ABSTRACT
Leadership failure is identifi ed most often through its outcomes. But, as argued by many leadership scholars (Calder, 1977; Lord & Maher, 1991; Meindl & Ehrlich, 1987; Pfeffer, 1977; Staw, 1975), reasoning backward from performance outcomes to accurate inferences about the quality of leadership is risky and prone to bias. Although military incompetence may imply a failure of leadership as Dixon (1976) suggests, evidence of (in)effective leadership rests on more than individual, team, and organizational outcomes. Leadership involves applying appropriate competence and expertise in addressing complex challenges, defi ned as exceptionally novel or unique problems in which standard solutions are of little help (Drath, 2001; Heifetz, 1994).
