the article is focused on leadership in slovak companies. its aim is to analyse the perception of leadership by employees of slovak companies and to identify the characteristics, abilities and skills that a leader should have. We carried out our own research in the form of a questionnaire survey on a sample of 508 respondents working in slovak companies. the primary intention was to determine whether employees considered their direct supervisor to be a leader, to identify the qualities that employees look for in a leader. the most common positive qualities of a leader are generally considered to be receptivity, empathy, representativeness, helpfulness, fairness, directness, responsibility, intelligence, foresight, self-confidence, dexterity, communicativeness, decency and honesty towards subordinates and clients. On the contrary, the most common reasons why bosses were not considered leaders are the inability to work and communicate with people, the absence of natural authority and respect, disorganization of the workplace, lack of education, incompetence, absence of information about the company and the work of individual subordinates. Applying the chi-square test of independence with cramer's v, it has been found that there is a strong correlation between the perception of a superior as a leader and the thoughts a bout changing a job.