Leaders who whine and blame engendered those same behaviors among their colleagues. Also look for loyalty, integrity, a high energy drive, a balanced ego and the drive to get things done. More often than not, we ignore them in favor of length of resume, degrees and prior titles. You can train a bright, willing novice in the fundamentals of your business fairly readily, but it's a lot harder to train someone to have integrity, judgment, energy, balance and the drive to get things done. Good leaders stack the deck in their favor right in the recruitment phase.
Effective leaders understand the KISS principle, Keep It Simple, Stupid.
They articulate vivid overarching goals and values, which they use to drive daily behaviors and choices among competing alternatives. Their visions and priorities are lean and compelling, not cluttered and buzzword-laden. Their decisions are crisp and clear, not tentative and ambiguous. They convey an unwavering firmness and consistency in their actions, aligned with the picture of the future they paint. Clarity of purpose, credibility of leadership, and integrity in organizations.