60 Fun Facts About Leadership

The phrase 'servant leadership' was popularised by a 1970 essay, 'The Servant as Leader'. Who wrote it?

Greenleaf credited Hermann Hesse's 1932 novel Journey to the East, in which the party's humble servant turns out to be its real leader, as his inspiration.

According to the Peter principle, employees in a hierarchy tend to be promoted until they reach what?

Laurence Peter and Raymond Hull added a corollary: in time every post tends to be filled by someone unable to do it. Hull called the study of hierarchies 'hierarchiology'.

Parkinson's law, first published in The Economist in 1955, states that work expands to fill what?

C. Northcote Parkinson wrote it after a Royal Commission on the Civil Service; a later corollary holds that data expands to fill the storage available.

At which business school did Douglas McGregor develop his Theory X and Theory Y models of workforce motivation?

Theory X assumes people dislike work and must be coerced; Theory Y assumes they seek responsibility. Both were rooted in Maslow's motivation theory.

Bruce Tuckman's 1965 model of team development runs forming, storming, norming and then which stage?

Tuckman later added a fifth stage, adjourning; in his original paper only half the studies he reviewed showed a distinct conflict phase.

James MacGregor Burns, who coined transformational leadership, was also a biographer of what?

Burns held that transformational leaders and followers 'make each other advance to a higher level of morality and motivation', and saw it as the opposite of transactional leadership.

Which Scottish essayist behind the 'great man theory' wrote that history is 'but the biography of great men'?

His hero types ranged from Odin as divinity to Napoleon as king; critics like Herbert Spencer replied that great men are products of their societies.

Which common term did management thinker Peter Drucker coin in 1959?

Drucker later called knowledge-worker productivity the next frontier of management; his 1954 book The Practice of Management had already popularised 'management by objectives'.

In Abraham Maslow's 1943 hierarchy of needs, which need sits at the very top?

Maslow's paper 'A Theory of Human Motivation' listed five sets of needs; the famous pyramid diagram was drawn by others, not by Maslow himself.

Daniel Goleman's Emotional Intelligence subtitle claimed it can matter more than what?

The term itself dates to 1964; Peter Salovey and John Mayer had proposed a more academic model of emotional intelligence in 1990.

In Stephen Covey's 1989 bestseller The 7 Habits, what is the first habit?

Covey grouped the first three habits as steps to independence, the next three as steps to interdependence, and the seventh, 'sharpen the saw', as renewal.

Dale Carnegie's 1936 classic grew from a course attended by Leon Shimkin, an employee of which publisher?

Shimkin had a stenographer take notes on Carnegie's 14-week course; the resulting book has sold more than 30 million copies.

Jim Collins's Good to Great names its focus-on-one-thing concept after which animal?

It borrows Isaiah Berlin's line that the fox knows many things but the hedgehog knows one big thing; the book studied eleven companies that made the leap.

In Simon Sinek's 'golden circle' from Start with Why, 'Why' comes ahead of which two words?

Sinek's argument is that people are inspired by a sense of purpose, and that inspiration is more powerful and sustainable than manipulation.

Psychologist Kurt Lewin described three leadership climates: authoritarian, democratic and which third?

In the laissez-faire climate the group sets policy with no participation from the leader at all; Lewin's 1939 studies used groups of schoolboys.

The Hawthorne effect is named after a Western Electric plant in Cicero, in which US state?

Between 1924 and 1927 researchers changed the lighting for relay workers and found productivity rose whatever they did, though some scholars now doubt the accounts.

Who wrote Team of Rivals (2005), the Lincoln cabinet book that became a leadership touchstone?

Three of Lincoln's cabinet members, Edward Bates, Salmon Chase and William Seward, had run against him for the 1860 nomination.

Nelson Mandela's 27 years in prison began where?

He was later moved to Pollsmoor and Victor Verster prisons before F. W. de Klerk released him in 1990.

To which island did Shackleton sail 720 nautical miles from Elephant Island to fetch help?

Every one of his men survived. He died of a heart attack in 1922 with his ship moored at the same island, and Endurance's wreck was found in 2022.

In January 2014 Mary Barra became the first woman to run a 'Big Three' automaker. Which company?

She had joined the company at 18 as a co-op student and rose through product development, purchasing and supply chain before succeeding Daniel Akerson.

Alexander the Great was tutored by which philosopher until the age of 16?

Philip II considered Isocrates and Speusippus for the job first; before that Alexander had been drilled by the strict Leonidas, a relative of his mother.

UCLA coach John Wooden, who won ten NCAA titles in 12 years, taught players his 'Pyramid of' what?

The 'Wizard of Westwood' delivered short, simple messages that later spread into business and personal development.

Phil Jackson holds the NBA record for championships as a head coach. How many did he win?

Six came with the Bulls and five with the Lakers; he also won two as a player, making him a 13-time champion overall.

Across 26 years at Manchester United, how many Premier League titles did Sir Alex Ferguson win?

His 38 trophies also included five FA Cups and two Champions Leagues; the 1999 win completed the first treble by an English club.

Machiavelli's The Prince, written in 1513, was printed only in 1532. What had happened five years earlier?

It began life under the Latin title De Principatibus, 'Of Principalities', as an instruction guide for new rulers.

Sun Tzu's The Art of War is composed of how many chapters?

The text dates from roughly the 5th century BCE, and its earliest parts were probably written at least a century after Sun Tzu is said to have lived.

