The Allure of Toxic Leaders
Why We Follow Destructive Bosses and Corrupt Politicians--and How We Can Survive Them
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- $13.99
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
Toxic leaders, both political, like Slobodan Milosevic, and corporate, like Enron's Ken Lay, have always been with us, and many books have been written to explain what makes them tick. Here leadership scholar Jean Lipman-Blumen explains what makes the followers tick, exploring why people will tolerate--and remain loyal to--leaders who are destructive to their organizations, their employees, or their nations.
Why do we knowingly follow, seldom unseat, frequently prefer, and sometimes even create toxic leaders? Lipman-Blumen argues that these leaders appeal to our deepest needs, playing on our anxieties and fears, on our yearnings for security, high self-esteem, and significance, and on our desire for noble enterprises and immortality. She also explores how followers inadvertently keep themselves in line by a set of insidious control myths that they internalize. For example, the belief that the leader must necessarily be in a position to "know more" than the followers often stills their objections. In addition, outside forces--such as economic depressions, political upheavals, or a crisis in a company--can increase our anxiety and our longing for charismatic leaders. Lipman-Blumen shows how followers can learn critical lessons for the future and survive in the meantime. She discusses how to confront, reform, undermine, blow the whistle on, or oust a toxic leader. And she suggests how we can diminish our need for strong leaders, identify "reluctant leaders" among competent followers, and even nurture the leader within ourselves.
Toxic leaders charm, manipulate, mistreat, weaken, and ultimately devastate their followers. The Allure of Toxic Leaders tells us how to recognize these leaders before it's too late.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Lipman-Blumen, a professor of public policy and organizational behavior at Claremont Graduate University, examines the seemingly inexplicable reasons why many employees are loyal to CEOs and politicians who abuse power, cook finances and otherwise virtually destroy their companies. Among the book's conclusions: employees feeling uncertain over their own job security will remain loyal to a toxic executive. Furthermore, economic turmoil, political crisis or company problems sometimes enhance the toxic leader's appeal. Using insights based on a psychological approach, especially Maslow's theories of self-esteem, Lipman-Blumen (The Connective Edge) offers numerous examples in both politics and business of toxic leaders who have survived crises and received accolades despite their obvious flaws. By using names familiar to many readers Rudolph Giuliani; the former mayor of Providence, R.I., Buddy Cianci the author is likely to attract a wider audience than if she focused on business executives. The book's strength is the detailed psychological approach to examining the phenomenon of loyalty to toxic leaders. The last section discusses how employees can recognize the signs of toxic leadership, but it doesn't offer enough practical steps on how to challenge these leaders. Still, this is a solid look at a dismaying business trend.
