Introduction : the physicality of leadership : 'Ceci n'est pas une Pipe' / Donna Ladkin, Steven S. Taylor -- Leading a group through feeling : teaching by the movement of learning / John Paul Stephens -- Flying blind? Teaching aesthetic agency in an executive MBA course / Claus Springborg, Ian Sutherland -- Disappearing bodies in virtual leadership? / Donatella De Paoli, Arja Ropo, Erika Sauer -- To be physical is to inter-be-come : beyond empiricism and idealism towards embodied leadership that matters / Wendelin Küpers -- From Mahler to the movies : physical empathy in orchestral leadership / David Gilling -- Music beyond the chamber : NZTrio and embodied communities / Ralph Bathurst, Lloyd Williams -- Leadership, eroticism and abjection : Star Trek and the Borg Queen / Mary Phillips -- Bill Clinton and the end of leadership / Ralph Bathurst, Anne Messervy -- On knees, breasts and being fully human in leadership / Amanda Sinclair -- 'In through the nose, out through the mouth' : how conscious breathing can help mere mortals cope with the diiificulties of leading / Donna Ladkin -- Open your heart / Steven S. Taylor.

Colloquially we know that how leaders present themselves physically matters; and those taking up the leader role know this too. Otherwise why would Margaret Thatcher have insisted on standing on a step-stool when speaking publicly, or why would FDR have so carefully downplayed his reliance on his wheelchair? Yet the academic literature has to a large extent ignored this feature of leadership, relegating it to 'below the radar' or in the margins of what is considered to be a 'proper' focus of study. This volume addresses this oversight by inviting leadership scholars from around the world to inquire rigorously into the physical aspect of leading and leadership. In doing so, it brings into high relief aspects of leadership which are often ignored: its gestural and performative nature, the way our physical bodies both enable and constrain the type of leader we can be, the sheer physical demands of taking up the leading role. Most importantly, by noticing and dwelling with the visible facets of leading which are so often overlooked, the book suggests new possibilities for how leadership can be both created and studied.