Here are four more traits for that must-do leadership list:
Passion: If you don't believe in what you're doing and make your dream clear in compelling ways, nobody will follow. After all, you are asking workers to exchange paychecks for stock options, and 9-to-5 days for 24/7 weeks. Antarctic explorers Robert F. Scott and Ernest Shackleton recruited their expedition teams with their vision, not their wages, and you too are venturing into risky territory.
Listen to the advice of quintessential evangelizer John Chambers, CEO of Cisco Systems (CSCO), on how to reinvent a company around the Net: "Until the leader truly believes [in the idea] and truly takes ownership of it and drives it down through his or her company, it doesn't work. You've got to become a champion for it." Bezos, Pottruck, Son and Whitman have been among the truest of the true believers.
Speed: Fast-acting leadership is essential for staying ahead of the curve. Making decisions swiftly and revamping business models on the fly, if needed, will get you to a position of strength. Civil War general John Buford encouraged the Union Army to seize the high ground on the Gettysburg battlefield, a critical factor in the Confederacy's defeat. "When you're starting a business from scratch," says Yahoo (YHOO) founder and CEO Timothy A. Koogle, "speed is everything."
Humility: If a young engineer demanded to hear Jack Welch prove he's good enough to run GE, he would be shown the door. Similarly, in the Net economy, if you tell a hot candidate that it's not your job to explain yourself, she will be on to the next job interview. Job candidates now insist on seeing you, not just the front-line hiring manager. They will ask if you're really smart enough to make your business model work. They expect you to reveal your great plan for transforming the market. In the old economy, you interviewed the candidate; now it's the other way around.
Discovery: The future path is yours to define. "The key thing in e-commerce and the Internet is there's no road map," says Drugstore.com CEO Peter Neupert.
Who will be the Jack Welch of the Internet age and how will he or she define the new leadership? Mastering these skills and adapting them to your personality is the challenge, but the opportunity to make a difference is yours for the taking.
Michael Useem is professor of management at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and director of the Wharton Center for Leadership and Change.
