Toxic leaders, both political, like Slobodan Milosevic, and corporate, like Enron's Ken Lay, have always been with us, and many books have been written to explain what makes them tick. Here leadership scholar Jean Lipman-Blumen explains what makes the followers tick, exploring why people will tolerate--and remain loyal to--leaders who are destructive to their organizations, their employees, or their nations. Why do we knowingly follow, seldom unseat, frequently prefer, and sometimes even create toxic leaders? Lipman-Blumen argues that these leaders appeal to our deepest needs, playing on our anxieties and fears, on our yearnings for security, high self-esteem, and significance, and on our desire for noble enterprises and immortality. She also explores how followers inadvertently keep themselves in line by a set of insidious control myths that they internalize. For example, the belief that the leader must necessarily be in a position to "know more" than the followers often stills their objections. In addition, outside forces--such as economic depressions, political upheavals, or a crisis in a company--can increase our anxiety and our longing for charismatic leaders. Lipman-Blumen shows how followers can learn critical lessons for the future and survive in the meantime. She discusses how to confront, reform, undermine, blow the whistle on, or oust a toxic leader. And she suggests how we can diminish our need for strong leaders, identify "reluctant leaders" among competent followers, and even nurture the leader within ourselves. Toxic leaders charm, manipulate, mistreat, weaken, and ultimately devastate their followers. The Allure of Toxic Leaders tells us how to recognize these leaders before it's too late.

About the Author
Jean Lipman-Blumen is Professor of Public Policy and of Organizational Behavior at Claremont Graduate University, California and a co-founding director of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Leadership. Her books include the award-winning Hot Groups: Seeding Them, Feeding Them, and Using Them to Ignite Your Organization and Connective Leadership: Managing in a Changing World, which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.

Reviews
"A remarkably comprehensive yet penetrating analysis that sees bad leadership both as morally wrong and psychologically dysfunctional, with practical strategies for reform. A sophisticated study that sees the problem as a failure of followership as well as leadership."--James MacGregor Burns
"Beautifully reasoned and intricately argued, [Lipman-Blumen] convincingly explains how followers help spawn toxic leaders. Fortunately, she also tells us how to get out of the trap we're in and proposes a highly innovative model of leadership that promises a healthier future."--Jerry I. Porras, Emeritus, Stanford Business School
"Easily one of the best leadership books of the 1990s was Ron Heifetz's Leadership Without Easy Answers. By explaining why followership is equally demanding, The Allure of Toxic Leaders is a perfect complement."--Financial Times
"An absolutely brilliant book.... One of the very few books I've read that made me see things from a wholly new perspective. One of the best books I've ever read on leadership, and I've read a lot of them."--Robert J. Sternberg, Tufts University, author of Successful Intelligence: How Practical and Creative Intelligence Determine Success in Life
"This book certainly makes interesting election-year reading."--Minneapolis Star Tribune
"A solid look at a dismaying business trend.... Examines the seemingly inexplicable reasons why many employees are loyal to CEOs and politicians who abuse power, cook finances and otherwise virtually destroy their companies.... Offers numerous examples in both politics and business of toxic leaders who have survived crises and received accolades despite their obvious flaws.... The book's strength is the detailed psychological approach to examining the phenomenon of loyalty to toxic leaders."--Publishers Weekly
"A powerful and eye-opening analysis of the subtle and corrosive dynamics of leader-follower relationships. Lipman-Blumen's penetrating insights expose the seduction of power and how followers collude in this evil dance. She proffers wise counsel and early warnings on how to detect and defend against negative leadership. I enthusiastically recommend it to all leaders--and even more, to their vulnerable followers."--Warren Bennis, University of Southern California, author of On Becoming a Leader
"It's a long, detailed, thoughtful essay, concentrating on followers and the predicaments they find themselves in with toxic leaders, and the various strategies they employ to extricate themselves. It's rewarding, but not easy, reading."--Globe & Mail
"The Allure of Toxic Leaders provides remarkable insights into why so many destructive leaders gain and keep power. By explaining the role of followers, Lipman-Blumen makes a profound statement about the nature of leadership itself."--Max De Pree, former CEO of Herman Miller, Inc., author of Leadership is an Art
"In our search for leaders, our appraisal of leaders, Jean Lipman-Blumen provides us with a powerful tool to identify, understand and analyze the toxic leader as she gives us fresh observations on our own journey to leadership." --Frances Hesselbein, Chairman, Leader to Leader Institute



Book Information
ISBN 9780195312003
Author Jean Lipman-Blumen
Format Paperback
Page Count 320
Imprint Oxford University Press Inc
Publisher Oxford University Press Inc
Weight(grams) 454g
Dimensions(mm) 159mm * 236mm * 22mm