ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the concepts covered in the preceding chapters of this book. The book aims to solve the problem of influence by putting leadership in the autonomy business. Applied ethics are for the real world, not an ideal world. Autonomous agents would not need the help of anyone, let alone leaders. A final reality—and the source of one of the most important ethical problems associated with leadership—is that leaders often deviate from morality. The reason that the ends of leadership are ubiquitous is that autonomous agents have so much from which to choose, even within the limits of morality. Morality constrains the behavior of leaders, even in the pursuit of their own values, but it is not so constraining that it prohibits the inauthenticity that characterizes many of the influence tactics. Leaders sometimes need to be inauthentic to advance followers’ ends and to protect followers and themselves from the unethical behavior of other leaders.
