"Courage, intelligence, competence, the ability to communicate, charisma, perspective and charm."

You might have guessed: who?

Definitely, a leader. And as we are in a political election season – a guess on a politician can't be far off. 

Shinzo Abe...Close! 

Donald Trump....No!

Actually, it's a descriptive quality of Tony Blair, the former British Prime Minister, as defined by his former chief of staff Jonathan Powell in a political memoir "The New Machiavelli".

The first two qualities were top-valued by Niccolo Machiavelli, the 15th century Florentine technocrat who outlined essential leadership ingredients in "The Prince" – a political classic.

With Sir Keir Starmer's Labour Party winning a landslide British election over the weekend, almost matching the achievement of Tony Blair in 1997 – it brings to mind what a leader with the right qualities can do to turn around the country.

Starmer is, of course, not a Tony Blair.  

Powell writes,"In politics, the quality of courage is mainly demonstrated by the ability to make difficult decisions and willingness to take risks when you can't be certain of the outcome. Machiavelli believed that great leaders had both luck and the capacity to seize an opportunity when it presented itself without thinking twice."

Whereas intelligence doesn't mean intellect but rather judgement and instinct – what we would now call emotional intelligence. 

The two qualities cannot be learned. A leader has to be born with them.

The innate qualities of courage and political instinct, while essential, are not enough by themselves to make a great leader. Leaders also need to acquire five other skills: competence, the ability to communicate, charisma, perspective and charm, according to Powell.

Competence: the ability to be both Chairman and CEO; to be able to set out a grand vision and to master, at the same time, the complicated detail of policy and politics. In Machiavelli's words a prince must 'give striking proofs of his capacity'.

Communication: A skill crucial to a strong leader. Machiavelli puts particular emphasis on the importance of presentation, saying above all a prince 'should strive by all his actions to inspire a sense of his greatness and goodness.

Charisma: its essential ingredient is optimism

Perspective: The quality required of a leader is to see things in a wider context rather than being caught up in a moment. It is too easy as a prime minister to be sucked into tactical manoeuvres or become obsessed by a particular crisis rather than seeing events in the longer time frame.

Charm: Machiavelli advises that a prince should be both a lion and a fox 'for a lion cannot guard himself from the toils, nor the fox from wolves. He must therefore be a fox to discern toils, and a lion to drive off wolves.' A leader must have all the fierceness of the lion and all the craft of the fox. Here, Blair was known for his mastery of constructive ambiguity.

Hail the 'next' Machiavelli: how to wield power in the modern world