Leadership BS Book Review: Reflective Analysis, University Name

This report provides a comprehensive review of Jeffrey Pfeffer's book, 'Leadership BS,' examining the realities of modern leadership. The author employs the Gibbs reflective cycle to analyze the book's key themes, including leadership failures, the myths surrounding business leaders, and the importance of displaying confidence over authenticity. The report delves into Pfeffer's arguments against conventional leadership development, emphasizing the need to understand the real-world dynamics of power, trust, and decision-making within organizations. The analysis highlights the importance of recognizing leadership flaws and embracing alternative approaches. The report also explores the use of emotion wheels in leadership and concludes with a reflection on the book's impact on the reader's understanding of leadership.

Running head: MANAGEMENT
Leadership in Global Context
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author Note:

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Description.................................................................................................................................4
Feelings......................................................................................................................................5
Evaluation..................................................................................................................................5
Analysis......................................................................................................................................6
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................8
Action Plan.................................................................................................................................9
References and Bibliography...................................................................................................10

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Introduction
The term leadership is one of the most important and potent concepts of the modern
day business management (Belmi & Pfeffer, 2018). The organizational leadership process is a
dual focused approach by the management of the organizations that is helpful for both the
employees as well as the management of the organizations. The presence of an effective
leadership in the business adds an extra competitive edge to the organization as it creates an
attitude and a work ethic that is important for success and sustainability. The presence of
work ethic and attitude also makes the leader capable to lead from all the different levels of
the management. “Jeffrey Pfeffer” has been one of the instrumental writers of the modern
day leadership practices in the business enterprises. The author in his book “Leadership BS”
has described the different aspects and issues of the organizational leadership in a scientific
and stable manner.
The changing times has brought in new changes to the organizational elements and it
is not the same as it used to be just two decades back (Pfeffer, 2016). Globalization and
innovation in the business enterprises has changed a large number of concepts that are used in
the modern day. The idea of leadership has also undergone a sea of change and leaders like in
the earlier times will never be accepted nowadays if he will be tough on the employees. To
become one of the successful leaders in the modern times, has to authentic, caring and also
empathic towards his employees. However, the questions can be raised that is it really ok on
being empathic and sympathetic towards the employees can be the key to success? The book
“Leadership BS” has tried to throw light on some of the different angles at leadership styles
and practices and has also challenged the most common assumptions of the leadership style
of the modern day business organizations (Pfeffer, 2016). Therefore the selection of the book
written by “Jeffrey Pfeffer” has been suitable for studding the concept of leadership in the
modern times.

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The review here has presented a review of the book and has described the different
aspects of the leadership issues that generally is not answered in most of the discussions of
leadership. The presentation of the review in a reflective manner has been a key element of
the business as it has helped to make the report genuine and engaging. To be more precise the
report has been presented using the Gibbs reflective Cycle which is one of the best models of
reflection that helps to send one through different stages and create a proper sense of
experience accordingly. The Gibbs reflective cycle follows a chain of steps that helps to
describe the experience and feelings and also evaluate the experience. Apart from all this it
also analyses the experience and provides a solid conclusion to the experience. Lastly the
reflective cycle has scope for the creation of an action plan which is quite important for
providing a detailed review.
Description
As per my knowledge, there are around 34000 feelings that can be emulated by the
human mind. It is important for the people to have an idea on these thoughts and emotions in
the most elementary manner. The use of the Emotion Wheel is the only answer to this
problems. Emotion is generally defined as the state of different synchronized changes in the
organic subsystems of the humans that happens in response to some external circumstances.
According to the wheel there are eight basic emotions that are then divided into different
classes or categories. This includes, Serenity, Acceptance, apprehension, distraction,
pensiveness, Boredom, annoyance and interest. These all emotions have a direct link to the
leadership qualities that can be present in a person. The wheel of thought thus helps to
identify the emotions and characteristics of the leader and helps to analyse the leadership
qualities in a much better manner. The implementation of the Gibbs reflective Cycle in the
Wheel of Emotions is certainly thus one of the most important features of the leadership

