People are more likely to follow orders if they respect them. If I don't trust a leader, I tend to hide more than if I do. Like
this off hour w9 defense against a south flag rush. Most of the onliners died keeping the rushers off the flag long enough for our offliners to finish them on mwfossils orders. It's a hard order for a premium GG dueler to follow, but I still moved to the flag with 500 hp instead of retreating to the barracks.
FilthyPete is another one. He experiments a lot, but I'm still willing to follow him even if his strategy is crazy. Even if it fails miserably I know he'll learn from it. Bad leaders never learn from their mistakes and tend to make the same ones over and over again.
kayakpaddler was another leader most people would die for.
This, though an old school battle, was one of those unwinnable battles I was talking about. A 62:84 medium attack which we won, though there's no replay because it's before the reports had all the data westforts uses.
Dying for a good leader is one thing, dying for someone who orders an east, wall-only flag rush is another. That's one order I have a hard time following, because it IS suicide with no chance of succeeding unless the defenders don't bother blocking. They can rationalize it by saying a 1% chance of winning is better than no chance huddling on the side, but trying to let your people get something out of the battle besides a quick ride home is better leadership than a longshot gamble on their lives.