ABSTRACT

Leadership is a timeless, universal and at the same time highly contingent, varied, ambiguous feature of human life. Depending on how it is exercised, it can inspire us, empower us, teach us, frighten us, and repel us – it hardly ever leaves us indierent. We want to follow people who tell us believable stories about who we are and who we could be, who appeal to the better angels of our nature, challenging and empowering us to lift ourselves to a higher moral, material, or spiritual plain. Wherever and whenever we look around the globe, human groups, organizations, and societies long for leadership, particularly when the times are such that ‘business as usual’ approaches no longer suce to navigate the uncertainty and dilemmas they face. In times of change and threat, or when people that are ‘not us’ make their entry, raise their voices, or claim their share of ‘our’ pie, we want protection, direction, and order – and we are only too happy to accept authority gures that provide us with just that.