What You Know You Don't Know by Ken Eisold

Author:Ken Eisold [Eisold, Ken]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-59051-365-1
Publisher: Other Press
Published: 2009-04-16T04:00:00+00:00

LEADING AND FOLLOWING

We tend to think that leaders have inherent talents for leadership—or that they lack them.8 But as the examples we just looked at suggest, leadership is actually a complex relationship between leaders and followers. A leader has specific obligations, but he is the first among equals, not an unquestionable authority. The pilot may lead the cockpit crew, but he also has to work with them.

Another example, from an academic institution, should make this interdependence clear. I had never met the dean whose departure triggered the events my colleague and I were called in to help the faculty cope with, but by all the accounts he was a remarkable man and his achievements had been extraordinary.9 The faculty and the acting dean sought consultation because, in the aftermath of his resignation, the school was paralyzed. The record of his achievements was truly impressive. In just a few years he had significantly increased the school’s endowment, including the establishment of several chairs that allowed for the recruiting of nationally prominent scholars. He had instituted a number of exciting new programs and linked the academic resources of the school with pressing needs of the local community. In the process he was able to link a number of important local institutions to the school, providing more local support and backing than the school had ever enjoyed previously. Finally, as a result of these and other advances, the national standing of the school was dramatically improved. Indeed, the school turned the corner, eliminating the risk it had faced of being disbanded by the university’s administration, whose support had always been shaky.

But now the faculty was paralyzed. Several national searches for senior faculty positions had ended in failure and acrimony. Faculty in-fighting made it impossible for new courses to be approved. Confidential faculty discussions were leaked to the student newspaper, prompting bitter public accusations and counteraccusations. Everyone agreed about the dean’s record of achievement, and yet it could not be denied that in some way the paralysis and bitterness was also a legacy of his leadership. What had happened to bring this about?

The former dean more than willingly agreed to be interviewed by us over the phone, as part of our plan to speak individually with all senior faculty members. My experience of interacting with him confirmed his engaging leadership qualities; he himself was eager to understand how he might have contributed to bringing about this distressing state of affairs. But as we assembled the information we gleaned from our interviews, two things gradually began to emerge. One was that the dean, by his own admission, loved to concentrate on the new projects that represented for him the future of the school, and he focused his attention on those bright and energetic members of the faculty and staff who came up with new initiatives and projects. Those he encouraged and supported. The others, he left alone.

Or so it seemed. Actually, as we probed more, it came to seem that he actually avoided confrontations with

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