The lowest part of local government leadership is at the grassroots. Nevertheless, most of the grassroots areas are characterised by poverty and underdevelopment which are associated with poor governance and leadership. The purpose of the study was to assess the role of grassroot leadership in promoting rural development in Mtama District council, Tanzania. The study adopted the case study design covering a sample size of 161 respondents drawn from a target population of 276 employees comprising District Executive Director, District Administrative Secretary, Ward councilors, Ward Executive Officers, Members of the Ward Development Committees, Village Chairpersons, Village Executive Officers, Members of the Village Councils and village members. The study used purposive and random sampling techniques to select village leaders based on position and community members. Data was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Specifically, the study used correlation analysis to determine the relationship between independent and the dependent variable. The study revealed that governance practices, innovation and administrative leadership have significant influence on promotion of rural development in Mtama District, Tanzania. The governance practice had positive role in promoting rural development at coefficient value of.327**; innovation had positive coefficient value of.201; while administrative role of leadership had positive and strong coefficient value of.405. Based on the study findings, the study concludes that grassroot leadership is very instrumental in promoting rural development in district councils in Tanzania. In order to improve the role of grassroots leadership in rural development, the study recommends that the Government should increase its efforts to improve grassroot leadership in areas of governance practices, innovation, and administrative systems in order to promote rural development. Further, local government authorities should improve on project supervision and promote social accountability mechanisms so as to improve cost-effectiveness of development in rural areas; since involving the citizens is likely to result in improved articulating development priorities, project planning and implementation, better monitoring of activities, and checks on how the budgets are spent.