Led PoisoningThe best cure for bad leading is a good dose of following.

If there's one subject I dread writing about, it'sleadership. What else has been as overdone? Just look in the"leadership" section of any bookstore. You have your TheLeadership Engine, The Heart of a Leader . . . not to mention"The Leadership Secrets of" everyone from Attila the Hunto Charles Manson. But with all that reading, how will you ever getaround to leading?

And who follows all these leaders we're creating? After all,isn't a leader someone people follow? Authority isn't athing. It's an interpretive process that, while tangible,resists the solidity of a thing. Weak leaders can't wait tomake it solid-hence scepters, big chairs, executive washrooms, etc.Real leaders don't need to assert their authority; people justnaturally follow them. Think Gandhi and Martin Luther King.