Bad Leadership

CHAPTER SIX

INTEMPERATE

Marion Barry Jr.

Intemperate Leadership—The leader lacks self-control and is aided and abetted by followers who are unwilling or unable effectively to intervene.

NO TYPE OF BAD LEADERSHIP seems as unnecessary, as careless and wasteful, as intemperate leadership. Although intemperate behavior usually plays out in private and is therefore ostensibly without public consequences, leaders, especially if they are highly visible, must presume that even a single lapse puts them and their followers at risk.

For at least two reasons, the need for leaders to abstain, or at least to be highly discreet, is far more important now than it used to be. First, our celebrity culture supports and even encourages the invasion of privacy. ...