Leadership is recognised as a significant foundation of the public sector. The success or failure of any public enterprise is often associated with the vision and strength of the leadership involved. This paper aims to synthesise the vast leadership literature around core ideas that relate closely to policy and practice in the public sector.

Arguably, public leadership is more needed in the present era than ever before to manage multiple crises of environment, economy, health, and population, to mention just a few ongoing and compounding global issues. There has rarely been a time when vision, courage and truthfulness – among the most essential elements of leadership – were simultaneously the most in demand, and yet the most threatened of the qualities of public servants. 

In contemplating the qualities of public sector leadership, historically there was a tendency to make direct (and often disparaging) comparisons between the entrepreneurial leadership of the private sector, and the more constrained leadership found in the public sector. However exercising leadership in public sector organisations is necessarily very different from leading private companies, due the exigencies of democratic accountability.