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Start giftingLeadership from Bad to Worse
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Learn moreLeadership from Bad to Worse is about how leadership that is bad, invariably, inexorably, gets worse—unless it is somehow, by someone or something, stopped or slowed.
This work draws on four cases of bad leadership—two in political leadership, two in business leadership—to show how it goes from bad to worse. Kellerman finds that bad leadership and bad followership go through four phases of development: 1) Onward and Upward; 2) Followers Join In; 3) Leaders Start In; and 4) Bad to Worse. These findings correctly suggest that the book, in addition to being of theoretical interest, is of practical import. It is intended, deliberately, to serve as an early warning system. By breaking bad leadership and followership into phases—each more ominous and ultimately dangerous than the one preceding—their progression will be easier to predict and detect. And easier, therefore, to slow or, preferably, to stop before they turn toxic.
Bad leadership is a social disease. But unlike diseases that are physical or psychological, it remains at the margins of our collective concerns. Leadership from Bad to Worse is, then, a corrective. Knowing that bad leadership can be checked before it corrupts is knowing that bad and then worse can be, if not completely precluded, then sometimes short-circuited.
Barbara Kellerman is the James MacGregor Burns Lecturer in Public Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School. She received her BA from Sarah Lawrence College, and her MA, MPhil, and PhD (in political science) degrees from Yale University. She is the author or editor of many books and articles on leadership and followership, and speaks to audiences all over the world. In 2015, 2016, and 2017 she was ranked by Global Gurus as #13 among World's Top 30 Management Professionals, and in 2016 she was given a Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Leadership Association.
Linda Jones is an award-winning narrator and NYC actor with a penchant for dark edges and curious truths. Weaned on du Maurier and Hitchcock, Kafka and Poe-tales of mystery, adventure, and intrigue spawned a decades-long career with writers in new work, development, and narration. She has narrated for Penguin Random House, Recorded Books, Audible Studios, and Dreamscape, as well as a variety of independent authors and publishers. She has a BFA from Ithaca College. She lives in Brooklyn with writer John C. Foster and their dog, Coraline, in an apartment filled-to-bursting, floor-to-ceiling, corner-to-absolute-corner with books.