Leadership tends to imply an hierarchical situation of leader/follower and this is not desirable in a cockpit.
I disagree with this statement quite strongly. That is a VERY old fashioned view that I'd attribute to, for example, Confucius or Sun Tsu, and frankly was probably fairly dubious even then.
Nobody leads save with the consent, ultimately, of those they lead. Effective leadership very substantially involves consultation and working *with* those you are in a leadership role with or over. An aircraft Captain, or a company chief executive, has a clear ultimate decision making role, but equally if they are any good make very substantial use of every other brain and skillset on board. I'm a great fan of the concept of the
level 5 leader as proposed by writer Jim Collins, one of my favourite management writers who defines such leaders as having a great deal of humility, a high level of understanding of the organisation that they're leading, and a high degree of motivation for success.
Some of Jim Collins stuff will give some great insights on leadership in general - in particular I like his book "Good to Great"; in an aviation context Chesley Sullenberger's autobiographical "Highest Duty" is as good as you're going to get in describing the leadership role of an airline pilot.
Becoming a good leader of-course, takes work like any other skill. You can read all the books you like, but taking the lead in running a Scout Group, a drama production, a community project, a company - will teach you stuff that books never will alone.
G