I always thought there should be a reward for good leadership or to show experience other than level. There are a couple ideas in here so I will try and walk through it methodically.
Although less true today than in the EQ time period, coordination is hard. Getting 4-6 people to work together is a challenge and 25-40 can be damn near impossible. Over the years lots of help has arisen from Ventrillo / Teamspeak to group and raid mods, but still leading and coordinating is hard. Back in EQ I had a phenomenal raid / guild leader and he played a backup healer. On his own he was great and in a group fantastic, but in a raid he had too much to do to focus on his game play. Again, less true today but still an issue.
In armies there is a chain of command, the more you coordinate the less you focus. I always thought there should be a leader class or role that designers wouldn't count toward damage / healing or whatever. This person could spend there time coordinating battle in a raid or other large scale events. You could envision all sorts of specials they might be given but ill talk about that later.
Not everyone makes a good leader. I, for one, am terrible. I think I make an excellent soldier and even better with good leadership. Good leaders should be recognized.
I thought there should be, perhaps in addition to normal xp progression, an MMO would have ranks or some way of distinguishing leaders. The progression could be done by accomplishments, votes or the like. Clearly any system could be exploited, but I think actual leaders will rise and should be rewarded.
What could be the reward? The idea came to me from Games Workshop. In many of their table top games if you have units near leaders benefits or inspiration can be gained. What if leaders gained auras? I want to write an entire entry on buffs, but in addition to that I think a leader "role" should have passive effects so they can focus on coordination. Progression as a leader in my mind would yield more or better benefits.
Anyone of any class could be a leader. Perhaps the leader wouldn't even have to progress along normal xp if they didn't want to. One who progressed far along the leadership path could have extra abilities. These abilities would be stronger the more people are being led. Solo, no effect. Small group, minor effect. Raid level, large effect. Alliances, huge effect. A balance between leadership and primary class skills needs to be made, but I thought this was a nifty idea to further distinguish good leaders in a virtually anonymous world.