ABSTRACT
Leadership is an essentially social phenomenon: without followers there are no leaders. What leaders must do, therefore, is construct an imaginary community that followers can feel part of. Leaders must spend at least some of their time constructing not just followers, but a community of followers. Leaders have to dream up new strategies to expand the business, they have to devise plans for the defence of a nation, and they have to imagine a way for their party to take or retain power. The sporting arena is a useful way of thinking about the different forms of organizational tactics. Leaders regularly demand belt-tightening efficiencies or sacrifices on the basis of their own budgetary problems or the needs of the shareholders—and such leaders are just as regularly surprised when their subordinates appear unimpressed by such impeccable business logic or corporate needs. A way of considering leadership is as a performance.
