When you hear the word "leader," what comes to mind? More than likely, words such as "smart," "creative" and "strategic" will be high on the list. However many senior IT executives believe the really critical issues are "relationship building," "communications skills" and "inspiration."

Clearly, leadership ability is a combination of personal traits and acquired skills. And rising toward the top of the list of characteristics that make a good leader: Integrity. Yet as important as integrity and personal ethics are in shaping leaders.

A high value can also be attributed to leadership-development training programs. The majority of senior executives think that leadership can be taught having experienced leadership-development programs at some point in their career. But even though the executives think highly of leadership programs, even more of them participate in less-formal methods to sharpen their leadership skills. Top of that list: reading.