The Teacher

Abstract

This chapter looks at the leader as educator. The first part discusses Plato’s cave allegory in the Republic, which situates leadership in a broader view of the nature and goals of education. On this view, the job of a leader is to confront people who are prisoners of their own comfort zone, and show them the value of different ways of thinking and acting. Leadership of this kind involves appealing to people’s rationality, being open with the evidence and being open to questioning. As with some of the previous models, such leaders can expect to encounter hostility and resistance. The second part presents two case studies, Gorbachev’s attempted restructuring in Russia, and Indra Nooyi, CEO of PepsiCo, who re-orientated the company towards more healthy products.