I see a leader should be a good visionary, operations guy and he/she should be a great sales guy (sell his ideas and products) to both internal customers (employees) and external customers. He should assemble a good team that would bring ideas/innovations and other attributes to the table for a successful enterprise. I would look upto my CTO/CIO for taking lead on putting blue print for the enterprise for the next 5 years and bank upon them to advise me.I should be able to see value in their ideas and make decision/calculated risk for the future.
If you look in the history President Lincoln had a great team and some who were more capable than him and used their capabilities for a successful presidency.
President Obama took a leaf out of Lincoln and formed a great cabinet team and relies on them to advise him on the economic recovery etc..
Leader should know what the enterprise needs and know fully well his/her strengths and weaknesses. He/she should bring in people to shore up on his weak areas and if he/she finds strong candidates in his strong areas too he/she should not hesitate to add them to his team.
He should empower his people, stand behind them and hold them accountable.
Venky Chennapragada
Business Unit Head at AT&T, GBS India
AnandNataraj 