ABSTRACT
Public service leadership requires an understanding of the unique role of public institutions and their interface with multiple entities in the public, nonprofit, for-profit and civil society sectors. The unique structures of legal authority and the core political values that these structures are intended to serve create a fourth distinguishing feature of public service leadership. But public service leadership is not simply measured by the capacity of leaders to accommodate increasing social complexity and moral diversity. Leadership challenges and opportunities never appear in neat bundles that enable leaders quickly to match the challenge or opportunity with the appropriate set of leadership practices. Public service leadership, like other practices, is a learned craft, but differs from other crafts because of the need for expertise in the moral ends of collective action. The regenerative potential of the inner complexity of the passion flower is not easily released, which is a fitting metaphor for the unique complexity of public service leadership.
