The cult of leadership – overblown or undercooked?

Some say that leadership development is overcooked, oversold, and overcommitted as the answer to what troubles organisations. Could you be spending too much on leadership development without seeing a return? Consider this nugget from Henry Mintzberg:?

It has … become fashionable to complain that we are being over-managed and under-led.??

The opposite is now a greater problem: we have too much heroic leadership and not enough engaging management. We need to recognize that some of the best leadership is management practiced well, also that anyone with ideas and initiative can exercise leadership.?i?

Is that in any way true for you? Has management development been devoured by its favourite son? We see so much leadership development going on, and in so many different flavours. In addition to thinking about the dominance of leadership development over management development, it is worth asking whether the various flavours of leadership development are compatible. Some companies put a scoop of everything into their leadership development cone.??

If everyone is a leader, then everyone is a follower of everyone. How does that work? Mintzberg goes on to say:?

Say “leadership” and you invoke the image of an individual—at the limit, the great … knight riding in on a great … horse to save us all ... Everyone else is a follower. Even if the intention of the leadership is to empower other people, its effect can be to disempower them. Do we really want a world of followers?ii?

We tend to build up our belief that leadership is “the” answer, and that goes hand-in-hand with believing that great leaders are to be our salvation. Some people have grown weary of the cycle of heroes and villains – the person who today is the answer and tomorrow the problem – and everyone else is a following fan or a following critic.?

In organisational life, a career can either be increasing specialisation (and working alone or in small teams) or increasing generalisation and working up the managerial hierarchy. Or, as is currently the expression, the “leadership ladder”. Mintzberg asks:?

Have you ever been managed by someone who didn’t lead? That must have been awfully discouraging.??

Well, how about being lead by someone who didn’t manage? That could have been much worse. iii?

Have you ever attended a meeting where plenty of time is spent catching up with each other, supporting each other, sharing some stories about peak work experiences, gently motivating each. Maybe the meeting focusses on purpose and goals, reminding everyone (again) of the “why” of the work? – with no time spent on reviewing objectives and data, learning from results, discussing next steps.??

The purpose and direction that might come from good leadership dissolves in poor planning, high disorganisation and weak control – even in complex environments. Complexity is not an invitation to abdicate other managerial functions in favour of one (leadership). Complexity certainly requires sharing the managerial load (including leadership) – and it also requires planning (small plans, micro plans – but plans nevertheless), organising (on short time horizons, allocating tasks in some way), controlling (sensing what happened, gathering data, making sense, getting feedback).??

And of course, not all contexts are complex – in standard professional settings and in administrative bureaucracies there are plenty of potentially stable environments begging for decent management.??

In our first conversation café for 2025, we will discuss (debate perhaps) this idea under the topic “Is leadership development overcooked?” This will be held online from 09:00-10:30 on Wednesday 29th January, and you can register here if you are interested in attending.?

Is leadership development overcooked? Are organisations over-investing in leadership development at the cost of management development? What is the difference and why should we care? Register here for our January 29th conversation café, and kick the year off with a critical look at one of our holy cows in organisation development and change.?

View the event on LinkedIn here.

Written by: Craig Yeatman