Leading for Innovation: And Organizing for Results

12.1. Enough "Leadership"

In a literature that exaggerates everything, leadership (alongside change and globalization) stands out. We crave leadership like children lost in the wilderness, convinced that if only the great hero will appear, all our problems will magically disappear. Perhaps the opposite keeps happening because of these very cravings.

True leaders build for the long run; they stimulate the engagement of others by personal example. So they would not accept a bonus that singles themselves out, especially one that rewards efforts in the short run. By that token, we do not seem to have many leaders in our large publicly held corporations.

The separation of leadership, its isolation as something apart—individual and heroic—works against ...