James MacGregor Burns. Leadership, 1978
“Leadership over human beings is exercised when persons with certain motives and purposes mobilize, in competition or conflict with others, institutional, political, psychological, and other resources so as to arouse, engage, and satisfy the motives of followers. …in order to realize goals mutually held by both leaders and followers...” (page 18).
Notes:
In further refining his definition of “moral leadership,” Burns explains,
“The essence of leadership in any polity is the recognition of real need, the uncovering and exploiting of contradictions among values and between values and practice, the realigning of values, the reorganization of institutions where necessary, and the governance of change. Essentially the leader’s task is consciousness-raising on a wide plane. …The leader’s fundamental act is to induce people to be aware or conscious of what they feel -- to feel their true needs so strongly, to define their values so meaningfully, that they can be moved to purposeful action.” (pages 43-44)