Rotary provides training at all levels so that those who have been selected for leadership positions have the opportunity to learn and apply leadership principles to their jobs.

The most interesting aspect of leadership is that it cannot be predicted. All great leaders had been quite ordinary in their early years. It was only when they became leaders that people started recognising them as leaders.It is difficult to identify specific qualities that make a leader. However, when leaders emerge, people are inclined to point out their leadership qualities. Yet, when other people imbibe the same qualities and try to imitate the actions of their leaders, they may fail.

Leaders are made not born. They are the results of persistent effort. Thus, leadership involves much more than just shouting. Effective leadership requires a human focus and reflects a servant and transformation mentality. It is about the nuts and bolts of execution. Leadership is an everyday activity. It is a process that begins but never ends.

“The entire game in the Russian street today has nothing to do with platforms. The entire game is leadership. The party that can show it has the strongest leadership will win the Russian vote.”

“You learn far more from negative leadership than from positive leadership. Because you learn how not to do it. And, therefore, you learn how to do it.”

“Maybe there is a communications problem -- that we have not gotten the message out to the leadership; it may be that there is no leadership; or it may be that they have chosen to fight. If it is the latter, that's probably the wrong decision to be making,”

“What really set us back was that he really showed a lot of leadership, ... Not the talent. The experience and leadership that he was in position to give us. That's where it hurt the most.”

“They (the military) seem to be concerned about the lack of leadership within the civilian elites. I think they sense there is room for them once more due to the weakness of the political leadership by civilians.”

The formula for successful leadership has changed little, if at all over the centuries. It isn’t leadership that changes over time, rather where the leaders need to take their people that changes.

Many of the cataclysmic leadership failures were failures of rationality. The pendulum of leadership development needs to swing back toward the rational: strategy, creativity, foresight, decision-making, and analytics.