John Maeda posted three qualities of a leader on his blog. The ideas are simple and straightforward, like all of John's work.

Here is an excerpt from his article (in non SMS form):

"A good leader needs to be exemplar on some primary axis (smart, strong, etc), survivable martyr for her team,   recognize and cultivate the strengths in those around her."

Check out the entire article for an expansion of John's thoughts.