HARVARD UNIVERSITY

John F. Kennedy School of Government

MLD-351: LEADERSHIP LITERACY

Fall 2011

Faculty: Professor Barbara Kellerman

Office Location: Center for Public Leadership, Taubman #158 Phone: 617-495-7570E-mail: barbara_kellerman@harvard.edu Office Hours: By appointment. Please contact Mike Leveriza as indicated below.

Faculty Assistant: Mike LeverizaOffice Location: Center for Public Leadership, Taubman #141GPhone: 617-495-1386E-mail: mike_leveriza@ksg.harvard.edu

Schedule of Classes: Tuesdays and Thursdays; 10:10 to 11:30 AM Classroom: L-332Class Dates: Thursday, September 1 through Tuesday, December 6

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Course Description:

I divide what I call the “Leadership Industry” into two parts. The first is learning about leadership. The second is learning how to be a leader. This course falls squarely into the first category: it is designed to give all students with more than a passing interest in leadership a fundamental familiarity with the leadership canon - with texts that are timeless.

On the one hand this canon is not large. But on the other hand some of history's greatest minds - theorists and practitioners alike - used words to address overweening issues of power, authority, and influence. This disposition has been in evidence since the beginning of recorded history - and the world over.

Leadership Literacy travels time: from Lao-tse to Lenin, from Freud to Friedan, and from Carson to Kramer. Because the course presumes the liberal arts important to leadership learning, it incorporates different disciplinary perspectives. These include history, psychology, philosophy, government and, yes, literature. The course further presumes that while the materials are primarily western in origin, the perspectives they take and subjects they cover are of consequence wherever in the world there is leadership on the one hand, and followership on the other.

The course requires reading, writing, and rhetoric, all intended to inspire critical thinking. To cover the requisite ground we will spend short periods of time with a wide range of different writers and, in some cases, orators. Approximately the first half of the course extends to the end of the 19th century; the second half is centered on the last one hundred years.

Our collective concern is primarily but not exclusively with leadership in the public realm. Our reach in any case is long and our scope wide. At every turn we will be posing, either explicitly or implicitly, four key questions. 1) What is it about this particular text that makes it "required reading"? 2) What is the world view of this particular writer? 3) What distinguishes writing about leadership from writing as leadership? 4) And how exactly does the written word connect to the real world?

Finally, a personal note: I developed this course so that students at HKS and beyond would have an opportunity to obtain a leadership education that includes exposure to the liberal arts. I began by posing the question of what leaders should learn - and answered with a throwback. That is, my response to the question was a course that reaffirms, even at the graduate level, the age-old importance of acquiring a fixed body of knowledge centered on the human condition.

Course Format:

I like a lively classroom. It’s good pedagogical practice – and good fun. So it’s up to me to be engaging as well as enlightening, and it’s up to you to contribute to the collective conversation. No rote memorization is required – but critical thinking is. This should present no problem - for if you dig deep the great leadership literature will necessarily inspire you to think long and hard about patterns of dominance and deference as they have prevailed and also changed throughout human history. Most classes will consist of an informal lecture delivered by me, followed by a general discussion. Occasionally there will be one minute papers, written in class, and occasionally you will be asked to respond in class, in writing, to a particular question, suggested by the readings.

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Course Policies and Procedures:

The use of personal computers during class is prohibited. Exceptions to this rule will be granted only under exceptional circumstances.

In the event you are absent more than twice during the term, please explain your situation to me.

Bring the readings for each class to each class session – they constitute the core of class conversations.

There will be no “cold calls.” Rather your participation in class discussion is simply expected, presumed.

Two films will be shown during the term, in the evening, along with pizza and drinks. In the event you cannot join us at night, be certain to arrange to see the films (on reserve in the KSG Library) at another time – but in time for class discussion the following day.

All announcements will be made in class and also posted online, as will all course handouts and other relevant info.

