Skip to content

Category Archives: Individual Leadership

Purposeful organizations

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

I use the phrase “purposeful organization” frequently in my attempts to explain what I mean by “managing leadership.” Admittedly, it is a bit of a redundancy. That is, you don’t organize an effort – create an organization – without a purpose for it in mind. The intent behind pairing the words, however, is twofold. . .

Also filed in Managing Leadership, Organizational Leadership | | Comments (4)

Art school

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Our current discussion of the nature of leadership was provoked by comments made by to a post published a month ago called “Great Leader Theory.” Interestingly, while most of those comments expressed dissatisfaction to one degree or another with my efforts to present my view of leadership, they also implied disagreement with key contentions of the modern leadership movement. . .

Also filed in Capitalism, Managing Leadership, Organizational Leadership | | Comments (2)

Charm school

Monday, October 6, 2008

We have been questioning the veracity of the modern leadership movement’s various claims for individual leadership. Whichever particular view strikes your fancy of the many offered for what a leader is – or whatever selection you make, from the colorfully diverse display available, for your very own leadership bouquet – there is one prominently shared element of these assertions: they all presume that we can identify leaders on the basis of specific characteristics or behaviors which are the source of this individual leadership. Moreover, an inescapable consequence of this is that . . .

Also filed in | | Comments (0)

A fine mess

Thursday, October 2, 2008

We have been discussing one of the founding principles of the modern leadership movement: the threefold idea that leadership is distinct from and superior to management, and that management is essentially a static activity inherently incapable of foresight or the provision of direction and purpose. Hence, the sophism that managers know how to do things, but leaders know what to do. We’ve already considered the likelihood that management and leadership are not separate activities, but rather are . . .

Also filed in Corporate Governance, Organizational Leadership | | Comments (0)

False distinctions

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

As we noted yesterday, there is much made of the putative distinction between leadership and management. Moreover, this assertion is inevitably paired with the proud presumption that leadership is also superior to management.
This argument is sufficiently pretentious to be objectionable in and of itself. Concealing a deficit of substance with a surfeit of powerfully articulate [...]

Also filed in Organizational Leadership, Training and Education | | Comments (1)