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Jul 2024
37m 25s

977: What Makes Leaders Bad—and What You...

How to be Awesome at Your Job
About this episode

Dr. Barbara Kellerman explores the roots of bad leadership and offers strategic tips for challenging it. 


— YOU’LL LEARN — 

1) Where leadership training falls short 

2) The two core components of “bad” leadership 

3) Four tips for standing up to bad leaders 


Subscribe or visit AwesomeAtYourJob.com/ep977 for clickable versions of the links below. 


— ABOUT BARBARA — 

Barbara Kellerman was Founding Executive Director of the Center for Public Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School; the Kennedy’s School’s James MacGregor Burns Lecturer in Leadership; and a member of the Harvard faculty for over twenty years. She is currently a Fellow at the Center. 

Kellerman received her B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College, and her M.A., M.Phil., and Ph.D. (in Political Science) degrees from Yale University. She was awarded a Danforth Fellowship and three Fulbright fellowships. Kellerman was cofounder of the International Leadership Association (ILA) and is author and editor of many books. She’s appeared on numerous media outlets and has contributed to the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Boston Globe, the Los Angeles Times, and the Harvard Business Review.  

She received the Wilbur M. McFeeley Award from the National Management Association for her pioneering work on leadership and followership, as well as the Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Leadership Association. From 2015 to 2024 she has been ranked by Global Gurus as among the “World’s Top 30 Management Professionals.” 

• Book: Bad Leadership: What It Is, How It Happens, Why It Matters (Leadership for the Common Good) 

• Book: Leadership from Bad to Worse: What Happens When Bad Festers 

• Book: Professionalizing Leadership 

• Website: BarbaraKellerman.com 


— RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THE SHOW — 

• Documents: The Federalist Papers

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