{"id":184391,"date":"2024-10-14T08:55:08","date_gmt":"2024-10-14T13:55:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/?p=184391"},"modified":"2026-09-06T21:07:02","modified_gmt":"2026-09-07T02:07:02","slug":"podcast-1030-the-problems-with-the-cult-of-leadership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/character\/leadership\/podcast-1030-the-problems-with-the-cult-of-leadership\/","title":{"rendered":"Podcast #1,030: The Problems With the Cult of Leadership"},"content":{"rendered":"

Are leaders born or made? Judging by the 50 billion dollar leadership development industry, the answer is definitely the latter. From schools to workplaces, everyone is seen as a potential leader and expected to become one by undergoing leadership training.<\/p>\n

My guest questions the assumptions underlying this phenomenon, which he calls “the leadership industrial complex,” and says that the cult of leadership, and its idea that everyone can and should become a leader, can create burnout and unhappiness.<\/p>\n

Elias Aboujaoude is a Stanford professor of psychiatry and the author of A Leader’s Destiny: Why Psychology, Personality, and Character Make All the Difference<\/em><\/a>. Today on the show, Elias describes the state of the leadership industrial complex, the mathematical impossibility it forwards that everyone can be a leader and no one is a follower, and the primary presumption it makes that leadership can be taught. Elias argues that, in fact, a lot of what makes for good leadership is innate and potentially unchangeable. We discuss the implications of this fact, and why it’s actually okay not to want to be a leader.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Are leaders born or made? Judging by the 50 billion dollar leadership development industry, the answer is definitely the latter. From schools to workplaces, everyone is seen as a potential leader and expected to become one by undergoing leadership training. My guest questions the assumptions underlying this phenomenon, which he calls “the leadership industrial complex,” […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":194664,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[502,437,156],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-184391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-character","category-leadership","category-podcast"],"featured_image_urls":{"large":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/1030-538x280.png","medium_large":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/1030-768x432.png","aom":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/1030-372x230.png","reactor-320":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/1030-320x180.png","reactor-640":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/1030-640x360.png"},"yoast_head":"\nPodcast #1,030: The Problems With the Cult of Leadership | The Art of Manliness<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/character\/leadership\/podcast-1030-the-problems-with-the-cult-of-leadership\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Podcast #1,030: The Problems With the Cult of Leadership | The Art of Manliness\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Are leaders born or made? Judging by the 50 billion dollar leadership development industry, the answer is definitely the latter. From schools to workplaces, everyone is seen as a potential leader and expected to become one by undergoing leadership training. My guest questions the assumptions underlying this phenomenon, which he calls “the leadership industrial complex,” […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/character\/leadership\/podcast-1030-the-problems-with-the-cult-of-leadership\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Art of Manliness\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"http:\/\/facebook.com\/artofmanliness\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-10-14T13:55:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-09-07T02:07:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/1030.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Brett & Kate McKay\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" 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