Recent discussions have focused on the special circumstances surrounding assessment and development for senior leadership (Reynolds, McCauley, Tsacoumis, and the Jeanneret Symposium Participants, 2018). The fundamental assertion is that different challenges are inherent in working with senior leadership, as compared to lower levels of leadership. We suggest that, although the focal article presents a useful synthesis of research and practice, many of the points made are applicable to leaders at all levels. In other words, by looking at senior leaders, we gain an increased appreciation for issues that are in fact relevant to all leaders.
Marquet, who before he became a leadership advisor was the captain of the nuclear submarine USS Santa Fe, writes about the language people use in workplace settings, and how they react to people in different positions of power. Part of this includes dissecting the tragedy of a container ship, El Faro, that sank in 2015, causing the deaths of all 33 aboard. Marquet writes: “The problem is that the captain and crew had been programmed with an industrial age leadership playbook.” In that bygone age, workers were separated into those whose job involved thinking and those who performed the work. “Society and cultures,” Marquet states, “developed rituals, symbols, and uniforms to allow us to label and identify which group people belonged to.”
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.