The definition of leadership is an interesting subject. The fact is that there is no one true definition of leadership. Instead there are many ideas that accumulate into the definition of leadership. The first thing you must realize is that the definition has changed many times in the past century. The second and more important is to realize the specific words that go into it.
The definition has changed over the century quite extensively. Leadership is a changing theory in science. There is a hypothesis that is tested. The results, although not exact, are reviewed and then a new hypothesis is made. This process is repeated over and over again.
The problem now is that leadership is an organism in the sense that it has to adapt to its environment. The environment used to move very slowly. China kept their dynasty system for a very long time. Europe kept their dictators and kings for a very long time. It was a system that worked for those regions. As the way we communicated changed so did leadership. For a very long time the way we communicated changed very slowly. This was true up until the industrial revolution when globalization took over causing the way we communicated to change at a very rapid pace. What this meant is that leadership changed at a very rapid pace making it difficult for the human race to have a grasp on it. Tomorrow something new will come out causing leadership to be re-evaluated.
This is no reason to discourage us from adapting along with it. As a society we are always looking for new leaders as we have gotten used to discarding them after 4 to 8 years. Although this what the United States does with their presidents we have gotten to the point where we are discarding corporate leaders at a very high pace. MySpace used to dominate the social world before being discarded. Facebook is only a matter of time before the next social network knocks it out of place UNLESS they are intelligent and adapt to the everlasting needs around them. The problem is that many people are not adapting along with leadership and they are quickly devastated.
So how does one keep up to date with leadership? Exactly as I said before it is a science. You make a hypothesis test it evaluate the results and repeat. Studying the science of leadership is crucial to the development of the human race. We need leadership in some way shape or form or our well-structured society will crumble beneath us. Although there are many keys to success Leadership should be, without a doubt, on your ring.
