Leadership BS – Jeffrey Pfeffer · 2015

Jeffrey Pfeffer has taught at Stanford's Graduate School of Business since 1979. Across his books (among them Power, The Human Equation and The Knowing-Doing Gap, written with Robert Sutton) he keeps coming back to one question: what really happens inside organizations, and what would help the people who work there? Leadership BS, longlisted for the 2015 Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year, turns that question toward the field many of our readers work in.

His starting point is fair and easy to recognize. Organizations spend billions each year on leadership development, and the field has produced thousands of books, blogs and talks. Pfeffer asks a question every learning professional knows from budget season: with an investment this large, where can we see the results?

His central insight follows from there. The ideals we teach leaders often differ from how power, careers and organizations actually work. Seeing that gap clearly is valuable: leaders can navigate it with open eyes, and those of us who develop talent can prepare people for the workplaces they will really meet.

Five virtues, looked at closely

Pfeffer takes the qualities leadership books recommend most often, one chapter each, and compares them with what research shows about how careers unfold.

Modesty. Confidence and self-promotion often carry people into senior roles. The humble leader exists, and Pfeffer shows us how rare that profile is at the top.

Authenticity. Leading often means playing a role. His example is Alison Davis-Blake, so quiet as a doctoral student that her professors wondered when she would speak up. She went on to become dean of the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business, a highly visible job she grew into by learning the part it required.

Truthfulness. Leaders sometimes shade the truth, some of them for good ends. Pfeffer asks us to see that clearly and prepare people for it.

Trust. Trust in leaders has fallen, and he links part of that to the gap between how leaders are described and how they act.

Putting others first. Simon Sinek gave this ideal a memorable image in Leaders Eat Last, drawn from the Marine Corps custom of officers eating after their troops. Pfeffer answers with a chapter called "Why Leaders 'Eat' First." His point is that most organizations reward leaders for looking after themselves, not their people: pay, promotions and recognition tend to follow those who claim credit and protect their own position. Self-sacrifice is admirable, but the system rarely pays for it, which is why the ideal takes real effort, and often real cost, to live.

A book written with care

The title is sharp, and the book is thoughtful. Pfeffer cares deeply about people who work for difficult bosses, a concern he took further in a later book, Dying for a Paycheck (2018), on how management practices affect employee health. His advice here is practical: look at the evidence, judge leadership by outcomes such as engagement, trust and retention, and prepare people for organizations as they are.

It is a real gift to our field that a scholar of his standing took the time to write this book, with data, wit and goodwill.

Talent Takeaway

For anyone who designs development programs, three questions drawn from the book travel well. What outcome will change, and how will we know? Which of our favorite leadership ideas rest on evidence? What do participants need to succeed in the organization they actually work in?

The chapters also spark lively discussions. Ask a group of experienced managers whether modesty helped their careers, and you will often get a candid and very useful conversation.

Pfeffer, J. (2015). Leadership BS: Fixing workplaces and careers one truth at a time. HarperBusiness. Get the book