Leadership is the easiest to define as a process in which an individual acts on a group of people to achieve a common goal. Over the years, many leadership theories and leadership styles have been developed, so in addition to the previous definition of leadership as a process, scholars have viewed leadership as a trait. Leading people is the most important and complex task of a manager, it can make the difference between survival and failure of a company. Today, true leadership, i.e. the leader, constitutes the biggest capital of the company and its competitive advantage. A true leader sees in every crisis an opportunity for growth and development, with his decisions he takes the risk that determines the life cycle of the company. The paper will compare leadership styles, the role of leadership and leaders in public and private companies. The leadership styles preferred by individual managers will be detected. In line with this objective, primary research will be carried out within different companies with different activities within both sectors. A survey questionnaire will be used as an instrument of research, which will be sent to managers at different levels in the private and public sectors.