ABSTRACT
All over the world and throughout history there have been leaders. The ancient Egyptians, Hebrews, Chinese, and Greeks (among many others) all had systems for recognizing and choosing leaders, though those systems differed quite widely, as did the things that the leaders were expected to do and the ways they were expected to behave. Nonetheless, in all of those cases leadership involved disproportionate influence—leaders by definition are more influential than nonleaders—and at least to some degree, being a leader was associated with both power and status. The situation remains much the same today—there are significant differences between cultures in commonly accepted leadership styles, and these differences are of critical importance. However, not everything is different—there are also some core characteristics that seem to carry over from culture to culture.