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process. The description of the emotions, the purpose of the actions, the feelings of the people
and the ways of analysis and evaluation of the emotions is important for the report.
Feelings
The time when this totally unassuming book arrived in an online advertisement in my
mailbox, I had the expectation that it would be an order of ant traps that will ultimately be
another of the old books related to leadership concept and its theories presented in a new and
better manner. The book being not promoted in an aggressive manner and having a normal
cover further increased my speculations on its actual content and chances of success. Thus I
was quite surprised when I got hold of the book and read the preface. The first few lines
which starts off with the changes in the modern day leadership styles and especially the use
of the term “Leadership Failures” made me quite confident that it was not one of those
same old books. The use of reflective styles across the book further makes the book
interesting and a must read for all the people interested in leadership studies. The exploration
of the reality and the avoidance of showing the overrated terminology of leadership has made
the book more interesting in nature.
Evaluation
Before starting to write the idea that the book presents us, it will be better to explain
that the book is completely different from the other books on leadership theories and
implementation of leadership. The book usually deals in leadership failures and different
alternative angles of leadership. The most important part of the book that must be said is the
acceptance of the reality and the presentation of the same before the readers. The proper
presentation of the reality like the failures of the leadership, the failure to make all understand
the modern day trend of changing jobs and switching careers accordingly. The main purpose
of writing the book has been the highlighting of the major failures in the writing, blogging

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and spending money on developmental process of the leaders. This particular book has
spoken about the absence of the success of the conventional techniques behind the leadership
developmental processes and the absence of the other issues of business.
Intellectual Standards can be said to be as the set of some standards that is
implemented to thinking on whichever of the one is interested to check the quality of
reasoning without any kind of problem, issue or any situation. The capability to have the
control of these standards makes it more important. The book on leadership has been
formulated in a great manner and contains all the intellectual standards. The use of the
information by the author and then describing the situations that he experienced personally
while teaching MBA has added an edge to the content of the book. Apart from this the
strategic use of the different leadership concepts is also equally important for the review of
the report. Another part of success is the use of the real information and the acceptance of the
reality. The acceptance of the reality has segmented the book from the others in the market
and has made it worth reading. Another unique element of the book “Leadership BS” has
been a number of key ideas that defines the failures of leadership styles and the
implementation of some alternative leadership process or styles that are being practiced in the
modern days to gain success in leadership. The description of these key issues again
highlights the focus on the alternative ways by the author of the book. Thus in short, the book
can be said to be just the ideal for the modern day leadership literature study.
Analysis
I have gone through the book by “Jeffrey Pfeffer” a number of times and have
discovered a number of major key areas that adds to the uniqueness of the book. The very
first unique characteristics of the book is the use of the real scenario present in the modern
day organizations. The presentation of the real life scenario has been instrumental for the
success of the book. A thorough analysis of the book has helped me to gain a number of

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different kinds of the key ideas for the leadership issues. The major issues or the key ideas of
the following report are as follows;
Key Idea 1:
Myths of Popular business leaders that prevent new leaders from succeeding
There are some major myths that surrounds the leadership theory and are mainly
preached by the business experts. However, instead of delivering different kinds of
comforting myths about a divine and benevolent leader, the myths are centred on some heroic
and challenging business leaders who implement different kinds of secret ways to ensure
success. These stories have been instrumental to set a figure of strength and stoic nature of
these leaders. However, the real picture have not been shown by the so called business
experts in almost all the different cases. I must say that the use of real life examples by
“Jeffrey Pfeffer” has helped readers like us to easily get a grip over the subject. The story of
Jack Welch, the former CEO of General Electric is one such example where he has been
shown as a person of great influence and leadership skills. On the other hand, in reality the
employees who worked under him are said to be a bunch of jerks. Thus it is really wrong to
depict leaders as persons with flawless capabilities. It is important to make people have the
feeling that even the leaders have flaws which is vital to the feelings of the people.
Key idea 2:
Worrying less about authenticity and more about the display of confidence and poise
The leaders are often depicted as people who can block out their decisions and can
make decisions in the best manner. The best leaders are thus supposed to be the most
authentic people. However, in reality it is totally different as because studies shows that it is
the quality of the leaders to act smartly and pretend to be authentic that helps them to gain

