n the best of times, we tend to forget how urgent the
study of leadership is. But leadership always matters,
and it has never mattered more than it does now. If the
United States presidential election of 2004 taught us anything,
it was that half the nation has a radically different
notion of leadership than the other half. It is almost a cliche´
of the leadership literature that a single definition of leadership
is lacking. But how likely is it that a consensus will
be reached on something as straightforward as how to
define leadership when, less than two years ago, it became
clear that half the electorate saw its candidate as the embodiment
of a strong leader while close to the same number
saw him as poorly qualified at best, and dangerous at
worst? Why allude to current political leadership in an
academic journal? Because leadership is never purely academic.
It is not a matter such as, say, string theory that can
be contemplated from afar with the dispassion that we
reserve for things with little obvious impact on our daily
lives. Leadership affects the quality of our lives as much as
our in-laws or our blood pressure. In bad times, which have
been plentiful over the millennia, twisted leaders have been
the leading cause of death, more virulent than plague. Even
in relatively tranquil times, national leaders determine
whether we struggle through our final years, whether our
drugs are safe, and whether our courts protect the rights of
minorities and the powerless. Our national leaders can send
our children into battle and determine whether our grandchildren
live in a world in which, somewhere, tigers still
stalk their prey and glaciers are more than a memory.
Corporate leaders have almost as much power to shape our
lives, for good or ill. The corrupt executives at Enron,