On December 11 of last year, I published a post titled, “Bad Leadership: Why We Steer Clear.” It was based on my longer article of the same name.*
The point of the article was to ask why. Why, given that bad leadership can be as pernicious as ubiquitous, the leadership industry continues studiously to avoid the subject.** To this question I gave four answers which, together, largely explain why we are where we are. Why the leadership industry generally fails even to address bad leadership, not to speak of analyzing it and attempting to contain it.
In my post of December 11, I provided a link to the article, but did not directly answer my own question. The present post does just this.
Why am I returning to this general subject one month into the presidency of Donald Trump? Because Americans especially though not exclusively are living in a time when their democracy is devolving into an autocracy. Because Americans especially though not exclusively are living in a time when the question of who is a bad leader and who a good one has never been more urgent.
I do not claim that these four reasons are the only reasons. I do claim that they go a long way toward explaining why the leadership industry continues to seek the light as it continues to deny the dark. As if dark did not exist.
Reason # 1: Follow the money. The leadership industry is like every other industry. People are in it to make money. And there is more money to be made, much more money to be made by professing to teach people how to be good leaders than by struggling to unravel the mysteries of bad ones.
Reason # 2: The Nature of the Human Condition. Humans are not widgets. We are complex beings who behave in complicated ways, sometimes good and sometimes not so good. The complexities of good and bad, including leaders who are capable of being both good and bad, are daunting. Daunting for researchers and teachers, as for coaches and consultants.
Reason # 3: The Matter of Meaning Making. What does being a “good” leader even mean? A leader who is ethical? A leader who is effective? A leader who is both? What about a leader like Elon Musk, who can fairly be said to have been a “good” leader at some points in the last two decades and a “bad” leader at others? It’s complicated.
Reason # 4: The Breaches Between Us. Maybe you and I agree on who is a good leader. But maybe not. Chances are good that we do not – even if we’re both from the same country and culture, and both white women. Which leaves us with a problem: how to address bad leadership if we differ even on what constitutes bad and good and how bad and good even pertain?
Granted. The problems associated with addressing bad leadership – even discussing it! – are formidable. Should this stop us from tackling a problem endemic to the human condition? It should not.
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*This is the article referred to above.
** For my definition of the leadership industry and related discussions, see my books, The End of Leadership (HarperCollins, 2013) and Professionalizing Leadership (Oxford University Press, 2018).