Over the years, I’ve read a few articles by Jeffrey Pfeffer and his book, Leadership BS, focused on the failure of leadership. I was particularly fascinated by the book and the notion that while we spend millions per year on leadership training, yet leaders are no more effective.
The evidence of the failure is that employees are less engaged than ever, and direct managers are the primary influencer of employee engagement. If we are spending more money on sending managers to leadership training, engagement should be going in the other direction.
From the author’s perspective, the primary reason is that leadership training is not realistic. In particular, he calls out authenticity as an ineffective ideal that should not be pursued, but which is highlighted in all leadership training. To be a successful leader, he poses that we need to be actors, becoming whatever is needed in a given environment or circumstance.
Please select this link to read the complete article from Leadership VITAE.