Practicing Leadership

Preface

When formal interest in the study of leadership first began in the 19th and early 20th centuries, the so-called “great man” theory, which assumed that certain individual characteristics or traits could be found in leaders but not in nonleaders and that those characteristics could not be developed but must be inherited, was quite popular and many assumed that leaders were simply “born and not made.” As time passed, however, the consensus within the community of leadership scholars and consultants shifted significantly to the current working proposition that although some people do indeed appear to be natural leaders from birth it is nonetheless possible for many others who have sufficient desire and willpower to develop into leaders by ...