This paper reviews the literature on leadership, noting the lack of a well-founded theoretical conception of leadership that would provide a general cross-sectional approach to leadership identification and development. It is suggested that a systems approach might be used to gain some understanding of leadership as it occurs in an organizational context and that leadership focuses on the attainment of certain goals that can only be reached by using problem- solving capabilities. Leader characteristics and cognitive processes that are most facilitative of goal attainment are discussed as well as implications for leadership identification and development. Keywords: Leadership; Decision making; Systems theory; Cognitive processes; Literature survey.