The Drama of Leadership

By Patricia Pitcher

Book Overview

As a member of the board of directors of several major international financial services corporations, Patricia Pitcher was in a privileged position to observe the inner workings of the corporate world. What she witnessed was a crisis of leadership rooted in a misunderstanding of what leading is all about. Not content to simply offer an opinion-opinions come cheap-she embarked on an eight-year research project to document the reasons for the rapid collapse of a global giant. That collapse, she shows us, began with one critical succession error and was compounded by a chronic failure to understand the importance of personality in the leadership equation. One wrong person at the helm turned a dream into a nightmare. In The Drama of Leadership, Patricia Pitcher shares her findings and, in the process, explodes a number of popular myths about leadership, including the one that leadership and vision are qualities that can be taught in management seminars. She refutes the common belief that leaders are in short supply and proves that the corporate talent pool abounds with potential leaders whose talents either go unrecognized or are tragically undervalued. And she explains why, at a time when vision, innovation, humanity, and passion are so desperately needed, so many companies cast in leadership roles people who possess none of these qualities, and who distrust anyone who does. But who are the good and bad leaders, and how do you identify them? In answer to this question, Patricia Pitcher identifies three types of leaders: Artists, who are people-oriented, open-minded, intuitive, and visionary; Craftsmen, to whom the adjectives "humane," "dedicated," and "wise" best apply; and Technocrats - brilliant and well-schooled in the latest theory, they are detail-oriented, rigid, methodical, self-centered, and, when left in control, pose a serious threat to corporate competitiveness. The power struggles between these types are dramas being played out in companies everywhere. Whether the story has a happy or an unhappy ending depends entirely upon which type gets top billing. The author also offers her wise recommendations on what companies can do to protect themselves against a technocratic hegemony and how to cultivate the talents of Artists and Craftsmen. She also tells you how to determine what type of leader you are and how to interact with other types to achieve both personal and corporate success. The Drama of Leadership is an articulate, insightful, passionate appeal to develop the kind of leaders and organizations that can take us into the twenty-first century.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0471148431
• ISBN13: 9780471148432
• Release Date: January 1997
• Publisher: Wiley
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 1.33 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.4" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Refreshing perspective

Patricia dives in and gives a clear perspective of what happens when organisations become unbalanced.Re. a previous reviewer's question re the number of types, the reason there are three types is that was the number indicated by the data, via factor analysis. (ref. Artists, Craftsmen, and Technocrats, Appendix C, p.235)I look forward to her next book.

GREAT BOOK with NEW INSIGHT.

I love this book for its clarity and new thinking. The language is engaging and the description is clear. It take a standing on Leadership types and dare to fight the conventional wisdom of leader-vs-manager. This is a book on the thinking about the Leadership type, which describes its stregth, needs and weakeness within corporations.The Artist, Craftmans and Technocrats. Most readers would like to think that he/she is the crossing between Artist n Craftmans and the book do warn us on this. please double check yourself and think again honestly.This is not a very deep book (like Mitszberg: The Rise and Fall of Strategic Thinking), but also not a shallow book (like FISH or W-M-M-CHEESE, ONE MINUTE SERIES), but just right in between. Enjoyable to read.And if not for anything else. the above explanation of the 3 types alone would shred new lights in your view of the leaders. And worth your time invested in reading it. The other important thing to point is that Leadership Type is not teachable or even changeble, so much for the leadership seminars. ( I believe this to some extend, that entrepreneurs are similarly -mostly- BORN and not made!)The book did not give u a HOW TO do something, but let you think about leadership adn how people differ from each others.A mandatory reading for management leader. and Psychology student focusing on management.

Reality proves it!

At least my experience fits exactly to what the author reflects on her 6 year study!! In an easy to read style and an exciting manner the author develops a theory that is flexible enough to allow for individual differences and structured enough to help analyzing your organization. I like the qualitative view on organization as this aspect is usually neglected. The last organization I worked for developped the exact same way as the example given in the book!

A good theory of leadership

One star for this book can be only explained if it touches you. We must remember that so strong negative answer is usually employed when we don't want to see some part of the reality. In fact, the book can help us to understand some of the maladies of the mainstream theories of leadership. Very smart book for intelligent readers.The main shortcoming of the book is inherent to any taxonomy. Why three? Why not four?... However, classification is useful and we do not decline to use it.

The book passed the reality check!

Wether you like or don't like the book may depend very much on wether you are a technocrat, an artist or a craftsman. But I like the book mainly because it almost perfectly describes and interprets the developments within some organizations which I had and have to deal with. Are Pitcher's theories good enough to be used for predictions, i.e. about the development of carreers? The book passed that test too. In Germany the well known weekly magazine DIE ZEIT (1997/09/12, page 26) recommended the German edition of Pitcher's book ("Das Führungsdrama") to their readers.