By Stuart Crainer and Des Dearlove

First things first. Mention the word leadership in a classroom or in conversation in a suitably convivial bar and people always become hard-boiled, demanding a definition of what you mean by leadership. Mention marketing or strategy or the meaning of life and they are less demanding. But, with leadership, definitions are required.

This thirst for defining leadership as a term is, in itself, interesting. Leadership perplexes us. Its ambiguity worries us. And yet, we know it when we experience it; good leadership (and bad leadership) are palpable. We know leadership when it has . . .