Some leadership writers would put capabilities right at the start of the analysis in this book – so why have we not done this? The individual qualities of leadership might seem a logical place to start (‘Who are the leaders and what qualities do they possess?’). It would fit with the tendency that still exists across much of the literature to focus on ‘heroic’ leadership – the assumption that leaders are different from ‘followers’ in terms of their special intellect, motivation and/or personality.

However, this book is based on an alternative analytical framework, which argues that the context and the challenges shape the kinds of leaders who will emerge in particular situations, or who will put themselves forward, intentionally or not, as sources of influence. So, this approach is a contingent one, which suggests that the kinds of skills and abilities that an effective leader needs to exhibit will depend on the situation they are in, and the kinds of goals they are trying to formulate or accomplish. We turn now to the evidence about capabilities, within this framework.

Traits

Early research into leadership (up to and into the 1940s) had focused on traits, such as personality, physique and cognitive style. These were assumed to be fixed and largely inherited (Stogdill, 1974). Large lists were generated of the traits that were associated with effective leadership (largely, at that stage, the leadership of small groups).