Leadership: the Good, the Bad and the Follower

Leadership: the Good, the Bad and the Follower

Effective leadership can make or break a company, church, or government. Leadership is normally referred to in the context of being the lifeline of an organization, and greatly impacts the performance of an entire organization’s performance. The traits and motives of a leader can have an impact on a small or large group. But what is leadership? Some say it is the method of influencing an organization to achieve its goals. While that may be true, many contemporary text books and journals only focus on the traits of the positive leader and say little about the ineffective leader. However, in the case of Bad Leadership: What It Is, How It Happens, Why It Matters, Barbara Kellerman states that we must explore the “dark side” of leadership to understand good leadership.

With an intriguing approach to the normal educational thinking regarding leadership, Kellerman urges her readers to view leadership as a whole and that bad leaders can be callous, greedy and insulated. Her purpose is to educate by offering a rather stark glimpse into the world of leaders with real life examples from Bill Clinton to Leona Helmsley. She claims that such behavior (and other similar traits) is ever-present and should be explored and understood. In her efforts she breaks down why and how our leaders step over the line from dark to light. By compiling this book, Kellerman strives to shed light on an area of academics regarding leadership to enlighten and focus the spotlight on what has gone wrong with leaders, and how it can be changed. Not only are the leaders’ good and bad qualities focused on, but the followers who Kellerman reveals play an important role in an organization’s development. Setting out on her writing journey, she made a decided effort to break down the seven deadly sins of those in authority who unfortunately hurt an organization more than they help it. Another aim of the book is to deliver a strong message to the...