Rethinking leadership in organizations

Abstract

This chapter argues that scholars and practitioners alike spend too much time thinking about goals and not enough time thinking about learning. This emphasis on goals at the expense of learning is particularly troublesome in the area of leadership. Conventional wisdom on leadership suggests that leaders should set ambitious and challenging goals and then get out of the way (e.g., Hackman, 2002). This chapter suggests that this kind of thinking can lead to disastrous consequences because it assumes too much from both teams and leaders.