Courage is a critical characteristic... One of the most admirable qualities I have seen in leaders is their ability to take responsibility for whatever the consequences be of the decisions they take. It reflects the real character of leadership. Incompetent leaders (some grow in the system with time &without serious assessments),get scared of the consequences, blame the system &are then on a look-out for underdogs to fire so that the blame can be spot-fixed on others. Whilst all of us can identify others as such bosses, hope our teams don't see us as such a boss. If you sit on the hot-seat be prepared to take brave decisions and don't get scared of consequences.