What are the intangibles that make one an awesome leader?

The great leaders that I have known and respected throughout my career are the ones that don't get pulled into the "darkside". The human aspect is the intangible for me, someone who is firmly rooted in reality and doesn't buy into the hype of being a General Officer or CSM at the nominative level, or any level. Down to earth human beings that look at you when you are talking to them and you can see in their eyes that they are hearing what you are saying.

I will piggyback off what others have said. A good leader loves and cares about his soldiers. He knows when to loosen up and have fun with the troops, and says thank you. He is also a deep thinker.

It's an Art as opposed to a science.

But because it has "technique" it we can teach it. That doesn't mean everyone will get it though. Some people will mimic the motions or parrot the words, but it just won't click.

As Capt Richard I P. mentions, there are the Traits (big T), which are actual metrics we can measure. They're intangible, but we know they're there, and we can gauge them.

CSM (Join to see) comments on the Humanity & Empathy piece which shows you are just not talking to a wall. Something I'm sure we have all experienced, whether up or down.

One that I always found great in a leader was when he could identify that a troop was holding something back. That there was a "pregnant pause." The "What did I miss?" leader, who wasn't afraid to go "Did I skip over that because I know... and forget that you guys might not have the same knowledge I do"

Leaders need to be conscious of their audience, and more specifically of what their audience isn't saying. Sometimes what they aren't saying, "will get us all killed" because we skipped something and and the leader missed an expression of "huh, what does he mean by quasiparawhatsit?"