Course Requirements:

In total, three papers are required. The first is due Tuesday, October 4, and the second Tuesday, November 1. Both of these should be between five and seven pages in length (typed, double-spaced), and focus on one or more of the assigned readings, and/or the class discussions, and/or the films. The third and last paper is due on Tuesday, December 6, the last day of class. It should be between eight and ten pages in length, and identify a different piece of leadership literature altogether – one that might, if you are inclined, expand the conventional notion of what constitutes leadership “literature.” This final paper should point to work that has had a demonstrable impact, and proceed then to explore how and why. Together, the three papers, totaling no fewer than eighteen pages, will comprise the body of writing required for this course. A handout will be provided that provides further paper parameters.

Active participation in class is further expected – at least in so far as class size will allow. Additionally, all students will be asked to make one brief class presentation. In general, “participation” refers to oral, in class, contributions to the collective conversation; the class page will also link to a discussion board, which will facilitate further engagement online.

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Course Readings:

This course birthed a book - LEADERSHIP: Essential Selections on Power, Authority, and Influence - edited and with commentary by BK. The book contains most but not all of the course readings; it is referred to throughout the syllabus as, LEADERSHIP. Additional readings are in your course packet. Finally, some online sites are also provided, so that you can peruse some of the works at greater length, and familiarize yourself further with the various writers/thinkers/activists and with the context within which they did their work.

Course Reading Packets can be purchased at the KSG Course Materials Office (Belfer, G-6).

Additionally, the following books are available for purchase at the Harvard COOP. I recommend that if you do not already own The Prince, you consider purchasing the edition below for your leadership library.

o Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince (University Of Chicago Press, 1998).Online: http://www.constitution.org/mac/prince00.htm

o Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, The Communist Manifesto (Norton, 1998).Online: http://www.anu.edu.au/polsci/marx/classics/manifesto.html

o William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar (Thomson Learning, 1998).Online: http://pd.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/juliuscaesar/

Because the class, inevitably, is about followers as well as leaders, it is recommended though not required that students familiarize themselves with the argument made by Barbara Kellerman in Followership: How Followers are Creating Change and Changing Leaders.

All readings are also on reserve in the Kennedy School Library and/or available online.

Course Grading:

Students will be evaluated on the basis of:

1) the vigor and competence of their oral, in class, participation

2) the ambition and competence of their writing, as evidenced in the three papers

Grades will be determined in rough accord with the following percentages:

Participation: 40 %

Papers: 60 %

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Two Final Notes:

First, the syllabus that follows should be considered final, though small adjustments might still be made during the semester, either at my suggestion or at yours. Second, feel free at any point during the term to approach me with questions or concerns.

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READINGS/CLASS SESSIONS

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 1: LINCOLN and TRUTH

LEADERSHIP - AND LEADERSHIP LITERATURE

Bernard Bass, The Bass Handbook of Leadership (Free Press, 2008), pp. 3-26. In course packet.

Barbara Kellerman, Introduction in LEADERSHIP (1-16).

Abraham Lincoln and Sojourner Truth in LEADERSHIP (214-223).

Abraham Lincoln, “The Gettysburg Address”http://showcase.netins.net/web/creative/lincoln/speeches/gettysburg.htm

Abraham Lincoln, “The Second Inaugural Address”http://www.bartleby.com/124/pres32.html

Sojourner Truth, “Ain’t I a Woman?” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ain%27t_I_a_Woman%3F

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 6: LAO-TSU

THE SAGE AS LEADER – A VIEW FROM THE EAST

Lao Tsu in LEADERSHIP (2-8).

Lao Tsu online: chapters, 18, 22, 24, 29, 30, 31, 37, 48, 51, 57, 58, 81, 66, 68, 69, 76, and 77.

http://www.thebigview.com/download/tao-te-ching-illustrated.pdf.

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Livia Kohn and Michael LaFargue, Eds., Lao-tsu and the Tao Te Ching Pgs.1-10. In course packet.

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 8: CONFUCIUS and PLATO

GREAT MINDS – ON LEADERSHIP LEARNING

Confucius and Plato in LEADERSHIP (8-28).

Simon Leys, The Analects of Confucius http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/c/confucius/c748a/

Plato, The Republic http://classics.mit.edu/Plato/republic.html

Simon Leys Introduction, The Analects of Confucius, pgs. xv-xxxii. In course packet.

