Addicted to leadership: From crisis to recovery

Hartley, Lucie; Bolden, Richard

Abstract

This chapter looks at why we default towards toxic types of leadership and compares this behaviour to the drivers behind drug and alcohol addiction. Changing our mental models of leadership, the authors argue, is akin to the process of recovery. They describe how the behaviours of toxic leaders create dependence on the part of followers and show how techniques of recovery can be used to reduce that dependence and show the limitations of ‘heroic’ leadership. Toxic leadership is bad for us in many ways, not least for our mental health.

Citation

Hartley, L., & Bolden, R. (2022). Addicted to leadership: From crisis to recovery. In Post-Pandemic Leadership: Exploring solutions to a crisis (112-126). Abingdon: Routledge

• Acceptance Date: Aug 25, 2021
• Publication Date: Apr 29, 2022
• Deposit Date: Jun 22, 2022
• Publicly Available Date: Oct 30, 2023
• Publisher: Routledge
• Pages: 112-126
• Book Title: Post-Pandemic Leadership: Exploring solutions to a crisis
• Chapter Number: 11
• ISBN: 9780367775148
• Keywords: Leadership; addiction; toxic; crisis
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/9657548
• Publisher URL: https://www.routledge.com/Post-Pandemic-Leadership-Exploring-Solutions-to-a-Crisis/Witzel/p/book/9780367775148