Leading at a Distance

Preface: “The Most Obscure PhD in History”: The Story Behind This Book

“That has to be the single most obscure PhD in history.”

Those were my first words to Darleen DeRosa, when I was introduced to her in January of 2020. We were in the Stamford, Connecticut, office of Spencer Stuart, one of the world's leading global leadership advisory and executive search firms. For 27 years I've had the pleasure of working at Spencer Stuart, the worldwide leader in CEO, board, and C-suite executive recruiting and leadership, organizational, and culture advisory services, channeling my passion of connecting with and building the very best talent. Darleen had just been recruited as a core member of our Leadership Advisory Services Practice. For the prior dozen years, Darleen led a highly specialized advisory firm, OnPoint Consulting, after having served as an executive director in the assessment practice of another leading firm.

Darleen explained that she had long been passionate about the topic of virtual teams as a part of her broader interest in leadership development and succession planning. In fact, when she was doing her doctoral work in social/organizational psychology at Temple University, her subspecialty was how to build, manage, optimize, and create cultures for virtual teams.

“I think that virtual leadership will become increasingly important as remote work becomes even more prevalent in the future,” Darleen said. “Right now, about 10% of employees in the U.S. work remotely, ...