How can we make sense of leadership in the 21st century? Malcolm Higgs Henley Management College, Henley-on-Thames, Oxford, UK Introduction For centuries we have been obsessed with leaders, and with identifying the characteristics required for effective leadership. In more recent times the area of leadership has been studied more extensively than almost any other aspect of human behaviour Kets de Vries, 1993; Goffee and Jones, 2000; Higgs and Rowland, 2001). Many have pointed out that, in spite of the plethora of studies, we still seem to know little about the defining characteristics of effective leadership e.g. Kets de Vries, 1994; Goffee and Jones, 2000; Hogan and Hogan, 2001). However, such observations do not appear to have stemmed our appetite for continuing the search. It has been estimated Goffee and Jones, 2000) that, in 1999 alone, over 2,000 books were published on the topic of leadership. Last year a search on the Library of Congress database revealed in excess of 8,000 books on the topic of leadership Aitken, 2002). Further evidence of the current level of fascination with the concept is provided by the devotion of a special edition of the Harvard Business Review to the topic in December 2001. With this background in mind, this paper sets out to explore the ``long line'' of study and attempts to make sense of what we have found in the context of today's business environment. The paper sets out to develop a framework for thinking about leadership in terms of combining personality and behaviours. Working from this framework the possible linkages between the concepts of emotional intelligence Salovey and Meyer, 1990; Goleman, 1996; Higgs and Dulewicz, 1999) and leadership are explored with empirical data supporting these being presented. The drivers of current interest Exploring the drivers of interest in leadership could be the subject of a paper in its own right. Some suggest that it reflects a basic human need to be led Collingwood, 2001a,b). Indeed Freud 1927) maintained that groups of individuals need leaders to provide them with an identity and sense of purpose. However, in order to attempt to make sense of leadership in today's context, it is helpful to consider some of the critical issues facing organisations, which have leadership implications. Reviewing the broader business literature, a number of common themes emerge: . Changes in societal values. Over the last fifty years there have been dramatic changes to society's values in the Western world e.g. Fineman, 1997; Goffee and Jones, 2000; Higgs and Rowland, 2001). These changes, combined with significant economic and organisational developments, have led to the emergence of ``talent wars'' Williams, 2000) and the underlying need to engage employees in a different way in order to secure effective commitment Higgs and Rowland, 2001). . Changes in investor focus. For many, the indicators of a CEO's success are focused on their delivering increases in shareholder value Collingwood, 2001a,b), indeed this has become an almost obsessive focus. In the USA, in the period from 1960 to 1990, market capitalisation was almost exclusively linked to current earnings of a business. Between 75 and 90 per cent of the variance in market capitalisation was explicable by earnings performance e.g. Ulrich, 1999). However, since 1990 this relationship has changed dramatically with earnings accounting for only 45 to 50 per cent of the variation in market value Ulrich, 1999). In seeking to understand this change, research with investors has shown that their decisions are increasingly influenced by ``intangibles'' Ulrich, 1997), which include The Emerald Research Register for this journal is available at http://www.emeraldinsight.com/researchregister The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at http://www.emeraldinsight.com/0143-7739.htm [ 273 ] Leadership & Organization Development Journal 24/5 [2003] 273-284 # MCB UP Limited [ISSN 0143-7739] [DOI 10.1108/01437730310485798] Keywords Leadership, Intelligence, Behaviour, Organizational change Abstract Explores the development of thinking on leadership and places it in the context of the dominant discourses of the period in which studies were conducted. Argues that if a ``sense making'' paradigm is adopted. it becomes feasible to identify a model of leadership, which is relevant to the context of complexity and change facing organisations in the early twenty- first century. The model emerges when the measure of effectiveness is changed from organisational success to the impact of the leader on followers and on building of capability. The argument for such a shift is underpinned by the movement of dominant organisational logic from a Weberian rational/analytical one to a logic which acknowledges emotional considerations. Within the leadership arena it has been proposed that emotional intelligence is a major factor underpinning success. Presents data from recent research, which empirically demonstrates linkages between emotional intelligence and leadership. These findings are examined in conjunction with the ``Emergent model''. Received: August 2002 Revised: October 2002 Accepted: November 2002