Leadership development is an essential strategic priority for organizations, and this is most evident in the growing organizational costs spent on leadership development initiatives. This increase in financial spending on developing leaders has not, however, been accompanied by an equivalent increase in the level of satisfaction with the outcomes of these initiatives. In fact, many organizations point out substantial leadership deficit and complain that participating leaders are not equipped with the critical capabilities and skills they need in order to succeed in today’s turbulent reality.

As organizations search for practices to develop their future leaders, scholars search for concepts to explain leadership and its impact in organizations. The leadership literature presents several – and different approaches for leadership. Altogether, they provide answers and questions that illustrate the complexity of contemporary leadership, and how leadership should be carefully interpreted as a general construct with standard development practices.

In this course, we review different approaches for leadership and leadership development to better understand the complexity of leadership and why development of leaders is – and will be difficult. Whereas the course introduces general concepts of leadership, more complex views and critics will be presented and discussed in regard of leadership development and leadership effectivity.