Much about leadership is allowing those around you to succeed. Setting them up for success and allowing them to be empowered. When the time comes for tough decisions the leader makes them but the leader is also surrounded with good people. They are in a position to pick the people around them, the people that will make daily decisions, that will lead.
I'm in a position where I not only enforce policy, I create policy. I haven't had the opportunity to pick the folks that work for me, but I have allowed them to succeed. You want people around you that will make decisions and they will make these decisions knowing you are behind them 100%. We, as a unit, have achieved some wonderful records and it isn't me, it's the wonderful men in my charge that have done it all. I ensure they have what they need to accomplish their job and buffer them the massive amount of 'stuff' that comes along.
I'm fortunate to have had these men in my charge, I can only imagine how much success someone (the President of instances) can have when they are allowed to PICK the people around them. Of course not all people in leadership positions are leaders and it's their inability to pick correctly and foster those in their charge is what frightens me (Obama for instance).
It's fun watching people with no leadership abilities discuss picking a leader, it's scary watching a person with no leadership qualities in a position of leadership.
