Normally I read Joe Duffy's blog for the concurrency goodness. But like most people, he has opinions that range quite a bit broader. His take on "what is an architect?" is really interesting reading. It's several pages long: here are the subheads:

0. Inspire and empower people to do their best work.
1. Oversight, but not dictatorship.
2. Taste is a hard thing to measure, but is invaluable.
3. Write code and get your hands dirty.
4. The power of the dyad: know your weaknesses.
5. It's for the customer, not you.
6. Admit when you're wrong, fall on your sword, and then fix it.

Joe concludes "Being an architect, in the end, is all about helping others to succeed. If you’re a really good architect, you’ll inspire people and rub off on them. You’ll gain a certain level of respect that is unmistakable and priceless. And that, in my opinion, is far more fulfilling than anything you could accomplish on your own working in a vacuum."

You may agree or disagree about whether these leadership skills are architect skills but I find this a great summary of what I'm trying to be in my firm and how I want to relate to my developers, testers, designers, and so on. Take the time to read it through.

Kate