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 13: MACHIAVELLI

IS MACHIAVELLI MACHIAVELLIAN?

Nicolo Machiavelli in LEADERSHIP (34-41).

Nicolo Machiavelli, The Prince, Harvey Mansfield’s Introduction, vii-xxiv. In course packet.

Additionally: http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/m/machiavelli/niccolo/m149p/::

XIV: “What a Prince Should Do Regarding the Military.” XV: “Of Those Things for Which Men And Especially Princes…,”

XVI: “Of Liberality and Parsimony.”XVII: “Of Cruelty and Mercy…”XVIII: “In What Mode Faith Should Be Kept by Princes.”XIX: “Of Avoiding Contempt and Hatred.” XX: “Whether Fortresses and Many Other Things Are Made…”XXI: “What a Prince Should Do to Be Held in Esteem.”XXII: “Of Those Whom Princes Have as Secretaries.”XXIII: “In What Mode Flatterers Are to Be Avoided.”

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THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 15: HOBBES, LOCKE, and MILL

THE SHIFT – FROM LEADERS TO FOLLOWERS

Thomas Hobbes, John Locke and John Stuart Mill in LEADERSHIP (42-56 and 66-73) – and online.

Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl302/texts/hobbes/leviathan-contents.html

John Locke, The Second Treatise of Government http://www.gutenberg.org/files/7370/7370-h/7370-h.htm

John Stuart Mill, On Libertyhttp://www.bartleby.com/130/

George Kateb, “Hobbes and the Irrationality of Politics,” Political Theory , 17 (Sage

Publications, 1989); pp. 383-388, 391. In course packet.

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20: PAINE and HAMILTON

WORDS AS AGENTS OF CHANGE – THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION

Thomas Paine in LEADERSHIP (124-132) – and online as indicated.

Thomas Paine, Common Sense. http://www.ushistory.org/paine/commonsense/

Alexander Hamilton, Federalist Papers, # 69 and 70. http://www.foundingfathers.info/federalistpapers/

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 22: CARLYLE, SPENCER, JAMES, and TOLSTOY

THE HERO IN HISTORY

Thomas Carlyle, Herbert Spencer, William James and Leo Tolstoy in LEADERSHIP (56-66).

Woodrow Wilson, “Leaders of Men” in Barbara Kellerman, ed., Political Leadership: A Source Book (University of Pittsburgh Press, 1986), pp. 428-437. In course packet.

Note: Be prepared to take – and defend - a position in the “hero in history debate.”

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TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 27: MARX and ENGELS

WORDS AS AGENTS OF CHANGE – THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION

Required: Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels LEADERSHIP (139-147).

Recommended: Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, The Communist Manifesto http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/index.htm

In Course Packet: Introduction to TCM by Eric Hobsbawm (Norton, 1998).

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 29: FOLLOWERSHIP

Note: This is a religious holiday. In order further to acquaint you with the shift from leader power to follower power, the readings will center on followers. Moreover there will be an in class viewing of Stanley Milgram’s famous/infamous experiment, “Obedience to Authority.” If you are not in class on this day, you are asked to see this film at another time, so long as it is before the discussion of Milgram on

Barbara Kellerman, Followership: How Followers are Creating Change and Changing Leaders (Harvard Business School Press, 2008), pp: xv – xxii., 3-23, 75-93.

Stanley Milgram in Kellerman, LEADERSHIP, pp. 105-110.

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 4: FIRST PAPERS – COMMENTARY/ANALYSIS

Presentations: by approximately 1/3 of the class. Subject: First papers, due October 4th.

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 5: EVENING SESSION — FILM

Shakespeare, “Julius Caesar”Directed by Joesph L. Mankiewicz and starring Marlon Brando, John Gielgud, and James Mason, 1953. Location: Starr Auditorium, Belfer 2nd FloorTime: 6:30-8:30pmPizza, drinks

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THURSDAY, OCTOBER 6: SHAKESPEARE, “JULIUS CAESAR” (Text/Film)

THE BARD ON LEADERSHIP – AND FOLLOWERSHIP

Harvard COOP: William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar (Thomson Learning, 1998).

