ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces some of the key ideas in the book, and also challenges some orthodoxies in the leadership literature. In particular, rather than treating leadership as something that derives from leaders’ psychological uniqueness, it argues the very opposite: that effective leadership is grounded in leaders’ capacity to embody and promote a psychology that they share with others. Stated most baldly, it argues for a psychology that regards leadership as the product of an individual’s “we-ness” rather than of his or her “I-ness.” This perspective forces us to see leadership not as a process that revolves around individuals acting and thinking in isolation, but as a group process in which leaders and followers are joined together—and perceive themselves to be joined together—in shared endeavor. It also follows from this point that leadership is not just about leaders. Nor is it enough to view leadership in terms of leaders and followers. It also needs to encompass the group through which leaders and followers come together. In sum, leadership needs to be understood as arising from the relationship between leaders and followers within a social group.
