Where Are They Now?
Abraham Zaleznik
ZALEZNIK: “I don’t think it’s useful for people to worry about the rules of leadership or command. I think the central concept is character and character in the uses of power.”
Photo by Michael Price
Leadership is best studied from the inside out, declares Abraham Zaleznik (MBA 2/’47, DCS ’51). “It’s character that counts,” says Zaleznik, the School’s Konosuke Matsushita Professor of Leadership, Emeritus. “I tried to impart that in the courses I taught and in the things I’ve written. It’s an idea that has developed over time.
I don’t think it’s useful for people to worry about the rules of leadership or command. I think the central concept is character and character in the uses of power. That will be my legacy, if you want to call it that.”
During the course of his 43-year HBS career, Zaleznik left an indelible mark on the subject of leadership. His controversial article, “Managers and Leaders: Are They Different?”, first published in the Harvard Business Review in 1977, rocked both the business world and business schools with its assertion that, yes, the two roles are different. Managers, he contended, essentially seek to solve problems within existing frameworks of solutions, while leaders develop fresh approaches to problems.
The distinction caused a ruckus at HBS, which saw itself as a school of management. But the article held sway, winning Zaleznik the McKinsey Award for the best HBR article that year. Eventually, HBS would redefine its mission to emphasize its role as an institution intent upon educating leaders who would have a positive impact on the world. The article remains a classic and has since been republished several times.
Zaleznik’s take on the subject of leadership was informed by his training and certification as a psycho-analyst, something he’d pursued in order “to focus on the inner life of executives and leaders.” For many years, he maintained a private clinical practice while serving on the faculty at HBS, where he taught his popular elective, The Psychodynamics of Leadership, and conducted research and wrote on the subject.
Since his retirement from HBS in 1990, Zaleznik has consulted to numerous companies on matters of succession and conflict resolution. He has also served on the boards of several major corporations, including The TJX Companies, American Greetings, King Ranch, Inc., and Timberland.
These days, Zaleznik spends winters with his wife in Palm Beach, Florida (but still calls Boston “home”). While he golfs “a bit,” he remains a prolific writer and is the author or coauthor of nearly twenty books. His latest, Hedgehogs and Foxes: Character, Leadership, and Command in Organizations, is due out this year. In it, Zaleznik examines the character and leadership qualities of several prominent figures, past and present — including President George W. Bush (MBA ’75) — whose work has had broad social or political implications.
“It’s not a business book,” Zaleznik explains. “Leadership itself is really a text. The person in the position of responsibility is telling a story about his or her life, although perhaps unconsciously. The book is framed around the narratives of these individual leaders.”
At 84, Zaleznik is wasting no time. “Believe it or not,” he says, “I already have ideas for two more books!”
