The term "leadership" is defined in Webster's Dictionary as:

• the office or position of a leader
• capacity to lead
• the act or instance of leading.

Unfortunately, the study of leadership is not exact. When compared to many aspects of the study of medicine, in which the physical world is orderly, uniform, and follows rules, the study of leadership involves examining people's social behavior, which is anything but predictable. For this reason, a list of definitions is not likely to be useful to one aspiring to a position of leadership or desiring to develop leadership skills. Therefore, in this module we have chosen to examine contemporary thought regarding leadership and draw from well-known scholars of leadership to assign meaning to the word "leadership."

Length of Core Leadership Skills Module

Reading the text and completing the exercises completely should take approximately 1 to 2 hours. There are a number of suggested Web sites and text books which can take you into limitless hours of independent learning.

Cost of Module

The recommended text books can be purchased at many local bookstores or on-line.

To proceed with the core leadership skills module, please sign in (members only).

Last Revised3/22/07