Here is an interesting article called Six Ways to Be the Project Leader that Doesn’t Suck.
I do believe the team is important and sometimes we exaggerate the importance of the leader. It is the collective skills of the team that makes it happen. And it is important to respect the contribution of all.
I also think that it is important for a leader to always push yourself more than you are pushing the team. You should lead by example, which is far more powerful than just giving though orders to team members
Six Ways to Be the Project Leader that Doesn’t Suck
Have you ever had a manager, director, or other form of boss to whom you just wanted to say, “Listen man, you’re ego is really getting in my way”? Okay, maybe those weren’t your exact thoughts. Maybe they were something like, “Hey, stop taking credit for my ideas and my work!” or similar. I believe we have all known or worked with the egotistical “leader” and we can probably all attest to the fact that working for him/her sucks.
My message today is simply this: You know that working for the egotistical leader sucks. So, don’t be an egotistical project leader; be a humble project leader. That way, people don’t think working with you sucks.
Unfortunately, there seem to be some common misconceptions about humility. The dictionary describes being “humble” as “not proud or arrogant; modest”. It also lists the antonyms of humble as “proud, noble, exalted, rude, insolent, elevated”. But for some reason, many equate humility with weakness when the opposite is true.