Online: http://pd.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/juliuscaesar/

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 11: WOLLSTONECRAFT and, STANTON/ANTHONY

WOMEN LEADING WOMEN – AND MEN

Mary Wollstonecraft and Elizabeth Cady Stanton in LEADERSHIP (118-124 and 132-139).

Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman

http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/3420/pg3420.html.utf8

Elizabeth Cady Stanton, “Declaration of Sentiments” http://ecssba.rutgers.edu/docs/seneca.html

.Ellen Carol DuBois, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony: Correspondence,

Writings, Speeches (Shocken, 1981); pp. 2-22. In course packet. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 13: DUBOIS and KING

FOLLOWER POWER

Dubois and King in LEADERSHIP (148-152 and 518-529).

W.E.B DuBois, “The Talented Tenth,” in The Negro Problemhttp://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/index.asp?document=174

Martin Luther King, Jr., “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” in S. Jonathan Bass, Blessed are the Peacemakers (Louisiana State University Press, 2001).

http://abacus.bates.edu/admin/offices/dos/mlk/letter.html

Manning Marable, Black Leadership: Four Great American Leaders and the Struggle for Civil Rights (Columbia University Press, 1998); pp. 41-58. In course packet.

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 18: LENIN

REVOLUTIONARY LEADERSHIP – THEORIST AND PRACTITIONER

V. I. Lenin in LEADERSHIP (224-232).

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V.I. Lenin, What is to be Done?.http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1901/witbd/iv.htm

Stephane Courtois et al, The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression (Harvard University Press, 1999), 1-31. In course packet.

You are asked to spend an additional one to two hours familiarizing yourself with the Russian Revolution (1917), so that you are able to place Lenin’s seminal pamphlet (1903) in historical context.

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 20: FREUD

DOMINANCE AND DEFERENCE – A PSYCHOANALYTIC PERSPECTIVE

Sigmund Freud in LEADERSHIP (81-89).

Sigmund Freud:

Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego: http://www.archive.org/details/grouppsychologya00freu

Civilization and its Discontentshttp://www.archive.org/details/CivilizationAndItsDiscontents

Moses and Monotheism.http://www.archive.org/details/mosesandmonothei032233mbp

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 25: FOLLETT and BURNS

LEADERS AND FOLLOWERS IN TANDEM

Mary Parker Follett and James MacGregor Burns in LEADERSHIP (91-104):

Pauline Graham, ed., Mary Parker Follett—Prophet of Management (Harvard Business School Press, 1995), pp. xiii-xix, 1-9. In course packet.

James MacGregor Burns, Leadership (Harper & Row, 1978), pp. 422-443. In course packet.

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 27: SECOND PAPERS - COMMENTARY/ANALYSIS

Presentations: by approximately 1/3 of the class. Subject: second papers, due November 4th.

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TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 1: HITLER and ARENDT

EVIL LEADERSHIP – AND FOLLOWERSHIP

Adolph Hitler, Mein Kampf (Houghton Mifflin, 1971), pp. ix-xxii, 300-329, 579-595. In course packet.

Hannah Arendt, Totalitarianism: Part Three of the Origins of Totalitarianism (Harcourt Brace, 1951), 71-73, 102-110.http://www.archive.org/details/originsoftotalit00aren

Hannah Arendt (Eichmann in Jerusalem) in LEADERSHIP (104-116).

Also review Milgram reading in LEADERSHIP.

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 2: EVENING SESSION — FILM

“Triumph of the Will” Directed by Leni Riefenstahl, 1934.Location: Starr Auditorium, Belfer 2nd FloorTime: 6:30-8:30pm Pizza, drinks

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 3: REFLECTIONS ON RIEFENSTAHL

Susan Sontag, “Fascinating Facism” in Under the Sign of Saturn (Doubleday, 1991), pp. 73-105. Online.

http://www.history.ucsb.edu/faculty/marcuse/classes/33d/33dTexts/

SontagFascinFascism75.htm

Steven Bach, Leni: The Life and Work of Leni Riefenstahl (Knopf, 2007), pp. 123-140. In course packet.

