ABSTRACT
This chapter suggests that engaging with the elusive and enigmatic qualities of leadership is key to understanding what it is and to enhancing leadership practice and its development. It argues that in an interdependent and networked society an ability to embrace and work with paradox and complexity is a key part of effective leadership. In particular, the paradoxe focus on the tensions between individual and shared perspectives on leadership. R. A. Barker describes leadership as ‘a process of change where the ethics of individuals are integrated into the mores of a community’. From this perspective, leadership development is an important forum for negotiating shared values and purposes and is ultimately a process of community development. Much of the time on the programme involved them working with a local organisation – such as a children’s home, a community project or a school – to help mobilise leadership amongst those they met.
