Leadership BS
Jeffrey Pfeffer HarperBusiness, 272 pages, $29.99
In "Leadership BS: Fixing Workplaces and Careers One Truth at a Time," Jeffrey Pfeffer asks probing questions and is careful to invoke careful research where others provide convenient anecdotes.
He takes a hatchet to the idea that successful leaders need to be exemplars of moral virtues such as modesty, truthfulness or authenticity. Great leaders tend to be complex people who are driven as much by egoism as by a desire to do good. Take modesty: Successful leaders are almost by definition people who are good at promoting themselves, he writes. Or honesty: If entrepreneurs didn't overestimate their chances of success to both themselves and their customers, they would never get off the ground.
Pfeffer believes the idea that you can solve the leadership problem by encouraging good behavior is counterproductive. Would-be virtuous leaders discover that they have to make compromises to deal with the complexities of business life; workers have their expectations dashed; and organizations discover that they have to deal with real people rather than moral exemplars. Instead, systems need to be put in place that reward good behavior and punish the bad. Improving the quality of leadership also requires careful attention to the mundane things of business life, such as getting the structure of incentives right, strengthening the corporate culture and improving the quality of boards.
THE ECONOMIST
