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Joseph L. Badaracco, Jr. Questions of Character: Illuminating the Heart of Leadership Through Literature. Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 2006, 221 pages, $26.95 hardcover.
Willie Loman, Arthur Miller's Everyman in his play Death of a Salesman, was driven by his dreams-or was it his delusions? Preoccupied with success yet unable to reconcile them with his modest skills, his tragic ending seemed preordained. What can leaders learn about the nature and demands of leadership from this and other tales drawn from literature and the arts? According to Joseph Badaracco, Jr., Harvard Business School business ethics professor and author of this volume, literature offers a number of lessons, and this book is essentially his curriculum for answering the question. He draws from a wide spectrum, from Sophocles to Louis Auchincloss, from short stories and plays to novels, and from both American and international sources. Although the reviews and analyses of the stories are compelling and well written, readers must keep in mind this is not a typical book on leadership. In general, it is a meditation on the deep-seated, guiding hand of character on a leader's actions. He identifies various critical challenges that leaders face and examines the nuances of each. This is a primer for discussion and conversation, not a handbook for day-to-day management.
The fundamental framework structuring this book is a set of eight questions that define what he thinks are the significant personal issues facing leaders. Each question has its own chapter, beginning with a synopsis of the story used to define the issues and followed by the questions of character derived from it. He contends that literature can provide superior case studies for defining the character issues of leadership. The stories highlight certain key concerns with which leaders must grapple throughout their careers.
The first issue, exemplified by Willie Loman, is whether dreams are animating and healthy or delusional and enervating. For Bardacco, the challenge is whether leaders can accurately test their dreams against reality. By implication, the standard should be realism in one's dreams, as well as to keep those goals realistic over time. Leaders must also decide whether their goals are personally meaningful or are imposed by the expectations of others. The second issue is flexibility in one's moral code. This...