The End of Leadership

Abstract

Over the past thirty years, has become a mantra in our culture - a path to power and money, a road to personal and professional success, and a mechanism for creating change that has spawned its own lucrative worldwide industry. Yet why does government remain riddled with inept, corrupt, or badly behaved leaders? Why is business filled with leaders who are venal, self-centered, and seek more power and influence than they can exercise wisely and well? Why, for all attention to ethics, is corruption and malfeasance so pervasive? The End of Leadership offers a critical rethinking of the leadership industry, challenging the idea that can be taught. Breaking with common wisdom, Barbara Kellerman argues that while leaders always were and still are the focus of our collective attention, they have never been as central to success as we think. Even in times past, when leaders had far more power, authority, and influence, they were vulnerable to forces beyond their control, forces that limited their options and constrained their behaviors. In the twenty-first century, she argues, these forces are stronger, more variegated, and more numerous than they ever were before, relegating current notions of to the dustbin of history. Instead, she offers an alternative model that better reflects - and addresses - contemporary political and organizational realities.

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