Among the most dangerous of the many troubling features of the modern leadership movement’s prescriptions is its cultivation of the idea that leadership, at its best, is expressed by individuals so possessed of the leadership persona that they simply infect “followers” with the impulse to follow them. This is most often characterized as charismatic leadership, and it retains a strong place in writing and teaching about individual leadership to the present day. . .
Easily among the most disagreeable aspectsof the generally disagreeable concept of exceptional individual leadership is the noxious notion of “followership.” When the modern leadership movement’s supporters find even themselves waxing too reverential about the singular qualities of their hopes and dreams, when they realize that there may be a problem . . .
We’ve covered a lot of ground over the past several years in these pages. We’ve talked about everything from free-market capitalism to history – even physics. But at bottom, it all has been about management and leadership; in particular, how the former is a proper and honorable individual undertaking in an organization, and how the latter is, not to put to fine a point on it, neither. . .
As a rule, we should expect talent to be evenly distributed throughout the world. All other things being equal, we should find individuals with exceptional ability at some particular rate per capita within all nations, communities, even organizations. So, large groupings should have more talent than smaller ones. If all groupings of all sizes have only one boss, then we should expect to see the larger ones benefiting from competition among a greater amount of talent to fill that top position. Is that what you see?
Advice for effective management has been showing up in some of the most unlikely places over the past several weeks, or in unexpected guises. Let’s take a look at some of these, leavened with some real advice from some of the best management trainers around. . .
One of the key problems with the notion of exceptional individual leadership is that it is inwardly focused. It is all about the individual, and the electric impression he or she is supposed to make on “followers” at all levels. Only then, if at all, does the subject turn . . .
A good part of Adam Nicolson’s gripping retelling of the great Naval Battle of Trafalgar, “Seize the Fire,” turns out to be an exceptionally insightful depiction of the complex and powerful societal undertows that threw the combatant nations together on that awful day in October of 1805. . .
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