Leading Leaders

CHAPTER 2

LEADING ONE-ON-ONE

The shepherd always tries to persuade the sheep that their interests and his own are the same.

—STENDHAL

THE SEARCH FOR the meaning of leadership has become the modern alchemy of organizational management. Although everyone agrees that leadership is important, indeed vital, for the success of organizations, a clear understanding of its nature has eluded scholars and practitioners just as the means for turning lead into gold eluded medieval alchemists. Some scholars have sought to explain leaders and leadership in terms of leaders’ personal characteristics; others have focused on their modes of behavior; and still others have looked for its essence in the situations that give rise to effective leadership. While fashions ...