Description: This Element posits that questions are the heart of leadership. Leaders ask hard questions that spark creative solutions and new understandings. Asking by itself isn’t enough – leaders must also help find answers and turn them into effective action. But the leader’s work begins with questions. This Element surveys the main traditions of leadership thought; considers the nature of the group and its questions; explores how culture and bureaucracy serve to provide stable answers to the group’s questions; and explores how leaders offer disruptive answers, especially in times of change and crisis. It uses the lens of questions to consider two parallel American lives, President Abraham Lincoln and General Robert E. Lee.
About Cambridge Elements in Leadership
Series Editor
Ronald E. Riggio, Claremont McKenna College
Susan E. Murphy, University of Edinburgh
Founding Editor
Georgia Sorenson, University of Cambridge
The Cambridge Elements in Leadership series features “cutting-edge” topics in leadership that are multi- and inter-disciplinary, and will have broad appeal for leadership courses in a variety of programs. In addition to the scholarly audience, Elements also appeals to professionals involved in leadership development and training. Cambridge Elements in Leadership is published by Cambridge University Press in partnership with the International Leadership Association (ILA) and the Møller Institute, Churchill College, at Cambridge.