I read Jack Welch’s Straight from the Gut yesterday as research for something I’m thinking of writing about leadership. I was looking for what he thinks leadership is. Man, is “leadership” a squirrely concept! And, I’m pretty sure, corrupt – not in the taking-bribes sense but in the been-used-so-often-it-now-means-18-contradictory-things sense. It’s not even clear how to separate leaders from leadership: it’s perfectly possibly to have leaders who don’t exhibit leadership, and there can be people with leadership who have no followers. Leadership seems to be some set of idealized personal traits that have their own independent life.

We have teachers but no teachership. Librarians with no librarianship. Followers with no followship. Why do we need leadership?

My head’s a-swirl. [Tags: leadership business jack_welch ]

Categories: Uncategorized dw