In Why Leaders Fail and What it Teaches Us About Leadership Willem Fourie helps us make sense of leaders- failures and why our expectation of leadership infallibility is misguided
Whereas some leadership failures can be rectified, others lead to the failure of teams, organisations or institutions. Using cutting-edge research and reflective practices, Fourie explores leaders- failure at these personal, interpersonal, group, organisational levels and beyond. He explores five factors that cause leaders to fail:
- Ignorance of personal weaknesses
- Overconfidence in their influence over others
- Destructive bias
- Bad fit in their organisation
- Misjudged risk
The author shows that our heroic bias - the expectation that leaders should be exceptional, charismatic individuals with a higher level of agency than other people - in many contexts increases the chances of leaders failing. The
