What is it that makes a good manager, a good president, prime minister or a good leader of any sort?  Here are some qualities I think that a good leader should possess:

1. Intelligence: A good leader must be smart enough to understand what needs to be done and come up with a plan to do it.  They should understand themselves, those that they lead and the wider world.

2. Wisdom: A good leader must be able to learn from experience.  Intelligence is the raw talent necessary for good decision making but the ability to learn from one's successes, and failures, and those of others, is what wisdom is made of.

3. Honesty: A person must be honest, with themselves and with others.  Nobody wants to follow someone they don't trust and how can you trust someone who is dishonest?  There may be some situations where it is acceptable to be deceptive, such as telling a "white lie" to spare someone's feelings or when you need to deceive an enemy in an adversarial situation (i.e. making an enemy soldier think you're going to move left when you're going to move right) but honesty is, in most situations, the best policy.

4. Fariness: In order to be a worthy leader one needs to be fair.  Good leaders are not soft on those they like and hard on those they dislike.  They reward people for doing well, even if they personally dislike them, and they punish those who do wrong, even if they may personally feel affection for them.

5. Loyalty: Leaders care about and feel loyalty towards those that they lead.  They want to, as much as they can, protect them from harm and provide them opportunities for advancement and will not betray the trust that is placed in them.

6. Dedication: A valuable leader is someone who believes in, and is dedicated to, what they're doing.  When faced with adversity they will draw deep from within themselves, and from the teams they lead, to find the strength they need to accomplish their goals.

7. Courage: In order to be a good leader you must be courageous.  You need to have the strength of character to do things that are intimidating and threatening.  A leader does what is right and necessary even when it is inconvenient or dangerous.