There is one irrefutable definition of a leader: someone with followers. Without followers, there is no leader. But people follow a leader in different ways and for different reasons. Leadership is a relationship between leaders and followers. This relationship depends on the qualities of both leaders and followers in a particular context. Someone can be a leader in one context but not in another.
In this revised edition of The Leaders We Need and What Makes Us Follow Michael Maccoby with Tim Scudder show how leadership relationships can improve organizations and societies and be developmental for both leaders and followers. The book delves deeply into the dynamics of followership, answering questions such as the following. Why do people follow a leader? Why do we sometimes follow bad leaders? Why do we sometimes turn against leaders we once admired? How have the values of followers been changing?
To collaborate more productively, both leaders and followers need to develop their Personality Intelligence. The more complex and interdependent work becomes, the more organizations need people who are engaged in their work. Personality Intelligence as it is described in this book equips us to understand each other, our drives, values, fears, hopes, and dreams. It combines intellectual and emotional intelligence, both head and heart. It is aided by personality assessments, such as the Strength Development Inventory (SDI) that give leaders and followers a shared language that helps in avoiding conflict and developing strengths. Based on the authors' extensive experience, this book provides examples from many different organizations in different countries of how Personality Intelligence has improved relationships at work.
Although the myth of the single leader persists, most organizations need a leadership team, including three types of leaders: Strategic, Operational, and Networking. They typically have different personalities, but they are most effective if they develop and practice a leadership philosophy that describes their organizational purpose, the practical values essential to accomplish that purpose, the moral basis for decisions, and the definition of results. Increasingly the Millennial generation who share an Interactive social character want to work at organizations with a purpose and values that improve society.
This book is not a quick-fix or a list of steps to success, but it will make you think more deeply about why people will or will not follow you and how you can become the kind of leader your followers need.
Michael Maccoby is a globally recognized expert on leadership who has advised, taught, and studied leaders of companies, unions, governments, healthcare organizations, and universities in 36 countries. His book, The Gamesman (1976) was the first bestseller to describe the personalities of leaders in high-tech companies. In his next book, The Leader (1981), he proposed as models leaders who developed both their organizations and people. His book Narcissistic Leaders (2007) described the strengths and dangers of visionary leaders. In Transforming Health Care Leadership (2013), Maccoby and his collaborators show how to improve quality, decrease costs and improve population health. He has authored or coauthored fifteen books, the most recent being Strategic Intelligence, Conceptual Tools for Leading Change. (2015). From 1970 to 1990 Maccoby was a research associate and program director at Harvard s Kennedy School of Government. He has taught leadership at Oxford University s Saïd Business School, Sciences Po, and other universities. For his work in Sweden, he was made Commander of the Royal Order of the Polar Star in 2007. In 2016, he received a lifetime achievement award from the Washington School of Psychiatry. His BA and PhD are from Harvard and he is a graduate of the Mexican Institute of Psychoanalysis.
Tim Scudder is a principal at Personal Strengths Publishing (PSP), Inc., where he served as the Chief Executive Officer for over 20 years. He is the author or co-author of several training programs, assessments, and books, including Core Strengths, Results through Relationships, Strength Deployment Inventory, and Have a Nice Conflict. As a consultant and facilitator, Scudder has helped individuals, teams, and organizations reach their potential through improved relationship, teamwork, and strategic skills. His clients have included IBM, CME Group, USC, GEI Consultants, Microsoft, PricewaterhouseCoopers, the US Army, the British Foreign Commonwealth Office, and Twitter. Tim earned his PhD in Human and Organizational Systems from Fielding Graduate University. His research, Personality Types in Relationship Awareness Theory, provided the first empirical validation of Sigmund Freud s views on normal personality types. His Masters degree in Human Development is also from Fielding. He is a fellow of the Institute for Social Innovation and serves on the advisory board at Alliant International University s California School of Management and Leadership. Prior to his career in training and leadership development, he earned a Certified Public Accountancy license and practiced as a CPA, Chief Financial Officer, and financial consultant.
