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The Professional Leader: Man of Many Talents or Jack of All Trades? Five Questions About Professional Leadership

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Professionalizing Leadership

Abstract

Based on five questions, this chapter discusses to what extent professionalization of leaders is possible and desirable. These questions relate to professional competence in core production, to leadership at different levels of the organization, to individual qualities and skills, to learning and education, and to talents and knowledge. The discussion leads us to the idea that there are no isolated conditions that are independent enough to qualify someone in the designation of professional leader. However, there may be many reasons why we may consider such a conclusion as something positive.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    According to Hersey and Blanchard themselves (1977/1993, p. 215) this theory was incorporated into the leadership programmes of 400–500 of the presumably leading companies within the field at this time in the USA.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Social Science, Nord University, Bodø, Norway

    Leif-Kristian Monsen

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  1. Leif-Kristian Monsen
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  1. Nord University, Bodø, Norway

    Anders Örtenblad

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Monsen, LK. (2018). The Professional Leader: Man of Many Talents or Jack of All Trades? Five Questions About Professional Leadership. In: Örtenblad, A. (eds) Professionalizing Leadership. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71785-2_5

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