The Dangers of Leadership

The following excerpt is from Leadership on the Line by Ronald A. Heifetz and Marty Linksy.

"To lead is to live dangerously because when leadership counts, when you lead people through difficult change, you challenge what people hold near and dear - their daily habits, tools loyalties, and ways of thinking - with nothing more to offer perhaps than a possibility. Moreover, leadership often means exceeding the authority you are given to tackle the challenge at hand. People push back when you disturb the personal and institutional equilibrium they know. And people resist in all kinds of creative and unexpected ways that can get you taken out of the game: pushed aside, undermined, or eliminated."