Is Leadership "BS"?

Recently, I read this book, with a provocative title - "Leadership BS".

Authored by Dr.Jeffrey Pfeffer, Professor of Organizational Behavior at the Stanford Graduate School of Business (see postscript below), the book shreds a lot of conventional leadership wisdom to pieces, and I would wholeheartedly recommend this book to both aspiring or budding leaders and experienced stalwarts. I won't mention a word more about the book or its contents here; it is self-explanatory and the proof of the pudding is in the reading (a link to the book review is available in the postscript below).

Having said this, I was faintly wondering .....if we were to conduct a hypothetical quiz on the prevailing cultures in corporate organizations (where culture = behaviors observed and perceived), what would the spectrum of responses look like?

I felt inspired to create a simple "True or False" quiz after reading this book, while also simultaneously reflecting on my corporate stints across several organizations that I experienced. "Leadership" in its full glory and grandeur, had been demonstrated, eulogized, applauded, criticized and trashed, all in the same breath over the years.

Here is the hypothetical "T-20 Rapid-fire" quiz, where one can mark "True" or "False" for each statement in the mix (that may or may not be applicable in today's corporate organizations, whether large or small and industry agnostic), as below:

1. Narcissism rules, big time!
2. Camaraderie bubbles and collaboration thrives.......in pockets.
3. Opportunities for learning and development are plenty....., perhaps for a vital few.
4. Empathy is as rare as the ozone layer.
5. Deceit, if not betrayal is widespread.
6. Grapevine is more effective, and exponentially more viral, than email or bulletin boards.
7. Malicious gossip penetrates more deeply than business data or organizational information.
8. Everyone feels and projects the pride of their designations and titles, either overtly or covertly, where jobs gives people a sense of identity and purpose.
9. Backbiting is quite common.
10. The shrewd and the manipulative get ahead.
11. Authenticity? What is that?
12. Innocents generally lose battles that they never saw coming.
13. The naive generally get run over, not knowing what steam-rolled them.
14. "Goody-goodies" go nowhere.
15. People generally behave very friendly and collegial with each other in office parties, picnics and external social gatherings, but the seething hidden animosities and rivalries show up in the workplace, the very next day, when back to the grind.
16. Empowerment is either a smoke-screen or an eyewash.....or both.
17. What you see is what you get, as far as leadership is not concerned.
18. Blame-game is a "corporate-national" sport.
19. Motherhood statements adorn the hallways and the corporate intranet portals and/or websites; they remain just that - motherhood statements.
20. Machiavellianism wins!

Please note that this is a binary response quiz, with just two options (T or F ; please don't choose "or"). I suspect many of the readers of this hypothetical exercise may struggle and insist on qualifying most of the statements with shades of gray, and that tells us something doesn't it? Though I set out to get an idea of the response profile with this quiz, I changed my mind just as I was writing this piece; I wouldn't even want to hazard a guess on the nature, types and number of responses to this quiz. I leave it to you, the readers, to decide.

In my humble opinion however, in the end, human nature triumphs and prevails, whatever leadership models, sermons, principles, truisms and axioms are parroted from the podiums, with old wine in new bottles being re-hashed and re-distributed repeatedly through articles, books, blogs, videos, social media, training programs, seminars etc. Google threw-up (and almost, so did I) three billion-plus items (and counting) in response to the search query with the keyword prompt: "leadership". So much of what we hear, what we read and what we are taught about leadership don't seem to show up when we most need the stuff, in real life and/or in real time, do they?

My two questions therefore (binary again) to all the readers, based on the oft-repeated "motherhood" saying - "Leadership and organizational culture are journeys, not destinations" :

• Are "leadership" and "organizational culture" Sisyphean endeavors? OR are they not?
• Therefore, is leadership "BS", OR is it not?

I can, in the eerie silence around my desk, clearly hear the echoes of demand for the spectrum with its shades of gray!

Postscript: Dr.Jeffrey Pfeffer is the Thomas D. Dee II Professor of Organizational Behavior at the Stanford Graduate School of Business (Stanford University), and has authored or coauthored fourteen books. He is a highly sought-after expert on the subject of power and leadership. He is widely considered to be one of the leading management experts in the world.

A link to the review of the book "Leadership BS" , written by Matija Vrzan is as below:

Note:?The above article/post, with its contents is the personal view of the author, expressed purely in his personal capacity and is not related to any specific existing organization, institution, group or individual. Any such perceived resemblance or derived linkage or relationship as such is purely coincidental and unintended.