Maister On Why "Leadership" Won't Work

David Maister, who knows his way across the management/leadership landscape so much better than almost anyone else that he seems to have been GPS-enabled while the rest of us were relying on 15thC. parchment maps, has taken off from my post of a few days ago about leadership.   Here he is getting warmed up:

"I keep getting asked about this topic, so here goes my ten cents worth. I think more rubbish has been written about ‘leadership’ than almost any other business topic. A lot of it is patently false, and even more of it is dangerous."

And I bet you didn't know that "manager" derives from medieval French or Italian meaning, roughly, "holder of the horses," while "leader" is of Chaucerian-era origins and means one who chose the expedition's route, a model "that won't work," David states flatly.

Enough; just go read the whole thing right now.