The recent literature on school leadership, notably that advocating distributed leadership involving the negotiation of tasks and roles among all staff members to enhance the core mission of teaching and learning, necessitates further rethinking of traditional expressions of leadership based on status and authority, and implicit in the operating structure of schools. This article provides a brief examination of societal trends including proliferating accountabilities, the enacting of social justice initiatives, and the accent on learning communities, that collectively inform contemporary views of school leadership. It provides an overview of selected 'current' and representative leadership theories; outlines posited leadership roles to further illustrate the scope of school leadership; and draws upon these data to develop a list of desirable requisites for school leadership.