Professor John Adair, leadership as a role, and Managing Leadership

As mentioned in last week’s post, Professor John Adair, the world’s first professor of leadership studies, published his famous Action-Centered Leadership model in the 1970s, and this model was reviewed in Managing Leadership. On receiving his complimentary copy, Professor Adair responded with a very pleasant and detailed letter in which he provided some ideas about the book. His response was generally positive, including many observations about the concepts of Managing Leadership that are very highly appreciated (please click here to see, in a new window, these comments from last week’s post).

However, Professor Adair also expressed a few reservations. One aim of Managing Leadership is to reopen the debate on what leadership in organizations really is, and it is my hope that this blog will serve as an important forum for doing so. For a start, then, this post will address one of those reservations.

In Chapter Three, “What’s Close,” after providing an overview of the Action-Centered Leadership model, I summarized it as follows:

Adair does a service by redirecting the dialogue on leadership from the individual leader to the organization, and to suggest a more comprehensive view of it than as merely an extension of the will of the individual leader at the top. Nevertheless, he does not go far enough in de-coupling leadership from the leader. In fact, he argues that leadership is a function of the individual leader, and has published several works designed to teach to individuals the secrets of leadership, and techniques for discharging it.

Professor Adair, in his letter, responded to this by asserting that he actually argues that leadership is a role, as well as the ability to discharge that role. It is composed of 6 or 7 core functions, and, he goes on, these functions can be shared. He also emphasizes that however an individual manages to reach leadership rank, he or she is always subordinate to the need to accomplish organizational tasks (the last, emphasizing his separation from the modern leadership movement which, as I argue in the book, often sees the organization as subordinate to the needs of the leader, rather than the reverse).

This is a defensible position, one that describes an honorable and proper role for the leader as subordinate to the organization’s owners and responsible to them for accomplishing the goals set for it. I am fully confident that, in application, it has served many organizations and their managers well. I particularly like the emphasis on the leader’s duty to the task and the group formed to accomplish it, and the fairly unique notion that the leadership functions can be shared.

However, I believe that a close reading of Managing Leadership would suggest how I might respond to Professor Adair’s position. The response will cover two areas, leadership as a role, and the real nature of that role; I will post it next week. For the present, I will suggest that readers of this blog pick up a copy of the book, and pay particular attention to Chapter Six, “Leadership from Within,” and Chapter Seven, “Managing Leadership.” Then stop in next week - see if you can anticipate the answer. And feel free to add your own comments to the discussion!

News about the book:

Managing Leadership is featured this week on the famous 800-CEO-READ’s new service for its clients, 800-CEO-READ(er). This site showcases 4 books by “leading business thinkers” every week, and we’re very pleased that Managing Leadership is among them Please stop by and visit all this week (and while you’re there, pick up a copy!).

Thank you all again for stopping by this week. As always, we appreciate your support and look forward with pleasure to your continued visits.

Sincerely,

Jim Stroup