In recent years, the form and style of leadership practised by Australia's senior business leaders has received considerable academic, media and public attention. Evidence of this is the increased focus on hot topics such as corporate governance, management ethics, managerial competencies and accountability.

Sarros and Butchatsky's study of Australia's senior executive leadership is based on a series of questions and propositions put to a group of 24 Australian CEOs.

This `study group' was selected as the 'best' by their peers comprising the top 500 Australian CEOs, and included people such as Rob Ferguson, Elizabeth Proust and Paul Simons.

The authors discuss whether leadership is an innate quality or a learned skill, whether education, family background and life experience influence leadership style. They develop a new model of leadership called breakthrough leadership, and explore how the principles of breakthrough leadership can be applied to leadership challenges. ( )