By: Nancy VanderRoest on February 8, 2019
Ahhh, the dark side of transformational leadership! What a nice, light topic for this week. It reminds me of the Darth Vader of leadership! Such a bright subject to tackle but also a necessary subject as well. Transformational leadership is a leadership style that can inspire positive changes in those who follow. The problem is…
By: Wallace Kamau on February 8, 2019
I have a very strong strong drive to succeed and I literary dread failure. I know this does not come out as obvious because of my introverted personality but I know too well that I am passively aggressive. I have therefore taken notice of the successful organizations and individuals and always taken interest to know…
By: Karen Rouggly on February 7, 2019
A few years ago, I stumbled upon Derek Silver’s TED Talk on how to start a movement.[1] In this TED talk, he talks about the fact that in order to be a leader, you have to have at least one follower. He says, “The first follower is what transforms a lone nut into a leader.”[2]…
By: Rhonda Davis on February 7, 2019
“In the struggle to contain the dark side, to reclaim power and to gain wisdom, the first step is awareness.” [1] In his book The Dark Side of Transformational Leadership, Dennis Tourish explores the negative side of a leadership model that he believes has become the primary model in most organizations. Written after “The Great…
By: Harry Fritzenschaft on February 7, 2019
The focus of Tourish’s text is on the problematic values, assumptions and practical effects of transformational leadership theory. The core proposition of this theory is that leaders should have a transformative effect on followers’ performance and worldview. These effects are said to arise through the leader’s charisma and their inspiring vision. These transformational leadership theory…
By: Sean Dean on February 7, 2019
About ten years ago my sister was working as the activities director at a nursing home in my home town. One day former president George H. W. Bush and his wife Barbara stopped by to say hello to the residents of the home. Mr. Bush’s summer home in Kennebunkport, Maine is about eight miles from…
By: Rev Jacob Bolton on February 7, 2019
In a way . . . I am very lucky. My first call involved a church situation that could have been detailed as a case study, or even its own chapter, in the second section of Tourish’s work, The Dark Side of Transformational Leadership. I have written somewhat about this before, however these links below…
By: Jenn Burnett on February 7, 2019
At one time in Canada, meaning was largely sourced in Christian faith. As “(t)he management of meaning is … held to be a crucial activity for leaders”[1], pastors would have naturally been recognised simultaneously as leaders of the community and the church. In response to the decline of influence of the church in shaping culture,…
By: Digby Wilkinson on February 7, 2019
By my calculation this is Denis Tourish’ eighth book on leadership, which is a spectacular accomplishment. Eight books on one subject is almost overdoing it, I think. And I have to say, the rather dramatic title, The dark Side of Transformational Leadership: A Critical Perspective,[1] lends evidence to my belief that Tourish might have been…
By: Harry Edwards on February 7, 2019
This hit close to home. The study of leadership, leaders and what makes them tick has fascinated me for a number of years. I mean, who doesn’t t get excited to hear the latest developments from Apple each time Steve Jobs was on stage and utter his famous words, “… there’s one more thing.” Or…
By: Mario Hood on February 7, 2019
Dennis Tourish in his work, The Dark Side of Transformational Leadership: A Critical Perspective, provides a sharp rebuke against the effectiveness of transformational leadership. Villiers in his review states, “Tourish parallels transformational leadership with cults; and argues that the noticeable overlaps should caution against the potential of moving organizations further along the dysfunctional cult continuum than is…
By: Andrea Lathrop on February 7, 2019
I experienced reading whiplash this week. Last week I am laughing it up with Meyer’s Culture Map and this week I was sobered and mildly depressed by Tourish’s The Dark Side of Transformational Leadership. I believe he meets his goal ‘to challenge its fundamental premises in a significant way and scrutinize its contradictions.’[1]It is remarkable…
By: Wallace Kamau on February 3, 2019
I have worked with many nationalities both at the corporate level and in the ministry as a pastor and missionary to confirm that cultural intelligence is an important competence for leaders. This is especially for leaders who aspire to serve in cross cultural settings and to grow in their leadership capabilities. As a CPA with…
By: John Muhanji on February 2, 2019
During my childhood, I experienced a life based on the community I was raised in called Kivagala village. I knew nothing else apart from what was happening in the town. When I went to high school away from my home, I encountered many different young people from different communities. Erin Meyer has actually touched the…
By: Nancy VanderRoest on February 2, 2019
Of the many missionary trips I have taken to Mexico, one truly stood out. Each year for nearly 10 years, I traveled with our Rotary group to Mexico to help in an orphanage there that was started by a fellow Rotarian and run by an amazing group of nuns. Ongoing crisis situations faced us throughout…
By: Mary Mims on February 1, 2019
Many years ago, while working my own business, I supplemented my income by becoming a substitute teacher. My favorite group to work with were the elementary age children, especially those from grades 1 to 3. At one of the schools I substituted at, there was a young first grade boy from Haiti who spoke no…
By: Digby Wilkinson on February 1, 2019
Funniest Book I’ve Read, The Culture Map: Decoding How People Think, Lead, and Get Things Done Across Cultures.[1] Humour comes in many forms, but the best experience of it is unexpected. This week I will unpack my experience of Cultural Mapping through the stories of two Americans, a group of Asians and the tragic tale…
By: Harry Fritzenschaft on January 31, 2019
Erin Meyer’s The Culture Map is a much easier and much more relevant read related to my research area. While not especially an academic book, it speaks to how our global communities and individuals today try to get things done across cultures. While often utilizing business examples and challenges, I believe the concepts in this…
By: Karen Rouggly on January 31, 2019
During my time at Fuller Seminary, my favorite professor introduced me to David Livermore. David Livermore is a researcher, speaker, and author most known for his cultural intelligence quotient, or CQ as it’s commonly called.[1] Livermore, and the Cultural Intelligence Center, have developed four capabilities of cultural intelligence.[2] Those are, CQ Drive, CQ Knowledge, CQ…
By: Sean Dean on January 31, 2019
In the Swedish movie A Man Named Ove the main character, Ove, exemplifies everything we would normally associate with Nordic people. From living a sparse life to only driving Saabs everything about him says that he is in fact Swedish. When his new neighbor Parvaneh, who is Iranian, brings him food out of gratitude for…
