"Over the last generation or so, the concept of leadership has been kidnapped by MBAs in grey suits and tortured beyond recognition. Leadership has been redefined as thinking and speaking in approved leadership clichés — essentially doing what every other self-styled leader does."

I would correct one part of this otherwise perfect phrase.  The MBAs aren't wearing grey suits.  They wear the latest, up-to-the-minute business casual wear that I haven't the time or the patience to follow.

I regularly go back to a great thought from John Maxwell (and I paraphrase because I am too lazy to get up and retrieve the quote):  The job of a leader is to define reality and to say thank you.  To be fair, Maxwell adds a bunch of steps in between.  But the real leaders I have encountered have an uncanny ability to see the real issue hidden beneath undergrowth of jargon, distractions and irrelevancies.  They operate in many fields and at all levels of business and community.  They find the essential components of a complex issue and lay them out in surprisingly common language so that everyone sees the reality that they have discerned.  They are a treasure to find and a pleasure to work with.