By skyforbes 
When You’ve Never Had One
The Bottom Line Up Front (BLUF): There’s a difference between greatness and goodness in leadership, and it’s not what you think.
Executive Summary
How To Be A Good Leader is a practical and inspiring guide that merges wisdom, purpose, and actionable leadership. Rooted in his personal journey and the “MICK factor” — Mental resilience, Impact, Character, and the will to Keep going — the book encourages leaders to prioritize goodness over greatness by emphasizing service and impact rather than self-validation. Through seventeen organized chapters, Mick provides step-by-step frameworks covering purpose, communication, vision, trust, and leadership DNA, while also exploring often-overlooked topics like how to leave organizations gracefully. With relatable examples, straightforward guidance, and a selfless tone, the book prepares both new and seasoned leaders to build authentic influence, stay connected to their “why” and “because,” and lead with wisdom that goes beyond experience.
The Content
The book’s foreword starts with a powerful quote about understanding one’s “why,” setting the tone for the upcoming chapters. In its introduction, the author shares a vulnerable moment from his childhood, which became a catalyst for his success and led to the development of what he calls the “MICK factor,” representing Mental resilience, Impact, Character, and the will to Keep going. Guided by his mother’s mantra of “Don’t miss,” Mick’s journey from high school achiever to college leader and ultimately to remarkable success in the corporate world is best summed up by one word: wisdom. It was through wisdom, not just experience, that Mick reached his goals, and he uses that wisdom to introduce the remaining seventeen chapters of the book.
In chapter one, Mick explains his purpose for writing How To Be A Good Leader, which is to create a framework that helps leaders succeed. This chapter also sets the tone for the rest of the book by sharing his view on the difference between leaders who seek greatness — what he says is rooted in self-validation — and those who aim for goodness, focusing on making an impact and serving others. This is an important distinction to clarify in the opening chapter because it establishes the right expectations for readers as they are introduced to Mick’s guidance and calls to action.
Chapter two explains the difference between leadership and influence and provides several examples of how leading with “soft power” versus “hard power” can be effective. Chapter three outlines six recognizable traits of leaders who focus on self-validation, including deception, false empowerment, self-promotion, micromanagement, lack of empathy, and dictatorship. In discussing these traits, he also examines their negative effects on teams. In chapter four, he shifts to the seven “becauses” of good leaders, which clearly distinguish between knowing your “why” and the power of understanding your “because.” This chapter also offers the book’s first practical step, guiding readers through the development of “because” statements.
Chapters five through nine are filled with guidance. Chapter five especially includes steps, such as identifying your core strengths, eight ways to stay great while leading, and ten ways to lead without the credibility or experience in a specific sector. Chapter six emphasizes the importance of speech in leadership and highlights using bullets and speaking slowly. Chapter seven illustrates the power of having a vision and provides small steps to help create one. Chapter eight discusses leading others when they aren’t easy to lead, which the author admits is a challenging and time-consuming task, and chapter nine presents ten rules for maintaining trustworthy leadership, arguably one of the most important chapters in the entire book.
In chapter ten, Mick teaches readers how to leave a team or organization for the right reasons, which isn’t something typically covered in leadership books, but is certainly an important topic because there’s a right way and a wrong way. Chapter eleven discusses leading during turbulent times, and chapters twelve through sixteen examine what Mick calls your “leadership DNA,” offering four main types and explaining each in detail. Chapter seventeen wraps up the book with an overview of ten key leadership fundamentals, such as stewardship, ownership, service, evolution, feedback, resilience, and more.
Ten insightful quotes from the book
1. On wisdom: “Wisdom is the shortcut, the direction, the path that someone else has taken and can now explain to you.”
2. On impact: “The good leader is focused not on validation but on impact.”
3. On authenticity: “A good boss doesn’t have to act like a great one.”
4. On your words: “Your speech is like currency; the fewer words you use, the greater the value of each of them.”
5. On leading others: “Effective leadership is dealing with people who don’t want to be followers.’
6. On visibility: “When you isolate yourself, you’re saying one of two things: either you’re the most important person in the office or you contribute little.”
7. On change: “Times change, and everyone has to change with them, leader or not.”
8. On being liked: “When everything is burning, being liked won’t help you put the fire out.”
9. On perfection: “Nobody ever got everything right, but that doesn’t mean you can’t strive to get most things right.”
10. On who you lead: “You are the leader, but leadership isn’t for you; it’s for those you lead.”
The wrap-up: why you should read How To Be A Good Leader
Leadership and management books are mostly anecdotal, sharing experiences, philosophies, and sometimes hard data. They rarely offer clear, detailed step-by-step instructions, and when they do, they tend to be broad. However, I wouldn’t describe How To Be A Good Leader that way at all. Instead, I see it as a groundbreaking, step-by-step guide that walks current and aspiring leaders through the basics and fundamentals in a straightforward and easy-to-understand manner. Its concepts are simple but powerful, and the book features numerous real-life examples of leaders who embody its lessons, reinforcing learning.
There’s a clear undertone in the book from the author, and I describe it in one word: selfless. The book’s early distinction between self-validation and impact cannot be missed; that message is crucial for readers because it’s a warning that if self-validation is the driver, the book’s probably not for you. That’s not to say that the self-absorbed won’t find value in the book; they most certainly will. But they’ll find value sparingly and only selectively. This book was written for everyone else who desires to have real impact. And it does validate those who are already doing it and doing it well. Yet it also grounds those with room for improvement. This book was written to provide leadership basics because leadership basics are the foundation of organizational success. It’s just that simple. And rarely will you find a book with this many subsections of steps to follow.
In the book’s foreword, Les Brown quotes Nietzsche by saying, “if you know your why for living, you can endure almost any hour.” Carry that idea into an ‘aha’ moment early in the book when Mick explains that he wanted to one day be in a position to write paychecks, not cash them. It’s an important thought because he formed that goal early in life, partly influenced by circumstances but more so by his leadership DNA and his desire to achieve and produce results. But there’s also something deeper inside Mick that goes beyond the “why” of producing results and achieving greatness; it’s the innate desire to serve, lead, protect, and give. And that’s the real wisdom behind this book. It’s the “because” that truly helps us endure every hour, not just almost all of them. In Mick’s case, his “because” is the act of sharing wisdom, not necessarily the act of gaining the actual experience, which is the real guide on how to do it. And that’s what this book is truly about.
So, if you’re new to leading others, this book is for you. If you’re already doing it and need a refresher or a better guide, you’ll find it here. And if you’ve ever received feedback that your leadership could improve — and we all have room to grow, by the way — you might want to pick up this book to see how it can help you. After all, regardless of where you stand on the spectrum of good leadership, your ability to lead effectively matters because it does.
About the book’s author
Mick Hunt is the voice and face of modern leadership. He is the host of Mick Unplugged, among the top three self-improvement, top five education, and top one hundred overall podcasts in the world. Mick is also a highly in-demand motivational speaker for the Fortune 500 and top universities, with audiences as large as fifteen thousand, and is the host, emcee, and opening speaker of the Les Brown Power Tour as well as host for the LEAD LOUD speaker series with names like Daymond John, Chris Voss, Robert Irvine, David Meltzer and more. Mick is a leadership trainer and executive coach to the world’s elite leaders and personalities in business, entertainment, education, and government. He is also a member of the Forbes Coaches Council and Forbes Business Council.
Book details
How To Be A Good Leader
Publisher: Wiley (September 23, 2025)
ISBN-10: 1394357956
ISBN-13: 978–1394357956
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