People have been talking about what makes a great leader for a long time, in some respects, I disagree with the people skills verse IQ in a few comments. I, however am a jaded person at time. People skills to me seem to be an easy thing to get around, people are easily manipulated by emotional appeal, so People skills come fairly low on what I see as a leader. IQ, the smartest person in the room, skill is also down pretty low on the pole of leadership ability. The thing I see as my number one when looking at leaders is the common sense of that person. Do they have enough brains to know they need a good solid core of advisors and not just surround themselves with yes men.

Being a leader in one place, one location, one time, does not necessarily make a person a leader in another area, in another time and place. Along with a good solid foundation in common sense, they need to be able to know when there is someone better able to lead and to let them with out their ego getting in the way. A fire chief may be good at putting out fires, but do you want him to be the leader of a team of doctors trying to fix you?