"In this book, Mats Alvesson aims to demystify some popular and upbeat claims about a range of phenomena, including the knowledge society, consumption, branding, higher education, organizational change, professionalization, and leadership. He contends that a culture of grandiosity is leading to...

1. Introduction / Mats Alvesson and Andre Spicer -- 2. Theories of leadership / Mats Alvesson and Andre Spicer -- 3. Metaphors for leadership / Andre Spicer and Mats Alvesson -- 4. Leaders as saints : leadership through moral peak performance / Mats Alvesson -- 5. Leaders as gardeners :...

Seeking to understand the faith we place in leadership, Metaphors We Lead By draws on a number of in-depth studies of managers trying to "do" leadership. It offers six metaphors for the leader which provide unexpected insights into how leadership does and does not work