Dr. Barbara Kellerman - Leader, Followers, & Contexts

07/19/20 • 29 min

Practical Wisdom for Leaders with Scott J. Allen, Ph.D.

Dr. Barbara Kellerman
Barbara Kellerman is the James MacGregor Burns Lecturer in Public Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School. Kellerman received her B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College and three degrees from Yale University: an M.A. in Russian and East European Studies and both an M.Phil., and Ph.D. in Political Science. She was awarded a Danforth Fellowship and three Fulbright Fellowships. Kellerman is a co-founder of the International Leadership Association (ILA).
Quotes from This Episode

“How do you talk about leaders or leadership without talking about followers or followership? How do you talk about leaders and followers together, without situating them in the contexts?”
“People have been at this for at least 50 years since the so-called leadership industry was founded. Yes, I do call it that, because I think of it as largely a money-making proposition.”
“People have been struggling with the issue of definitions, particularly of the word leader or leadership...what is a leader? The way I define it is completely different from the way virtually every one of my colleagues at Harvard defines it.”
“In some cases, they say we’re training leaders, and other cases they say we’re educating leaders, and other cases, they’re saying we’re developing leaders. Nobody ever bothers to distinguish among those three verbs. What do you mean when you say you’re educating? What do you mean when you say you’re training?”
“So the business schools are not very different now from the schools of government, and they are light years away from the military.”

Dr. Kellerman's Website/Selected Books

Website: Barbara Kellerman
New Book: Leaders Who Lust: Power Money Sex Success Legitimacy Legacy
Book: Professionalizing Leadership
Book: Leadership: Essential Selections on Power, Authority, and Influence -
Book: Followership
Book: Bad Leadership
Book: Leadership: Multidisciplina

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“How do you talk about leaders or leadership without talking about followers or followership? How do you talk about leaders and followers together, without situating them in the contexts?”
“People have been at this for at least 50 years since the so-called leadership industry was founded. Yes, I do call it that, because I think of it as largely a money-making proposition.”
“People have been struggling with the issue of definitions, particularly of the word leader or leadership...what is a leader? The way I define it is completely different from the way virtually every one of my colleagues at Harvard defines it.”
“In some cases, they say we’re training leaders, and other cases they say we’re educating leaders, and other cases, they’re saying we’re developing leaders. Nobody ever bothers to distinguish among those three verbs. What do you mean when you say you’re educating? What do you mean when you say you’re training?”
“So the business schools are not very different now from the schools of government, and they are light years away from the military.”

Dr. Kellerman's Website/Selected Books

Website: Barbara Kellerman
New Book: Leaders Who Lust: Power Money Sex Success Legitimacy Legacy
Book: Professionalizing Leadership
Book: Leadership: Essential Selections on Power, Authority, and Influence -
Book: Followership
Book: Bad Leadership
Book: Leadership: Multidisciplina

Previous Episode

Dr. Craig Johnson - Casting Shadow or Light?

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Dr. Craig E. Johnson is professor emeritus of leadership studies at George Fox University in Newberg, Oregon. Craig served as director of the George Fox Doctor of Business Administration program and taught undergraduate and graduate courses in leadership, ethics, management, and communication. While he has retired from full-time teaching, he serves as an adjunct professor and continues to publish thoughtful and engaging texts on the topic of organizational and leadership ethics.
Quotes from This Episode

"I call privilege the evil twin of power. If you have more power, you typically have more privilege."
"You cast a shadow if you’re inconsistent, and you also cast a shadow if your loyalties are to yourself and not in the right place."
“It’s not enough just to have good character. Particularly in a large organization, people don’t know you personally. So you have to be active in terms of shaping the organizational culture.”
(The work of Brown and Trevino) "really opened up a lot of research, which has revealed that ethical leaders finish first, not last."
"It’s not selfish to find out your calling or vocation or where you can best serve because that’s where you’re going to best serve as a leader.”

Dr. Johnson's Textbooks

Resources Mentioned in this Episode

Brooks, D. (2013). The road to character. New York: Random House.
Brown, M. E., Trevino, L. K., & Harrsion, D. A. (2005). Ethical leadership: A social learning perspective for construct development and testing. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 97, 117-134.
Giridharadas, A. (2018). Winners take all: the elite charade of changing the world. New York: Knopf.
Koehn, N.(2017). Forged in crisis: The power of leadership in turbulent times. New York: Scribner.
Padilla, A., Hunter, S. T., & Tate, B. W. (2012). The susceptible circle: A taxonomy of followers associated with destructive leadership. Leadership Quarterly, 23, 897-917.
Palmer, P. (1996). Leading from within. In L. C. Spears (Ed.), Insights on leadership: Service, stewardship, spirit, and servant-leadership (pp. 197–208). New York: Wiley, p. 200.
Towles, A. (2016). A gentleman in Moscow. New York: Penguin.

Quotes Mentioned in this Episode

“A leader is a person who has an unusual degree of power to create the conditions under which other people must live and move and have their being - conditions that can eith

Next Episode

Sara Safari - Seven Summits to Empower Women

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Sara Safari is on a mission. She is an author, speaker, climber, educator, and Ph.D. candidate; and an inspiring woman actively making a difference in the world. Her goal is to climb The Seven Summits and has dedicated her life to empowering women around the world.

Quotes from This Episode

"I announced that I'm going to go back to my training for Everest again, but this time, I'm going to raise $1 per foot of any mountain I climb to provide education for these girls."
"I was just tired. I was sick. I was coughing. I just wanted to go back home. And I would think of the moment when I saw two lines of girls and they were looking at me like I'm going to fix their life for them. And I would just imagine those girls, and I couldn't quit. I just had to take the next step."
"Everything started breaking down. Pieces of ice were falling down the mountain and the noise it made was like a rocket taking off."
"The girls are so confident. They're just amazing. I'm in awe of their confidence and the way they are. So I go to them for motivation now, even if it might seem like I'm inspiring them, they're inspiring me all the time."

Learn More About Sara Safari

Resources Mentioned in this Episode

Book: We Are The Leaders We've Been Waiting For by Julie Owen
Book: Sapiens
Book: Attached
Book: Talking to Strangers
Film: Everest
Film: Meru
Ph.D. in Leadership & Change at Antioch University

Quotes Mentioned in this Episode
"The hardest person you will ever lead is yourself" - Bill George

Practical Wisdom for Leaders with Scott J. Allen, Ph.D. - Dr. Barbara Kellerman - Leader, Followers, & Contexts

Transcript

Scott Allen00:00:41.000

I've been looking forward to this conversation for? Well, actually a couple weeks now that we've had it scheduled. I have Barbara Kellerman with us today. She is the James McGregor Burns, Lecturer in Leadership at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. That's a mouthful. And, you know, Barbara I've been following your work for years, ever since the publication of Multi-Disciplinary Perspectives, and James McGregor Burns wrote t