Leading with Character and Competence

Introduction

Titles are shadows, crowns are empty things.

Daniel Defoe (1660–1731)English trader, writer, journalist, and spyThe True-Born Englishman (1701)

LEADERSHIP IS A TOPIC CROWDED WITH ABSURD THEORIES. Over the years we have celebrated the absurdities. We have jumped from one superstition to another. We’ve bedeviled ourselves with trends and fashions. We’ve changed “hues and views to fit the situation.”¹ Out of a simple concept, we have created a myth-making industry, a platitudinous art, an intellectual toy. We’ve made it too complicated, and in many cases the theories we’ve hatched are dangerously misleading. Consider the following strains of thought.

Ten Misleading Leadership Theories

1. Leadership is about charisma. If you have personal ...