I recently came across an article by Hank Marquis on effective leadership traits for those in IT.
Marquis distills the following eight pack of traits:
- Leadership means focusing on the needs of others, not yourself
- Leadership comes from your actions, not your title
- Leadership makes you accountable, even if it’s not your fault
- Leadership is not a 9-to-5 activity
- Leadership takes trust from your followers
- Leaders get their best ideas from their team
- Leadership thrives on diversity
- Leadership comes from continuous communication
Marquis elaborates on each of these traits in the article.
And as two final nuggets to further whet your appetite, consider the following two quotes:
Effective leaders build a trusted team and then follow the team’s advice.
… always give the credit to the team. The leader’s credit comes only by crediting the team he or she leads.
Ian Lumb's Blog 
I like those.
I just did a blog on the ten positive traits of successful leaders and the ten negative traits of leaders who fail. Perhaps it is something you and your readers can use.
Benny
http://yattitude.wordpress.com/2008/03/06/ya-ttitude-on-leadership/