Leadership: Leaders, Followers, Environments

CHAPTER 2

ON LEADERSHIP

There are three saguaros in the forefront of this photo but because of the angle, they look like a majestic one with many arms. Saguaros are native to the Sonoran Desert and can live for three quarters of a century before they grow their first arm. Some rise to 70 feet and live to be 200 years old.

As we survey the path leadership theory has taken, we spot the wreckage of “trait theory,” the “great man” theory, and the “situationist” critique, leadership styles, functional leadership, and, finally, leaderless leadership, to say nothing of bureaucratic leadership, charismatic leadership, group-centered leadership, reality-centered leadership, leadership by objective, and so on. The dialectic and reversals of emphases in this area very nearly rival the tortuous twists and turns of child-rearing practices, and one can paraphrase Gertrude Stein by saying, “a leader is a follower is a leader.”

—Warren Bennis, On becoming a leader

Things should be easy. You don't have to dress in that little navy blue suit with a tie. I wanted to dress her [American working woman] in sportier clothes and colors.

—Liz Claiborne