A group faces uncertainty and one person succeeds in aligning effort toward a shared goal. Leadership is the process of influencing others to understand and agree about what needs to be done and how, and facilitating individual and collective efforts to accomplish shared objectives.

Trait approaches search for stable characteristics of effective leaders; behavioral approaches examine what leaders actually do; contingency theories emphasize the fit between style and situation. Transformational leadership inspires by articulating vision and supporting development; transactional leadership relies on exchanges of reward and effort.

Leadership can be formal or emergent, concentrated or distributed. Contexts ranging from military units to volunteer organizations to global corporations place different demands on leaders. Research continues on ethical leadership, followership, and the conditions under which leadership succeeds or fails. Influence without coercion remains the practical core of the phenomenon.

• Influencing others toward shared goals
• Studied through traits, behaviors, and situations
• Includes transformational and transactional styles
• Can be formal or distributed