What is Leadership?
Leadership. James MacGregor Burns. New York: Harper & Row, 1978. Summary review by Ron
Brandt, Executive Editor, E
What makes leaders different? The distin
guished political historian James MacGregor
Burns says great leaders are sensitive to the fun
damental needs and values of others. Author of
prize-winning books about Franklin Roosevelt,
Woodrow Wilson, John Kennedy, and others,
Burns has written a new book about leadership
itself.
Some educators might wonder about the ap
plicability of political philosophy to the field of
education, but Burns says leadership is leadership
wherever you find it. Moreover, he says that
leadership and education are ultimately similar
because they both consist of "reciprocal raising of
levels of motivation rather than indoctrination or
coercion" (p. 448).
Burns traces the histories of giants Mohandas
Gandhi, Woodrow Wilson, Nikolai Lenin,
Adolph Hitler the first two true leaders in his
view, the third a leader "whose theory of leader
ship had a fatal flaw," and the fourth "an absolute
wielder of brutal power" (p. 27). Drawing upon
theorists including Sigmund Freud, Lawrence
Kohlberg, and Abraham Maslow, Burns develops
a persuasive analysis of human behavior. Along
the way, he recounts interesting anecdotes about
such historical figures as Frederick the Great,
Franklin Roosevelt, and Mao Tse-Tung. Accord
ing to Burns:
L ut lead
ers differ from powerholders. Powerholders are
concerned with achieving only their own goals,
whereas leaders address themselves to the wants
and needs of followers as well as to their own.
L
imply an exchange of valued things
with no enduring purpose, or an engagement in
which leaders and followers raise one another to
higher levels of motivation and morality.
M
o higher levels of reasoned,
conscious values.
P
The
vast preponderance of personal influence is ex
erted quietly and subtly in everyday relationships"
(p. 442), so top leaders are more effective if they
help their followers become leaders in their own
right.
L n the sense that
great teachers are leaders (and great leaders teach
ers); they "treat students neither coercively nor
instrumentally but are joint seekers of truth and
mutual actualization" (p. 449).
In the last chapter, Burns turns modestly pre
scriptive, offering a few "rules" to guide pro
spective leaders. (See "Advice," p. 382.)
MARCH 1979 379
Copyright © 1979 by the Association for Supervision and Curriculum
Development. All rights reserved.