A LEADER'S DESTINY

A psychiatrist and researcher at Stanford sees the current crop of “leadership” courses as not just useless but often dangerous.

Aboujaoude has penned a number of engaging books about psychology, including Virtually You: The Dangerous Powers of the e-Personality. In his latest, he takes aim at what he terms the “leadership industrial complex,” an alliance of self-appointed business gurus, executive coaches, and consultants. The author notes that some of his patients exhibited deep worries that they were not fulfilling the leadership potential that the college they attended or course they took was supposed to give them. Aboujaoude, however, is skeptical that leadership can be taught—not the way that it is currently done, at least—and he cites research showing that most business leadership courses produce little in the way of positive results, despite the exorbitant costs. Indeed, they are often counterproductive, favoring people with streaks of narcissism, selfishness, and even sociopathology. True leadership, writes the author, flows from innate temperament, character, and talent, as well as a large dose of being in the right place at the right time. In one chapter poking fun at the alphabet soup of how-to acronyms, he stresses instead the importance of self-awareness and humility. Not every person is suitable for a leadership position, he writes, but no matter: there are many other skills that are equally important to business and personal success, as he demonstrates throughout the book. Business schools, in pushing the message that everyone can and should be a leader, are manufacturing neuroses and dissatisfaction. Despite these interesting points, the author is not always convincing, with many of his brush strokes being overly broad. Nevertheless, he delivers a book that anyone considering enrollment in a course with “leadership” in the title should investigate.

A distinctive, thought-provoking view on leadership in the 21st century.