Barbara Kellerman: Bad Leadership.
This book is an interesting concept: Study bad leaders and identify just in what way they are bad (as opposed to identifying good traits of good leaders.) Notwithstanding the fact that bad leaders must have been good leaders in the sense that they got into a leadership position (and Kellerman acknowledges this point, though she does not follow up on it) the examples chosen are identified as failing because of specific traits, namely incompetence (Samaranch), rigidity (Mary Meeker), intemperance (Marion Barry), callousness (“Chainsaw Al” Dunlap), corruption (William Aramondy), insularity (Bill Clinton, seen as a failed leader for failing to react to the Rwanda atrocities), and evil (Radovan Karadzic).
I liked the concept, but unfortunately the execution is very weak – the examples of failing leadership are unclear, with shallow portraits and at least for some of the examples unconvincing reasoning. The book would have been better for a really critical editor and more time spent on each example. Pity.