Human Factors Professional
“Given its fixation on the leader, its dismissal of the follower, and its avoidance of the larger context within which leaders and followers the world over necessarily are embedded, the [leadership] industry is not by and large ready, willing, or even able to take on the most vexing of our collective concerns.” (Kellerman, 2012, p. 83)
Reference
Kellerman, B. (2012). The end of leadership. New York: Harper Business.
“The leadership industry – which remains largely though no longer entirely an American phenomenon – is a focus of this book. There is no point in mincing words: whatever the difference it has made at the micro level – which in some cases is no doubt real, for example within individuals and within individual groups and organizations – at the macro level its deficits loom large. Instead of making our leaders more effective and ethical, it seems at least to have had the opposite effect – it seems to have made things worse.” (Kellerman, 2012, p. xix)
Reference
Kellerman, B. (2012). The end of leadership. New York: Harper Business.
Earlier this week, noted biographer and leadership scholar, James MacGregor Burns, PhD. passed away at the age of 95 (see here and here for details about his life).
Arguably one of Dr. Burns greatest contributions to the discipline is his 1978 book Leadership where he coined the terms transactional leadership and transformational leadership. If you’ve never read it, I encourage you to do so.
One of my favorite quotes, which is still relevant today as it was more than 35 years ago, is:
“The crisis of leadership today is the mediocrity or irresponsibility of so many of the men and women in power, but leadership rarely rises to the full need for it. The fundamental crisis underlying mediocrity is intellectual. If we know all too much about our leaders, we know far too little about leadership. We fail to grasp the essence of leadership that is relevant to the modern age and hence we cannot agree on the standards by which to measure, recruit, and reject it. Is leadership simply innovation – cultural or political? Is it essentially inspiration? Mobilization of followers? Goal setting? Goal fulfillment? Is a leader the definer of values? Satisfier of needs? If leaders require followers, who leads whom from where to where, and why? How do leaders lead followers without being wholly lead by followers? Leadership is one of the most observed and least understood phenomena on earth.” (pp. 1-2)
References
Burns, J.M. (1978). Leadership. New York, NY: Harper & Row.