A leader node is defined to be any node of the network unambiguously identified by some characteristics. In this paper, we first present a distributed algorithm for finding a leader node of a directed split-star. Moreover, an efficient self-stabilizing leader election algorithm that converges with linear rounds is proposed for directed split-stars. Actually, the distributed algorithm and the self-stabilizing algorithm are also applicable to the problem of directed alternating group graphs. As far as we know, no self-stabilizing leader election algorithm was known for the two graphs.