On a purely mechanical level, leadership is, essentially, getting things done through other people. But simply being bossy isn't enough; true leadership inspires the membership to rise to the occassion; to get involved; to invest themselves in the organization; to make it great.
As previously noted, in order to inspire others to a type of involvement, the leader has to set the example. This is not just a simple footnote in leadership; it is one of its central tenets.
We've already covered the idea that others will tend to emulate the behaviors they find already in motion in a group, especially amongst its leaders. But that's only part of it.
If the leader fails to responsibly ensure the organization's needs are met, everyone is inconvenienced. Imagine showing up for a meeting but the door was locked because the leader neglected to pay the rent this month. Or nobody could get ahold of the leader because the phone wasn't working and the web site was down. Continued disappointments in logistics will demoralize the crew, and leadership will eventually disintegrate.
But the critical failing comes in a more subtle form.
When the leader engages in activities which earn the respect of the membership, the leader earns more "clout". Their actions are even more likely to inspire emulation; their words are taken more to heart; their views are more readily adopted. This leaves them in a position primed for interested, engaged support from the membership.
The converse is also true. Since a leader is *expected* to engage in activities which earn respect, failure to do so invariably earns *disrespect*. Their occassionally admirable actions, assuming there are any, go largely unnoticed; their words are ignored as trite and without substance; they lose credibility in the group. This eventually becomes a nearly insurmountable obstacle to any kind of leadership, and, if allowed to continue, festers in the group and foments either disloyalty, abandonment, or outright rebellion.
Some people have natural talents in leadership, and make the right choices more often than not without having to have it explained to them. Others need to learn it, and as such they will often get it wrong in the early days of their leadership. Growing into an effective leader does, however, require the ability to adjust the things that are not finely tuned. Someone failing to acknowledge the errors will not take steps to correct them, and eventually the leadership will fail.
As a side note, some people confuse "fault" with "responsibility". If you task someone in the group with paying the rent, and they do not do so, it may not be your fault the rent didn't get paid, but it is still your responsibility. It ultimately falls to you to ensure the tasks get done, whether or not you are the one to do them. Failure to understand this as a reality is hallmark of someone who is not ready to lead.
By the same token, since leadership is, in one regard, getting things done through other people, it also means not doing them yourself. A leader should be involved, and some tasks will naturally fall on the leader's shoulders -- how else can a leader engage in leadership by example? But someone who takes on the bulk of the tasks themselves is, in a subtle but unmistakeable way, making it perfectly clear that they do not trust other people to do the job. Demonstrating a lack of trust is not going to inspire people to do things for the organization, and to lead you *must* inspire. Failure to delegate is, therefore, another hallmark trait of someone who is not ready to lead.
So, a good leader needs to be able to tie these various aspects of human behaviorial tendencies togther. Leadership is, after all, getting things done through other people, notably by inspiring them to do the work needed. And those people live off their internal priority list, working first on the things that bubble to the top.
What moves things upward on the list is, generally, the sense of reward the person feels will come from working and accomplishing that task. This is commonly offset by the sense of what investment they will need to make in order to get that reward.
And so, in the next segment, we shall return to the subject of investment and reward.