Book review: Bad Leadership: What it Is, How it Happens, Why it Matters.

Book review: Bad Leadership: What it Is, How it Happens, Why it Matters.

This book certainly encourages some interesting reviews. Perhaps a non-US view could be useful for some readers. The book is not meant to be a scholastic study of bad leadership, and I reject the notion that just because a book is published by Harvard Business School, it somehow has to be all impartial and full of balanced analysis. (Jacobs, 2004) The book is clearly the author's own view of what constitute bad leadership, and by that definition, opinionated. Her view on Bill Clinton's inaction in Rwanda did seem a bit "personal" at times, after all she acknowledged the pace of the event caught everyone by surprise. Bill Aramony was a corrupt leader. Exactly how his extramarital affair with a woman some forty years his junior, which the author loved to point out, could somehow be a trait to be diagnosed and lead to bad leadership ? The author provided no explanation.

The only instance where Kellerman came close to criticizing Bush Jr. was a citation to another paper titled, "Why Do We Tolerate Bad Leaders". Even then, Bush Jr. was never named directly. This is how she did it, ".... in the wake of September 11, 2001....... we are more willing than we would be otherwise to go along with leaders who give the appearance of being strong and certain." (Jacobs, 2004)

Don't forget this was written in 2004. Any criticism against the President (Bush Jr.) would probably see this book shelved before it hit the printing press, Harvard or no Harvard. The author did a great job raising the subject. Bad leadership must be given more attention. People should buy the book, and more studies are needed. So why the single star ? The author was at pain to point out how there can be no bad leader without followers, chapter after chapter. You'd have to wait till Chapter 11 for Edmund Burke's "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." Therein lies the problem, in Kellerman's world of bad leadership there are always followers and enablers. (Jacobs, 2004) They can be broadly divided into three types: bystanders, evildoers, and acolytes. By not speaking out, did Kellerman became a follower ? If so, which type ? Maybe she was right when she wrote, " ...to protest against the powers that be takes time, energy, and, more often than not, courage."

People associate a "leader" as something inherently "good," but Barbara Kellerman, a lecturer in public policy and research director of the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government, has set out to change that perception. She says it's time to separate the bad leaders from the good ones. (Jacobs, 2004)In Bad Leadership, published by Harvard Business School Press, Kellerman identifies leaders in government, business, and nonprofit organizations who fit the label of bad ...