ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the basic elements of heroic leadership, and shows how heroism and exemplary leadership are deeply intertwined. It describes few paradoxical truths about heroic leadership that are often unrecognised and unappreciated. Leadership is a complex social activity that implicates numerous, interconnected psychological and interpersonal processes. A full understanding of leadership phenomena requires an appreciation of the broader group context that includes an examination of the reciprocal influences between leaders and followers, the myriad characteristics of followers, and the holistic environment in which leadership takes place. The multi-level complexity of leadership poses such a great challenge to scholars and practitioners that hundreds of books have been written about leadership processes over the past two decades. As research on leadership has proliferated over the past two decades, so has scholarly interest in positive psychology, a field that addresses optimal human functioning.
