THE SEDUCTION OF THE LEADER IN HIGHER EDUCATION By Patrick Sanaghan & Kimberly Eberbach
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AUTHORS PRESIDENT PRESIDENT, THE SANAGHAN GROUP Dr. Sanaghan serves as the head of The Sanaghan Group, an organizational firm specializing in leadership development, executive coaching, strategic planning, and leadership transitions. Pat has worked with over 200 campuses and hundreds of organizations in the last twenty-five years. He has taught leadership to thousands of leaders in higher education, and helped dozens of campuses conduct collaborative, transparent strategic planning processes. He is the co-author/author of five books, numerous articles, and several monographs in the fields of strategic planning, leadership, and change management. His most recent book, Collaborative Leadership in Action was published in 2011, and his next book, How to Actually Build an Exceptional Team will be published in early 2014.
KIMBERLY EBERBACH HEALTHCARE EXECUTIVE & LEADERSHIP PROCESS EXPERT Kimberly Eberbach is an organization development and change management practitioner with twenty years of experience in talent management, strategic planning, leadership development, communications, training, and transformation efforts. She has worked as both a consultant to organizations and as an internal healthcare executive. As a consultant, Kimberly worked in the public and private sectors including technology, manufacturing, finance, pharmaceuticals, education, and government. Known for her skill at establishing relationships at all levels, Kimberly’s consulting ranged from senior ranking executives to plant employees on the manufacturing floor. Working as a healthcare executive, Kimberly has led teams of ten to 100 and has built individual, team, and organizational capacity, led major change programs, and engaged in merger and joint venture efforts. She has served as a trusted advisor to senior leadership, acted as an employee advocate and engaged with corporate boards. Kimberly is currently Vice President of Wellness and Community Health at a major insurer where she was also previously Vice President of Human Resources. She has written articles, presented at conferences and serves on the board of a Philadelphia arts and culture non-profit.
CONTENTS THE SEDUCTION OF THE LEADER
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1. WHAT DOES SEDUCTION OF THE LEADER LOOK LIKE? 6 2. HOW DOES THE SEDUCTION OF THE LEADER OCCUR? 11 3. WHAT ARE THE UNDERLYING DYNAMICS OF SEDUCTION OF THE LEADER?
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4. WHAT ARE THE STRUCTURAL ELEMENTS OF SEDUCTION OF THE LEADER?
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5. PROVEN STRATEGIES TO COUNTER SEDUCTION OF THE
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LEADER?
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CLOSING THOUGHTS
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Academic Impressions
THE SEDUCTION OF THE LEADER How often have you thought, “My people always tell me what’s really going on.” Hundreds of leaders have told us that their followers are open with them. These leaders believed that they were getting honest feedback and were being asked the tough questions. Unfortunately, this is rarely true. In fact, we’ve come to think of this common belief as a myth—a myth consistent with the concept of seduction of the leader, which was introduced to us more than twenty-five years ago by our colleague Dr. Rod Napier. Many leaders are seduced by the notion that they’re receiving honest and thoughtful feedback about their ideas and effectiveness. Believing this leaves leaders isolated and uninformed. Why are leaders not receiving honest information? Because most followers avoid “speaking truth to power.” They avoid it for a variety of reasons, reasons we’ll explore below. But whatever the reasons, the unfortunate consequence of this reluctance to speak frankly is that you, the leader, lack access to the vital information you need to make effective decisions, grow, and learn—even when you have asked for it. Based upon our years of observation and work with leaders in higher education, corporations, and nonprofit institutions, we understand seduction of the leader as a pervasive syndrome that is always present in the lives of leaders. This is worth repeating, it is always present and that is why, as we will explain, it is so pernicious. Before you can employ strategies to counter this dynamic, you’ll need to become aware of its existence and of its powerful implications for your leadership.
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