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power and also trust of the employees. Thus authenticity is something that has no relation to
the character of the leaders.
Key idea 3:
Trust
We have a thinking that leaders means trust which is important for the successful
partnership in between the leaders and the employees. People also have the feeling that the
leaders do not lie at all and often speaks the truth. However, this portion is totally wrong and
is totally a fiction. The use of lies has been highly successful for the different leaders.
Another major reason for the lying is the advantage is to smoothen the different kinds of the
difficult situations that can be useful for the people. The use of the advantage of the natural
predisposition for solid thinking is key to the success of the leaders.
Conclusion
The review of the book “Leadership BS” written by “Jeffrey Pfeffer” has proved to
be one of the unique works that has dealt with the realities of business leadership. The
exploration of the different kinds of the alternative leadership concepts and also the
highlighting of the different major concepts that are actually practiced in the leadership
processes has helped to make the book a must read. My experience after reading the book has
been fascinating as this has been a book that has changed my conception towards leadership
and its realities. The major practices of leadership and the major failures that the leaders faces
has been highlighted here in a descriptive manner. Moreover, the traditional myths
surrounding a leader has also been proved to be quite ridiculous in this particular book. The
fact about the tendency of the leaders to tell lies and use a fake authenticity has been shown
here in this book. Thus to conclude the review report it can be said that Leadership in the

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modern days can be best described as not only following a set of rules, but also to be open to
different types of alternative strategies that can shape up the leadership styles of the leaders.
Action Plan
The Action Plan to implement the study of the book has been presented below;
a. Highlighting the most important quotes- I must highlight the different quotes of the
book. It is important for me to gain an understanding of the major quotes of the book
and use them to ensure success.
b. Taking notes of the most valuable lessons- The notes of the key ideas is another
important task for me. It will be helpful for me to take these notes as they will be
important for the development of my professional life.
c. A short yet compact summarisation of the book- Making a short yet compact
summarization of the book should be my next priority. A short summary of the book
can help me to go through the contents of the book in a less time which can be helpful
in my professional life.
d. Implementing the study- The implementation of the action must be an important aim
for me. The better the implementation, the better will be the results.

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References and Bibliography
Belmi, P., & Pfeffer, J. (2018). The effect of economic consequences on social judgment and
choice: Reward interdependence and the preference for sociability versus
competence. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 39(8), 990-1007.
Butler, N., & Spoelstra, S. (2017). Jeffrey Pfeffer, Leadership BS: Fixing workplaces and
careers one truth at a time.
Cannella Jr, A. A., & Georgakakis, D. (2017). Decision diversion: The roles of leadership
context and other contingencies. Academy of Management Discoveries, 3(4), 428-430.
Hallinger, P. (2018). Bringing context out of the shadows of leadership. Educational
Management Administration & Leadership, 46(1), 5-24.
Higgs, M., & Dulewicz, V. (2016). The leadership context. In Leading with Emotional
Intelligence (pp. 105-127). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.
Leavy, B. (2016). Jeffrey Pfeffer: Stop selling leadership malarkey. Strategy & Leadership.
O'Malley, A. L., Ritchie, S. A., Lord, R. G., Gregory, J. B., & Young, C. M. (2018).
Incorporating embodied cognition into sensemaking theory: A theoretical examination
of embodied processes in a leadership context. In Current topics in management (pp.
151-182). Routledge.
Pfeffer, J. (2016). Getting beyond the BS of leadership literature. McKinsey Quarterly, 2.
Soane, E., Booth, J. E., Alfes, K., Shantz, A., & Bailey, C. (2018). Deadly combinations: how
leadership contexts undermine the activation and enactment of followers’ high core
self-evaluations in performance. European Journal of Work and Organizational
Psychology, 27(3), 297-309.

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Vils, L., & Rodrigues, G. V. (2016). Leadership BS–Jeffrey Pfeffer and leadership
industry. Iberoamerican Journal of Strategic Management (IJSM), 15(1), 147-154.