by aligning strategies. All of the above was synthesised by Dean Amory in 2014 where he states that leadership equals influence therefore factual leaders are the ones who have the most influence on others. Even though the perception of leadership changes over time, it is understood and agreed that leadership involves influencing others by motivating them to achieve set goals or visions.

Different leadership theories can assist in establishing features of a good leader. Equally to definitions of leadership, these theories evolve over time as there are many external and internal factors influencing those changes.

Derived from Aristotelian philosophy, historian Thomas Carlyle drew a ‘Great Man’ theory based on the fact that great leaders do not acquire or learn their leadership skills, instead they are born with them (Forsyth D., 2009). According to Marquis and Huston (2009) this theory was a base to other theories until 1940s, it also confirms that equally as some individuals are born to lead others, some are simply born to be led. In order to establish and understand traits of great leaders the study of the most followed leaders, both in historical and current context, needs to be carried out. Carlyle in his work ‘On heroes, hero worship and the heroic in history’ (1888) links great men such as Mahomet, Shakespeare or Napoleon to concept of hero. What is more, he produces that history of the world is nothing else than ‘biography of great men’. Stogdill R. & Bass B (1990) add John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King to the great leaders list. According to Daft R. (2007) great leaders has always been thought of as men and were in possession of ‘natural abilities of power and influence’. A great man was often found in organisations, military, governments or social movements and visualised as a person who had the ability to influence others to follow him/her. It is recommended that great men have high level of intuition, judgment skills, charisma and personality which cannot be learnt from books or training (Tulsian C., 2009).

According to Tulsian the greatest criticisms of the Great Man Theory include that it has not been scientifically proven and is nothing more than a speculation. Another criticism is that the theory should not be gender defined therefore, as explained by Karen O’Connor in 2010, a Great Woman Theory was created as a counter -response to the issue. It is explained further that women expose higher level of ‘emotional intelligence’ than men which is understood as a