Dan White - The Terrible Leader

An irreverent and provocative look at leadership from an experienced coach it should set you thinking about how you can make a difference as a more considered leader.

Dan takes and interesting and unique look at leadership in this book it makes a change to look at this subject through a negative lens that then creates a positive output.

Terrible leaders are all around us. They are the business leaders who have been ruining corporations and betraying the trust of shareholders, from Enron to Lehman Brothers, bringing western capitalism to its knees. They are the political leaders who were oppressing populations in the Middle East and North Africa for decades, as well as the sorry, bumbling British politicians who cant tell the difference between a salary and an expense claim. And, perhaps most frightening of all, they are the mass of people who go to the office, check their personality, common sense and basic humanity at the door, and then get to work...

Dan White does us all a great service. He explains, in a lively, witty and intelligent book, what terrible leadership is. He provides examples (from Ivan the Terrible onwards) and describes what is in the mind of those people that choose to follow the dark side. This book is for those people who have ever been the victims of terrible leadership, or who have ever considered acting in their own self-interest, or who simply want to be better leaders themselves. It is, in other words, for everyone.

The Terrible Leader is a satire a book that would be understood and appreciated by writers from Jonathan Swift to Peter Cook and Scott Adams but its also a guide to the great as well as the ghastly. Dan Whites insight into terrible leadership is fascinating and strangely seductive, as well as funny and enlightening. Perhaps thats the point: terrible leadership isnt simply an absolute, its also a spectrum of behaviour. We can drift into it, sometimes without even knowing.

So, just in case youre in any doubt, great leadership sounds like this: We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things not because they are easy, but because they are hard. Because that goal will serve to organise and measure the best of our abilities and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win.

While terrible leadership sounds like this: Do you want to go to the moon or not? Then get on with it NOW! Or Ill give you a rocket that you wont forget!

So, ask not what the terrible leader can do for you. Ask what you can learn from The Terrible Leader.

Copyright 2011 Dan White

Cover design: Opal Works Co. Limited
Photograph on p312 courtesy of Elle Fallon Photography

Published in 2011 by Marshall Cavendish Business
An imprint of Marshall Cavendish International

PO Box 65829, London EC1P 1NY, United Kingdom

and

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Marshall Cavendish is a trademark of Times Publishing Limited

The right of Dan White to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. Requests for permission should be addressed to the publisher. The author and publisher have used their best efforts in preparing this book and disclaim liability arising directly and indirectly from the use and application of this book. All reasonable efforts have been made to obtain necessary copyright permissions. Any omissions or errors are unintentional and will, if brought to the attention of the publisher, be corrected in future printings.

A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 978-981-4351-77-5

Printed and bound in Great Britain by
TJ International Limited, Padstow, Cornwall

This book is for...

...the thousands of leaders that have passed through my leadership classroom. You are all so different, so special and doing such a good and important job. You inspire me every day.

...all the wonderful people who have shown me, by leading me, what leadership looks like. You have been excellent teachers.

...my wife Claire who patiently listened to every chapter as it was written and re-written. Without you none of this would be worth doing.

...my daughter Leah. Who arrived a few weeks before we went to print. You now have my undivided attention.

Thank you. All of you.

This book is for anyone who has been on a management or leadership training session and thought, Seriously, this is a load of horse shit. It is for anyone who has tried reading leadership literature and found it to be a little too earnest, a little too trying. It is for anyone who goes to work in the morning, looks around them and wants to shout out, Why am I surrounded by idiots!?

Most, if not all, leadership books will give you lots of sound advice on how to become a better leader. This seems reasonable. But heres my problem: are you really going to do things differently, are you really going to change your behaviour because a book tells you to? Youve never even met me. I might be some insane bloke living in a block of flats (Americans read apartments) who only goes out for a newspaper once each month in his dressing gown and has seven cats with whom he shares his food and bed...

Im not, by the way. I dont own a cat or a dressing gown. But still, who does things differently, I mean really differently, because a book tells them to? Ok, take out the Torah, the Koran, the Bible etc. and perhaps Mrs. Beatons cookery books, but after that... So, if youre looking for a book with nicely, neatly parcelled up pieces of advice on how to be a better leader then pick up a different book. This is going to actually make you think, not puke. It will make you think about the challenges you face as a leader. Have a think right now. What makes leadership tough for you today?

Heres the thing: Ive worked in leadership development for many long years now and leaders really only ever ask me one thing. Are you ready this is BIG ok, youre on paragraph four of the cheapest leadership bible you are ever likely to read and Im going straight to the heart of it...