The aura around leadership is as strong today as it was in the days the Odyssey was written. Common sense suggests that leadership is a very good thing and we need more of it. Yet, there is much less agreement on exactly what it is. For good reason we get nervous about strong leadership at the same time while calling for more. Unfortunately, we can see what happens when prophets we follow turn out to be false prophets.
Leadership always carries the risk of dependence, disappointment, and possible disaster.
In virtually every culture, the earliest literature deals with accounts of heroes and the results of their leadership. It involves a journey-abandoning the old and searching for the new. Leadership arises in response to a need. It is difficult to generalize about leadership because the conditions that give rise to it vary from situation to situation, and from one historical time to another. Effective leadership in a battle situation is likely to be very different from leadership in a high-tech corporate situation.