A post on BNET by Jo Owens, July 26 lays out the 7 qualities you don’t learn from the leadership gurus. At and near the top of the list are sleeping on planes, working in vehicles, dieting, and working the politics. Yet there are other things that are far more important to success. Let me propose an alternative list, starting with being creative.

1.  Teach yourself to be creative. Perhaps creativity is in a person’s DNA, but I truly believe this is something that is learned and nurtured.  Ask questions: What if we did it this way? Have we gotten to the root cause of a problem? Is our product working? What would happen if we took a different approach or direction? Seek out news and solutions from other industries and markets. Creativity is important in all industries, even financial services. I’m looking for the next wave of new financial products and structural changes that will generate better returns in a “new” economy with much tighter regulations.

2.  Learn how to curate the best ideas, remix and make it your own.  According to Fast Company, July/ August 2010, Apple’s magical reinventions are “borrowed freely from preexisting technologies.”  To quote directly:

While Jobs loves to talk about their revolutionary products,“This all depends on what your definition of revolutionary is. Apple’s talent is far more cunning and more profitable than mere infringement. To use a musical analogy, Apple’s specialty is the remix. It curates the best ideas bubbling up around the tech world and makes them its own. It’s also a great fixer, improving on everything that’s wrong with other similar products on the shelves.”

So too, leaders in business can curate and remix to tackle many of the challenges that matter in the marketplace - how to spark meaningful consumer engagement, how to achieve global reach, how to transform a market or build a niche, how to add a product or service that will generate millions of loyal customers.

3.  Learn to jump the silos. More than ever, it is important to understand what’s happening in other functions and other parts of the world that affect your ability to succeed. It’s impossible to say anything with authority, unless you understand the larger context. Develop advisors and relationships outside of your field of expertise. Develop informal networks and relationships beyond the “domain” that feels most comfortable. If your network is confined to your technical or professional discipline or your current department, then you have work to do.

4.  Value success, not failure. Although many people say it’s okay to fail, I believe that failure is acceptable only if we can quickly recover. Ask yourself: what will I need to do to develop a plan that works? And have I considered the downsides and contingencies. Deal with the unanswered questions before you make a big investment, test your ideas in your market or niche. With successes, even if they are small, we get continuing support to do more. Success builds reputations and new successes.

5.  Be totally authentic. Say what you believe. How many times have you gone with the flow, which happened to be wrong, and never said a peep? You owe it to your colleagues to be open and true to your beliefs.

6.  Make your difference visible. Talent and new ideas need to be discovered, so figure out how you advance your ideas within your organization or industry to get credit and buy-in. Every communication is an opportunity to spotlight what’s compelling about what you do. If you want people to seek you out, they need to know who you are and how you are different.

7.  Encourage honest conflict. We often see really ugly office politics when people hide their intensions and grievances. Marge and Daniel, for example, were working on a highly visible project. After meeting a major milestone with accolades, Daniel decided to handle his differences with Marge, which he kept to himself, by making a pitch to take over the project. He moved secretly, putting his power grab in writing. A colleague alerted Marge who went to the C-level person in charge. As a result, Daniel was moved aside and then out of the company. He lacked the support he thought he had. Daniel chose to play heavy handed politics and lost.

I’ll stop at the magical #7, although there are more. Ms. Owen concludes that her traits define a person who is very driven and often not the kind you would be comfortable being with. This hardly sounds like the new guard leader, the inclusive leader who drives innovation and reinvention in business today.