In the conditions of an increasing information flow and multichannel sources of access to information, the teacher is increasingly losing the monopoly that existed until recently on opening knowledge to students, and at the same time, the position of the leader-organizer of the educational process assigned to him automatically disappears into the past. Thus, the research task of substantiating effective mechanisms for restoring the active position of a teacher, but already in the formation of information and communicative competence of students in accordance with the new situation that has arisen in modern education, is urgent. We consider the formation of creative leadership as a necessary component in the structure of his professional and pedagogical competence to be among the effective mechanisms that ensure the modern teacher's readiness to implement new functions in the educational process. The article examines the evolution of the conceptualization of the phenomenon of leadership in the studies of Russian authors, clarifies the concept of leadership in education, establishes its functions in the educational process in order to determine the pedagogical conditions for the formation of a teacher's readiness to implement new functions in the modern educational process. This article describes the evolution of the conceptualization of the phenomenon of leadership in domestic research within the framework of the theory of small groups or collectives, the tradition of studying which is rooted in the works of Russian authors of the 20th century. At the beginning of the 20th century, the phenomenon of leadership was considered by domestic scientists within the framework of the problem of the relationship between individual and group problem solving, as a phenomenon of social power in a team, as well as within the framework of the problem of "children's leadership", in the modern interpretation - leadership. The problems of organizational activity and organizational skills, management and leadership, the effectiveness of a small group and the psychological climate as a factor of effective interaction in a small group were actively studied. At the end of the 20th century, in the works of domestic researchers studying the phenomenon of leadership, the idea of differentiating business and emotional leadership is being developed, the role of the leader-generator of ideas and the leader-motivator is highlighted, that is, there is a tendency to bring to the fore the value foundations of leadership, ethics and morality. However, according to Russian scientists at the beginning of the 21st century, the study of the phenomenon of leadership in domestic research lags behind the demands of social practice, including in education, and the idea of the advisability of including leadership among the key professional competencies of a teacher is being formulated. At the same time, the essence of this concept is significantly clarified and, following the authors of foreign studies, is interpreted in a new capacity as “creative leadership”, as the position of a motivator for the process of forming students' readiness to realize their creative potential.