I have just received an advance reading copy of Profits, Prophets, Coaches and Kings, subtitled (When) do leaders make a difference?

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As the book arrived only today I haven’t had a chance to do much more than flick through it, but I always think it’s important to think about an issue before reading a book or an article about it. That way you can be a more engaged reader, more critical (in the intellectual sense), more active, rather than as a blank canvas on which to soak up someone else’s ideas.

I have somewhat dichotomous views of this question of whether leaders make a difference, or much of a difference. I think my views can be classified as macro and micro. Let me explain.

I have always been somewhat dubious of the so-called “great man” theory of history. For instance — and this is an example given in this book — if Hitler had been bumped off earlier in his life, would the Holocaust and a world war have been averted? It’s tempting to say, “Of course”, but as I pointed out in my review of Weimar, Germany was already a hot bed of virulent antisemitism and other far right views long before Hitler was even born. Hitler, in my view, was in the right place at the right time — and when I say “right”, I mean by his standards not mine.

That’s what I call a macro perspective, but turning to the micro one, leadership at a school level or even a departmental level can make an enormous amount of difference. For example, the technical suppoirt set-up was second to none in one school I worked with — until a new deputy head was appointed. He preferred his own ideas to the ones that actually worked, and the whole thing went down the pan in virtually no time at all.

Profits… looks at leadership in several different fields, including politics, sports, and religion, and I am very much looking forward to reading it. It will be published in September by Allen Lane, who very kindly sent me the ARC.