The Future of Leadership: Today's Top Leadership Thinkers Speak to Tomorrow's Leaders

Chapter Nine

Leading Yourself

Philip Slater

Leadership is as much craft as science. Analytical methods suffice for the latter, but the main instrument or tool for the leader-as-a-craftsman is himself, and how creatively he can use his own personality…. Like the physician, it is important for the leader to follow the maxim “know thyself” so that he can control some of the pernicious effects he may create unwittingly. Unless the leader understands his actions … he may be a carrier rather than a solver of problems.

—BENNIS AND SLATER, 1990, P. 127

Does this mean that leaders should undergo some sort of therapy or psychological diagnosis in order to be effective? Not at all. The most relevant aspects of personality can be examined by applying ...