: Passion, Authenticity and Integrity.

Ingredient 1 – Passion of Cause

If I were to give you one minute to address a room full of your peers on your leadership passion, how would you feel? Putting aside the possible horror at having to stand on a podium and make a public address, are you confident that you would actually be able to identify what you are passionate about and clearly communicate it to others? What is your Passion of Cause?

I describe it as the goat or bed test: what really gets your goat, firing you up for a good old rant about your pet subject to your friends and family? Or what is it that makes you leap out of bed in the morning – the alternative answer to the “what do you do?” question. It might not necessarily be your job or profession, but it is the thing that you would do for free because you love it so much. It’s also the thing that keeps you going when the going gets tough. (Lemar had been trying to break into the music industry for five years, was on the brink of giving up and going to university to study computing when he won a place on Fame Academy. The show was his final attempt to make a career of his passion for music, and he made it count.)

This is your Passion of Cause: that thing that stirs you to take action as a leader. It might be on an issue in your personal, professional or wider civic leadership life, but it is something that calls out to you to create change.

What makes Passion of Cause so compelling is that it is infectious, and that is what makes passionate leaders so successful. When you communicate your Passion of Cause to others, you radiate out joy and positive energy to those you interact with. It is this “halo glow feeling” that engages others in your cause. People naturally want to be part of something fun and fulfilling. From my experience, leaders which identify and communicate their Passion of Cause are the ones that make it, when others with no less talent don’t.

Ingredient 2 – Authenticity to Self

But Passion of Cause without substance is not enough. Successful leaders also have an Authenticity to Self. They have a great sense of self-awareness, know themselves well and stay true to themselves.

Successful leaders know what their personal values are, remain true to them throughout their leadership career and stand up for them in times of adversity putting themselves and their projects on the line. (Perhaps the turning point for Will Young’s Pop Idol contest was standing up to Simon Cowell on the subject of good manners and about how appallingly he treated contestants.)

Furthermore, they know their strengths and weaknesses as an individual and a leader and are comfortable disclosing and discussing them with others. Successful leaders capitalise on their strengths, stretching their performance, while at the same time accepting and mitigating their weakness (looking to others in their teams and networks to cover these areas).

Leaders that ‘make it’ know how to leverage the power of themselves: the power of their personal leadership brand. They understand that people buy into people, as much as they do great causes and big ideas. When creating the support required to make change happen, successful leaders recognize that being yourself, and being true to yourself, compels to others to join you. 

Ingredient 3 – Integrity of Execution

The final magic ingredient is the way in which leaders go about creating change. How they lead, and the extent to which they execute the change with integrity. A leader can easily sabotage a great cause, a big idea, an exciting change because the manner in which (s)he behaves towards others. Likely as not this type of leader subscribes to one if not two old adages: “the ends justifies the means” and “do as I say not as I do”.

This is a mistake, the means are often as important, if not more so, than the end result. Think about it. The ultimate test of leadership is if the change is unsuccessful, will people still respect you as a leader and volunteer to support you on the next project? We look to our leaders as role models. We watch how they behave to others and towards us. We expect them to walk the walk, as well as talk the talk. The extent to which leaders are humble, consistent, brave and respectful of others is as important, if not more so than generating the change itself. 

Leaders who are so blinded by their passion of cause, so wedded to being authentic to themselves that they forget about treating others well don’t make the grade. Successful leaders know that their conduct is what builds their leadership reputation and gives others the sense of confidence to sign up for the journey, even if they don’t know where it will take them.

Common Purpose

Common Purpose gives leaders the inspiration, the knowledge and the connections they need to produce real change. Through our unique leadership development courses, a growing number of people around the world are making a difference in the industries and places where they work, in the communities where they live and in wider society.

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