The myth of leaderless organizations

Jeffrey S. Nielsen, The Myth of Leadership.

Every age has its leadership myths--stories that are said to illustrate the true nature of the leader. My favourite is the line attributed to the Duke of Wellington that the Battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton. The assumption is that true leadership, the kind that saved a country, was learned while playing games at an exclusive boy's school. Teamwork, a rigid class system, and the marginal presence of booklearning give you a leader. The child is father of the man, to quote Wordsworth.

Nielsen attacks the concept of the hierarchy-based organization with the charismatic CEO at the top. This myth of the charismatic CEO is rampant in our society. Jack Welch saved GE by laying off huge numbers of workers and was rewarded with a salary that rivaled the sum total of those he cut. He later made a bundle by writing a book about his leadership experiences.

Steve Jobs is probably the most famous contemporary business leader. Infamous for his bad temper and micromanaging style, he is viewed by the general public as a hero of commerce who once a year gifts us with some consumer toy--an ipod or an iphone.

According to "The Myth of Leadership," the charismatic CEO is, well, a myth--a fiction, an illusion, a product of superstition. Nielsen argues that successful organizations in the future must be peer-driven and leaderless. His message is utopian and more often formed by the negative image of the traditional leader than by the positive features of a peer-driven organization. The bad boss--manipulating, egotistical, greedy--becomes the norm in Nielsen's account.

The peer-driven organization will work when human nature achieves perfection. When people can exist without egos, greed, and fear, they will be ready to work in harmonious cooperation without the need for someone to chair the meetings.