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 8: ROOSEVELT and CHURCHILL

GREAT MEN MAKING A GREAT DIFFERENCE

Franklin Delano Roosevelt - in Course Packet.

B.D. Zevin, ed., Nothing to Fear: The Selected Addresses of Franklin Delano Roosevelt (Houghton-Mifflin, 1946); pp. 258-267, 301-312.

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Franklin Delano Roosevelt online:

“Four Freedoms” Speechhttp://millercenter.org/scripps/archive/speeches/detail/3320

War Message to Congresshttp://millercenter.org/scripps/archive/speeches/detail/3324

Fireside Chat: On the War with Japanhttp://millercenter.org/scripps/archive/speeches/detail/3325

Winston Churchill in LEADERSHIP (244-253) – and online:

“Adamant for Drift”http://www.churchill-society-london.org.uk/Locusts.html

The Annexation of Austria:http://www.churchill-society-london.org.uk/Austria.html

The Threat to Czechoslovakiahttp://www.winstonchurchill.org/learn/speeches/speeches-of-winston-churchill/112-the-danube-basin

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 8: FANON, QUTB, and FRIERE

RAGE AS A REASON

Franz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth in LEADERSHIP, pp. 153-159.

Online: Sayyid Qutb, Milestones http://majalla.org/books/2005/qutb-nilestone.pdf

Paolo Friere, Pedagogy of the Oppressed (Continuum, 1970 and 1993), Foreword by Richard Shaull, 29-34 and 43-69. In course packet.

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 10: GANDHI and MANDELA

TACTICS OF LEADERSHIP - VIOENCE VS. NONVIOLENCE

Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela in LEADERSHIP (233-243) – and online as indicated:

M.K. Gandhi, “Satyagraha” in LEADERSHIP, pp. 233-243.

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Nelson Mandela, “I am Prepared to Die.”http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/mandela/mandelaspeech.html

Nelson Mandela, “Address to the People of Cape Town, Grand Parade, On the Occasions of his Inauguration as State President”, Cape Town, 9 May 1994.

http://historicalspeeches.wordpress.com/2008/10/07/nelson-mandela-address-to-the-people-of-cape-town-grand-parade-on-the-occasion-of-his-inauguration-as-state-president/

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 15: FRIEDAN and CARSON

THE 1960S - WOMEN AT THE FOREFRONT

Betty Friedan in LEADERSHIP (167-171) and online.

Chapter 1 online: http://www.h-net.org/~hst203/documents/friedan1.html

Chapter 5 online: http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/us/friedan.htm

Rachel Carson in LEADERSHIP (159-167).

Rachel Carson, Silent Spring (Houghton Mifflin, 2002), pp. x-xix, 14-61, 357-363. In course packet.

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 17: ALINSKY and SINGER

THE 1970S - HUMAN RIGHTS – AND ANIMAL RIGHTS

Saul Alinsky in LEADERSHIP (172-180)

Peter Singer in LEADERSHIP (180-191). Michael Spector, “The Extremist” in The New Yorker, April 14, 2003. In course packet.

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 22: KRAMER

THE 1980S – GAY RIGHTS

Larry Kramer in LEADERSHIP (191-203).

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Larry Kramer:

Reports from the Holocaust: The Making of an AIDS ActivistOnline: http://queerrhetoric.com/2010/03/14/1112-and-counting/

“The Tragedy of Today’s Gays” speech at New York City's Cooper Union Hall on November 21, 2004, Online: http://www.towleroad.com/2004/11/larry_kramer_sp.html

Michael Specter, “Public Nuisance,” in New Yorker (May 13, 2002). In course packet.

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 29: THIRD PAPERS –PROSE

Presentations: by approximately 1/3 of the class. Subject: final papers, due December 6.

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 1: ORWELL George Orwell, “Shooting an Elephant”

Online: http://www.netcharles.com/orwell/essays/shooting-an-elephant.htm

George Orwell, Animal Farm

Online: http://georgeorwellnovels.com/books/animal-farm/

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 6: POETRY

Art of a Different Sort – On Patterns of Dominance and Deference

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