S3-Ep5: How to Avoid the Bad Leader Trap with Harvard Fellow Barbara Kellerman

Guest: Barbara Kellerman, Founding Executive Director, Harvard Kennedy School Center for Public Leadership

Bad leadership is everywhere, running the spectrum from simple incompetence to outright evil. So why don’t we do a better job of calling it out, if not fixing it?

Guest Barbara Kellerman shares her ideas and solutions, including how this is seen in both the political and corporate spheres. She also discusses the oft-forgotten but ultimate component for effective leadership: followers.

Here’s what Barbara and Maureen cover:

• How the leadership development industry, like many others, follows the money…and leaves learning gaps behind;
• What the global political shifts toward autocracy mean about the poor quality of leadership; and
• Why understanding followership is so important in creating a good leader.

 

Produced in partnership with the International Leadership Association: https://ilaglobalnetwork.org .

Other episodes you'll enjoy:

• Leaders Who Lust: Power, Money, Sex, Success, Legitimacy, Legacy with Barbara Kellerman
• To Stop a Tyrant: How Five Types of Followers Make (or Brake) a Toxic Leader with Ira Chaleff
• How Influence Leads to Great Leadership with Brian Ahearn

 

For daily wisdom from our guests, be sure to follow us on LinkedIn. We’re on Instagram, Threads, and Twitter, too!

 

RESOURCES:  

Learn more about Dr. Kellerman’s work, and read her blogs, on her website at https://barbarakellerman.com/. The article she mentions, “Leadership – It’s a System, Not a Person!”, is available through MIT at https://direct.mit.edu/daed/article/145/3/83/27116/Leadership-It-s-a-System-Not-a-Person.

 

The book behind this interview, The End of Leadership, is available in print at https://amzn.to/3QafDED, and on Kindle at https://amzn.to/4jR1h9W. One of her earlier books that’s a favorite of ours is Leaders Who Lust: Power, Money, Sex, Success, Legitimacy, Legacy. It’s in hardback at https://amzn.to/4jO25w8 and Kindle at https://amzn.to/4gxMXQs.

 

Our host Maureen Metcalf posts a newsletter every week on LinkedIn. You can subscribe here. 

 

She’s also written several award-winning books on leadership development. You can peruse and purchase them here. 

Books we’re reading for fun or personal development right now include:

• To Stop a Tyrant by Ira Chaleff, on how leaders become tyrants and their types of followers, is in hardback on Amazon at https://amzn.to/3W5XDys and on Kindle at https://amzn.to/420Zvwc. An audiobook edition is coming soon. 
• Take Back Your Power: 10 New Rules for Women at Work by Ancestry CEO Deb Liu, on how to overcome the obstacles women still face in the workplace – especially in tech. It’s in hardback at https://amzn.to/47OUO9E, and audio at https://amzn.to/3Y6EmOQ. 
• Covert Cows and Chick-fil-A by Steve Robinson; it’s available in hardback at https://amzn.to/460LnmQ, on Kindle at https://amzn.to/3RVXhZs, and as an audiobook at https://amzn.to/3xPjBgn.  
• The War of Art by Steven Pressfield. Paperback = https://amzn.to/3VEl7cU, Kindle = https://amzn.to/45JGm1L, and audiobook = https://amzn.to/3RPhC2y

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OUR PODCAST TEAM:  

Host & Executive Producer: Maureen Metcalf

Editor & Producer: Dan Mushalko

Video & Graphics Editor: Devon Mushalko

Booking Producer: Jenna Reik

CONNECT WITH US: 

YouTube: @InnovatingLeadership 

Threads: @innovativeleaders

Twitter: @IL_Institute 

LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/ILI-LinkedIn2 

TikTok: @innovativeleadership

Website: InnovativeLeadershipInstitute.com 

 

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About Our Guest:  

Barbara Kellerman is a Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Center for Public Leadership. She was the Founding Executive Director of the Center, and a member of the Kennedy School faculty for over twenty years. Kellerman has held professorships at Fordham, Tufts, Fairleigh Dickinson, George Washington, Christopher Newport, and the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth. She also served as Director of the Center for the Advanced Study of Leadership at the University of Maryland.

Kellerman was cofounder of the International Leadership Association (ILA) and is author and editor of many books. Kellerman has also appeared on media outlets such as CBS, NBC, PBS, CNN, NPR, MSNBC, Reuters, and BBC, and has contributed articles and reviews to the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Boston Globe, the Los Angeles Times, and the Harvard Business Review. From 2015 to 2023 she was listed by Global Gurus as among the “World’s Top 30 Management Professionals.”