The development of educational leadership programmes and qualifications has become an international phenomenon in recent years. This article is one of a series that springs out of a British Council sponsored conference held in the Czech Republic in 2003, organized jointly by the Educational Management Centre of the Faculty of Education at Charles University, Prague, and the Centre for Educational Leadership of the Faculty of Education at the University of Manchester, UK. One of the key aims of the conference was to develop a dialogue on the topic of educational leadership development between European nations. The paper charts the emergence of leadership programmes in England and the Czech Republic. Key commonalities, differences and emergent themes are outlined. It is argued that the changes in leadership development evident in these nations fit within the paradigm of "globalization" developed by Robertson, where international trends are subject to culturally specific interpretation.