ABSTRACT
Relational leadership is considered by many as a far more effective way to organise and implement leadership to respond to the challenges facing twenty-first-century organisations. Leadership is seen as too important for dealing with the complex challenges facing organisations, to see this as a set of tasks that only managers or those in formal leader positions can be expected to deal with successfully. The public sector organisations in local government and healthcare, were adopting more relational leadership approaches to underpin their leadership development. Many share the view that 'leadership' is in crisis, unless significant changes are adopted by organisations. This crisis can be summarised in terms of three considerable challenges that a new model of leadership now needs to address. These are the challenges of: leadership capacity; leadership context; and leadership responsibility. The chapter also presents an overview of key concepts discussed in this book.
