What is a leader?

I was reading Joseph Campbell  when he alluded to Tolstoy's War and Peace. Is a leader really a leader? or is he simply the one out in front of the wave. I like this because it downplays the role of the leader. Yes it is important to have a leader, but i think that role is overrated compared to the role of the people. Without the people, without followers, a leader is a madman that thinks he's in control of something. But, nonetheless, a leader is important

What is a leader? What makes a leader? Can "the one in front of the wave" really be a leader? or is a leader something else, someone who created an idea and got people to follow them? Personally, I think that a leader can come from both. When a population has an idea, but no one wants to express it, the one who does, and does it in a successful way, is really a leader. But someone can also come and enlighten a people. That someone is a leader because they had the courage to share their ideas. Take the Buddha, he was a leader, he came from somewhere and told people what he thought we are here for, and people followed him, respected him. Then an example for the one in front of the wave is Napoleon, he rose through the ranks of the french army to become emperor.

This picture is relative to my point