Overview and Objectives

Lesson Overview

With an overabundance of published books and e-publications on the topic of leadership, defining leadership can be more difficult than what we anticipate. We could answer the question from multiple perspectives (i.e., philosophical, religious, or political ones). In this lesson, we consider our current understanding of leadership and how influential theories about leadership throughout significant historical periods—both classical and modern—have shaped society’s contemporary ideas about leadership. By the end of this lesson, you may well be left asking: “But then what really determines what an effective leader is?” As you start your learning journey into Leadership Basics, continue to ask questions such as this, and find answers to them as you progress through all of the lessons of this course.

Lesson Objectives

When you complete this lesson, you should be able to do the following:

1. Define leadership from multiple perspectives.
2. Compare two or more historical theories that have defined the contemporary conceptualisation of leadership.
3. Evaluate which historical and theoretical perspectives have shaped your understanding of leadership.