Covenant International Journal of Psychology (CIJP). Vol.2, No.1, June. 2017 An Open Access Journal Available Online Leadership on Trial: An Existentialist Assessment Godwyns A. Agbude 1 , Aize Obayan 2 , Ademola, L. Lawal 3 , & Ugochukwu D. Abasilim 1 1 Development of Political Science and International Relations, College of Leadership Development Studies, Covenant University, Ota, Ogun State, Nigeria. godwyns.agbude@covenantuniversity.edu.ng; ugochukwu.abasilim@covenantuniversity.edu.ng 2 College of Leadership Development Studies, Covenant University, Ota, Ogun State, Nigeria. aize.obayan@covenantuniversity.edu.ng 3 Department of Philosophy, University of Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria. demolalawal2000@yahoo.com Abstract: The importance of leadership in society calls for a continuous attempt to improving on leadership studies so as to build societies (in all its constitutive units) that are humane. This paper, therefore, engages in the perennial dialogues of leadership development vis-à-vis leadership performance from an existentialist paradigm in making a case for a more holistic and viable prescription for effective and functional leadership. The existentialists are notorious for their redefinition of Husserlian Phenomenology in which the Transcendental Ego escaped to the world of loneliness where it only serves as an impartial and uninterested observer of human events. From the pedestal of the Transcendental Ego, the Existentialists pulled it down to the world of empirical reality where the Transcendental Ego becomes an 46