Looking at leadership differently: A hygiene perspective

We review the dominant motivational literature on leadership, finding its prescriptions to be controversial, abstract, overly demanding, and optional for most leadership positions. We then propose a more modest and preliminary hygiene approach to avoiding very basic leadership deficits, any one of which can cause harm in virtually any leadership context. These deficits may be cognitive, social, motivational, emotional, or moral. Although social deficits of abuse and toxicity have been studied, the others have received little attention.