According to Kellerman (Bad Leadership), lecturer in public leadership at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, the “leadership industry” (her term for purported “schools of leadership” run by governments, educational institutions, and private businesses) continues to flourish, but with no apparent increase in the quality or quantity of leadership. In a response that seems geared toward her industry colleagues, Kellerman argues that the leadership industry must make four changes: end “leader-centrism”; transcend the situational specifics that lead to myopia; subject itself to critical analysis; and change with changing times. This vague prescription concludes 200 pages that detail the increasing loss of centralized power in governments, business, and institutions and the corresponding decline in people’s respect for and deference to leaders. The author argues that power has shifted from leaders to followers, and social media and the information age require more transparency and accountability from leaders. Kellerman also questions whether leadership can be taught, and, if so, whether corporate “leadership training” is what Plato or Machiavelli had in mind when envisioning the “Philosopher King” or “The Prince.” What type of leader the modern age requires is an interesting question that Kellerman flirts with, but never directly addresses, almost as if the book itself were subject to the directionless malaise it describes. (Apr.)
In this wide-ranging critique, Kellerman enumerates the numerous contradictions, inconsistencies, and irrelevance of what passes for leadership thought and training today. Before you purchase or attend any of what the multi-billion dollar leadership industry is selling, read this book!” — Jeffrey Pfeffer, Thomas D. Dee II Professor, Graduate School of Business, Stanford University, and author of Power: Why Some People Have It-and Others Don't
“Barbara Kellerman does not play nicely with the other boys and girls-and we are all the better for it. Anyone interested in a penetrating critique of the leadership industry should read this provocative new book from our foremost leadership contrarian.” — Robert Kegan, Meehan Professor of Adult Learning and Professional Development, Harvard University Graduate School of Education
“In this compelling book, Kellerman brings critical new insights to longstanding questions about the importance of leaders….essential reading for anyone who cares about the future of leadership both in theory and practice.” — Deborah Rhode, Ernest W. McFarland Professor of Law and Director of the Center on the Legal Profession, Stanford Law School
“After pioneering work on followership and bad leadership, now Kellerman provocatively dissects what she calls the leadership industry. She offers suggestions on how to think far bigger and more expansively if we are to cope with leading in a global information age.” — Joseph S. Nye, Jr., University Distinguished Service Professor at Harvard and author of The Future of Power
“A timely, considered and comprehensive examination of how leadership has changed and how and why we lost faith in leaders; how the leadership industry went wrong - and the steps needed to put it right” — Rob Goffee, Professor of Organisational Behaviour, London Business School
“‘Mind the Gap’ could be the subtitle of Kellerman’s disturbingly honest and indispensable book. The ‘gap’ Kellerman urges us to mind is the hoary disconnect between what the leadership industry produces about best practices and what leaders who read our books actually practice.” — Warren Bennis, University Professor, University of Southern California and author of Still Surprised: A Memoir of a Life in Leadership
“Kellerman’s honest and astute critique makes it clear that the gurus in her own field have work to do if they want to remain relevant.” — Kirkus Reviews
A well-written chronicle of the evolution and devolution of the leadership profession and a substantiated indictment of the leadership development industry.Essential. — Choice Reviews Online
In this compelling book, Kellerman brings critical new insights to longstanding questions about the importance of leaders….essential reading for anyone who cares about the future of leadership both in theory and practice.
In this wide-ranging critique, Kellerman enumerates the numerous contradictions, inconsistencies, and irrelevance of what passes for leadership thought and training today. Before you purchase or attend any of what the multi-billion dollar leadership industry is selling, read this book!
‘Mind the Gap’ could be the subtitle of Kellerman’s disturbingly honest and indispensable book. The ‘gap’ Kellerman urges us to mind is the hoary disconnect between what the leadership industry produces about best practices and what leaders who read our books actually practice.
A well-written chronicle of the evolution and devolution of the leadership profession and a substantiated indictment of the leadership development industry.Essential.
Barbara Kellerman does not play nicely with the other boys and girls-and we are all the better for it. Anyone interested in a penetrating critique of the leadership industry should read this provocative new book from our foremost leadership contrarian.
A timely, considered and comprehensive examination of how leadership has changed and how and why we lost faith in leaders; how the leadership industry went wrong - and the steps needed to put it right
After pioneering work on followership and bad leadership, now Kellerman provocatively dissects what she calls the leadership industry. She offers suggestions on how to think far bigger and more expansively if we are to cope with leading in a global information age.
A highly critical assessment of the state of American leadership and the "leadership industry" that helps produce it. After 30 years in the leadership-training field, Kellerman (Public Leadership/Harvard Univ.; Leadership: Essential Selections on Power Authority, and Influence, 2010, etc.) writes, "we don't know if learning how to lead wisely and well can be taught." Yet the $50-billion leadership industry has exploded in recent decades and become "self-satisfied, self-perpetuating, and poorly policed," while producing scant evidence of success. Instead, many business and government leaders "seem inept or corrupt" and either unable or unwilling to lead. In this valuable book, she details vast societal changes that have demeaned and downgraded leaders and altered the relationship between leaders and followers. The Internet and other advances in communication technology brought more information, encouraged greater self-expression and expanded connection. With information available instantly to everyone, followers (citizens, employees, stockholders) learned of their leaders' faults and began questioning their authority. Information about priestly abuse, for example, has led to diminution in the Catholic Church's institutional power, and news of business scandals has prompted distrust of corporate leaders. At the same time, followers are demanding more, emboldened by the spread of democracy, the rhetoric of empowerment and the practice of participation. To keep pace with a networked, interdependent and transnational world in which leaders are weaker and followers stronger, the leadership industry must overcome its myopia, analyze itself critically and catch up with a rapidly changing society. Kellerman's honest and astute critique makes it clear that the gurus in her own field have work to do if they want to remain relevant.
