Cannot Rely On Leaders

The fact that the concept of leadership is hyped is gaining currency by the day.

Check out what Andrew Campbell, Jo Whitehead and Syndey Finkelstein has to say in their article titled 'Why Good Leaders Make Bad Decisions' in the February 2009 issue of the Harward Business Review:

[W]e cannot rely on leaders to spot and safeguard against their own errors in judgment.

They point out that decisions are made based on (previous) pattern recognition and emotional tagging. So one makes decision by looking up the emerging pattern from their previous experience and the emotional bonding with the pattern. Of course, each pattern has slightly different context and humans by nature are prone to emotional distortion. The authors therefore suggest a systematic way of identifying the distortions and eliminating biases.

These authors have published a book titled Think Again: Why Good Leaders Make Bad Decisions and How to Keep It from Happening to You. I haven't read the book yet, but if the article is anything to go by, the book should be interesting.

Yes one needs leaders. No one doesn't need the hype. For my views on the hype see The Leadership Hype and How It Affects You