Leaders Who Lust
Leaders Who Lust
Todd L. Pittinsky, Stony Brook University, State University of New York
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USDAmong our greatest leaders are those driven by impulses they cannot completely control - by lust. Lust is not, however, an abstraction, it has definition. Definition that, given the impact of leaders who lust, is essential to extract. This book identifies six types of lust with which leaders are linked: 1. Power: the ceaseless craving to control. 2. Money: the limitless desire to accrue great wealth. 3. Sex: the constant hunt for sexual gratification. 4. Success: the unstoppable need to achieve. 5. Legitimacy: the tireless claim to identity and equity. 6. Legacy: the endless quest to leave a permanent imprint. Each of the core chapters focuses on different lusts and features a cast of characters who bring lust to life. In the real world leaders who lust can and often do have an enduring impact. This book therefore is counterintuitive - it focuses not on moderation, but on immoderation.
- Exposes the various and variegated lusts that drive some of the world's greatest leaders
- Reveals the links between leadership and lust
- Explores the inextricable ties between leaders who lust and their followers - some willing, some unwilling
- Tells tales of leaders who lust - from Xi Jinping to Hillary Clinton, from Silvio Berlusconi to Tom Brady, and from Charles Koch to Melinda Gates
- Highlights the real-world implications for the followers of lustful leaders - for individuals and institutions, for policies and practices, for groups and organizations worldwide
Reviews & endorsements
'In this path-breaking book, one of the most perceptive and prolific scholars in leadership, Barbara Kellerman, teams up with one of the most talented and promising social scientists, Todd Pittinsky, to pierce an important veil. Instead of telling us what leaders should be like, we learn how they truly are. This is an eye-opening must read.' David Gergen, White House Adviser to four US Presidents and founding Director of the Center for Public Leadership, Harvard Kennedy School
'This book paints an unforgettable picture of leaders with outsized appetites for power, money, sex, success, legitimacy, or legacy. Instead of treating leaders as one-dimensional paragons of either virtue or vice, the authors show them as human beings with strengths and weaknesses. The result is fascinating, beautifully written, and highly entertaining.' Dennis Tourish, Professor of Leadership and Organization Studies, University of Sussex, UK, and editor of Leadership
'Leaders Who Lust is a great read. It offers a compelling contribution to our critical conversations about those who shape the course of human affairs. The authors achieve something entirely new and different.' Margaret Shih, Professor of Management and Organizations, UCLA Anderson School of Management
'Is a never-ending desire for gratification a neglected leadership trait? Is lust a critical factor in explaining exceptional leadership? Making this provocative argument through a series of gripping biographical sketches, this book offers a host of refreshingly iconoclastic and original insights for scholars and practitioners alike.' Christopher Pietroni, Professor of Leadership Practice, University of Birmingham
Product details
October 2020Hardback
9781108491167
264 pages
235 × 158 × 18 mm
0.5kg
Available
Table of Contents
- Prologue: Lust as Stimulus
- 1. Lust for power
- 2. Lust for money
- 3. Lust for sex
- 4. Lust for success
- 5. Lust for legitimacy
- 6. Lust for legacy
- Epilogue: Lust and leadership.
