Title :
The End Of Leadership
Author : Barbara
Kellerman
Publisher :
Harper Business
Year : 2012
No. of Pages : 200
Price :
Rs.783
Barbara Kellerman, an accomplished expert on
leadership and author of a number of
leadership-related books, has written a book which given the title may
give an impression that she has written an obituary on leadership as a concept
and body of knowledge. But it is far from an RIP on leadership but which forces
the reader to look at leadership from a different perspective. The book has
already been discussed in the business press with Prof.T.T.Ram Mohan writing on
it in Economic Times and Mr.B.S.Rahavan writing about it in Business Line.
The book is a compendium of the
changes in the leadership theories and practices that happened as one travelled
from the 20th century to the 21st century. She asserts
that she has chosen to write the book because she finds a big gap between the
teaching of leadership and the practice of leadership as we entered the 21st
century. And she is also equally uneasy about how the leadership institution, the trainers,
seminars, workshops, books, blogs, websites, videos, consultants and coaches-
all claiming to teach people about leadership-which Kellerman refers to as the
leadership industry, has grown to the present level without necessarily
understanding its own deficiencies. And also, she feels that leaders of every
sort-political, religious, corporate or other- are in disrepute and laments
that over its nearly 40year history, the industry has not , in any “major,
meaningful way improved human condition”
Kellerman narrates how the
institution of leadership has undergone dramatic changes over a period. She
starts with the example of the institution of marriage, which has moved from a
husband-centric scenario to one of equal status to both the husband and wife. She
feels that the same kind of change has happened in leadership scenario. From a
leader-centric earlier days, where followers did not get any recognition, the
institution has moved to one where followers
have gained equal if not more importance. And the leadership industry,
which might have made a difference at
the micro-level, but at the macro level,
the industry has wholly failed to make the necessary impact, probably leading
to all time lowest levels of trust and
approval of leaders.
The book gives umpteen numbers of
examples of how followers, instead of leaders, are calling more important
shots in many important events in the
world including many revolutions in the recent past- like those in Egypt, where
the autocrat ruler Hosni Mubarak was ousted and in Libya where long time ruler
Gaddafi was removed and killed. She also
talks about the role and influence of media and especially the social
networking in bringing the followers from their erstwhile position of practically
no importance to one of major importance and influence. The author questions
why, despite all the importance and talk about the leadership development, the
world has gone from bad to worse. Lots of countries, economies, corporates and
other institutions have failed to live up to
their expectations, mostly because
of pitfalls in leadership, despite all the thrust given to the
discipline.
Ms.Kellerman has wonderfully
dealt with a contentious issue like
leadership in the current context. While the book doesn’t give any
prescriptions per se about how to improve the leadership scenario, diverting
more attention to the followership has been definitely taken care of.
Notwithstanding the importance
ascribed to the followership in the
context of leadership, and the context in which leadership has to be viewed, the
reader wonders why the author falters a little toward the end. Almost
throughout the book, the author emphatically emphasizes that there is no standard
format for leadership development or for
that matter ”leadership” is different from “leader”. But except for a few
examples from the general arena like Wael
Ghonim, a Google executive who mustered the support of thousands of
supporters for his movement against the
atrocious behavior of the Egyptian authorities, Ms.Kellerman mostly deals with leaders, who occupy
top positions in the hierarchy- be it politics, business or others. And,
while criticizing the leadership industry and developing leaders, she complains
about a lack of curriculum and pedagogy for leadership development. Isn’t it
contradicting her own views that
leadership development has to be context-based and there is no one size that
fits all? Also, one may be tempted to
ask why there has been practically no mention about self-development of
leadership through learning and practicing.
About the author
Barbara Kellerman is the James
MacGregor Burns Lecturer in Public Leadership at John F. Kennedy School of
Government of Harvard University. She
was the founder director of the School’s
Center For Public Leadership and also served as its research director. Was
ranked among the Top 50 Business Thinkers in 2009 and in the top 15 of 100”best minds on leadership” in 2008 and
2009.She has authored and edited 13 other books on leadership.
No comments:
Post a Comment