In which language did Marcus Aurelius write his Meditations?

He wrote the 12 books in Koine Greek purely for his own guidance and almost certainly never meant them to be published.

Cincinnatus is celebrated for winning a war as dictator in sixteen days and then immediately doing what?

He gave up absolute power the moment the emergency ended, which is why George Washington's officers named their society after him and Cincinnati bears his name.

Angela Merkel, the first woman elected Chancellor of Germany, served from 2005 until which year?

She was also the first chancellor of reunified Germany to have grown up in the former East, and led the CDU from 2000 to 2018.

Before Jacinda Ardern in 2018, who was the only elected head of government to give birth in office?

Ardern was 37 when she took office, making her the world's youngest female head of government at the time.

The Super Bowl trophy is named after which coach, winner of the first two with Green Bay?

His Packers won five NFL championships in seven years during the 1960s, including three in a row.

Which Facebook executive co-wrote Lean In (2013)?

Her co-writer was Nell Scovell; critics such as Susan Faludi argued the book downplayed systemic bias in favour of individual self-promotion.

Jack Welch became GE's youngest ever CEO in 1981 and ran the company until which year?

His 1981 speech 'Growing fast in a slow-growth economy' is often cited as the dawn of the shareholder-value movement.

Whom did Satya Nadella succeed as Microsoft CEO in 2014?

Nadella had run the cloud and enterprise group; the company's first two chief executives were Gates and Ballmer.

Indra Nooyi was CEO of which company from 2006 to 2018?

She was only the fifth chief executive in the firm's 44-year history when appointed, having joined in 1994 as head of strategic planning.

Alan Mulally, who turned Ford around without a bailout, joined it in 2006 from which company?

He had started at Boeing as an engineer in 1969 and run its commercial airplanes division; his Ford years are told in the book American Icon.

After Apple's board fired Steve Jobs in 1985, which company did he found that same year?

He bought Pixar the following year and returned to Apple as CEO in 1997, after Apple acquired his new company.

The Toyota-linked business philosophy of kaizen takes its name from a Japanese word meaning what?

The idea is that many small, even trivial, changes across every part of a company add up to significant results; it became a pillar of The Toyota Way.

Under what name was Hersey and Blanchard's situational leadership model first introduced in 1969?

By the early 1980s the two men had split it into rival versions: Hersey's Situational Leadership Model and Blanchard's Situational Leadership II.

The 1964 Blake–Mouton grid rates managers on 'concern for production' and concern for what?

A 9,9 'team' style scores high on both; a 1,1 'impoverished' manager scores low on both.

Between D-Day and the White House, Dwight Eisenhower was president of which university?

He held the post from 1948 to 1953, in between serving as Army Chief of Staff and becoming NATO's first supreme commander.

Winston Churchill won a Nobel Prize in 1953. In which category?

The wartime prime minister was honoured for his historical writing and oratory; he had succeeded Neville Chamberlain in May 1940.

Catherine the Great became Empress of Russia in 1762 after a coup against whom?

Born a minor German princess, Sophia of Anhalt-Zerbst, she went on to rule for 34 years.

Genghis Khan, founder of the Mongol Empire, was born under what name?

His father died when he was eight and the family was abandoned by its tribe; he was proclaimed Genghis Khan in 1206.

Margaret Thatcher's nickname 'the Iron Lady' was coined by a journalist from which country?

She was the 20th century's longest-serving British prime minister and the first woman to hold the office, from 1979 to 1990.

Lee Kuan Yew served as the first prime minister of which country, from 1959 to 1990?

After stepping down he stayed in cabinet as senior minister until 2004 and then 'minister mentor' until 2011.

In Lencioni's The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, which dysfunction sits at the base of the pyramid?

Like most of Lencioni's books it is written as a business fable; the trust problem is defined as being unwilling to be vulnerable within the group.

At which company did John Doerr learn OKRs under Andy Grove in the 1970s?

Grove called them 'iMBOs', Intel Management by Objectives, and wrote them up in his 1983 book High Output Management.

Six Sigma was introduced in 1986 by engineer Bill Smith at which company?

The name refers to a goal of fewer than 3.4 defects per million opportunities; by 2005 the company credited it with over $17 billion in savings.

Which pope attended Napoleon's coronation as Emperor of the French at Notre-Dame in December 1804?

The elevation had been approved overwhelmingly in a referendum; the ceremony took place on 2 December 1804.

Who was the first Black American to serve as US Secretary of State, from 2001 to 2005?

He had earlier been national security advisor and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; his successor at State was Condoleezza Rice.

Elizabeth I's reign, which brought stability after her half-siblings' short reigns, lasted how many years?

It spanned the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588 and the flowering of Shakespeare and Marlowe.

What kind of American business inspired Taiichi Ohno's just-in-time approach at Toyota?

Shelves restocked only as customers took goods became his model for pulling parts through a factory; the system was developed between 1948 and 1975.

Which Chinese doctrine held that subjects could overthrow emperors who lacked divine sanction?

It required rulers to govern justly to keep heaven's approval.

Francis Galton's 1869 book examining leadership qualities in the families of powerful men was titled what?

Together with Carlyle's writing it explored the 'trait theory' as traditional authority waned.

Lewin, Lippitt and White's landmark 1939 study of leadership styles observed groups of what?

The boys were led under authoritarian, democratic and laissez-faire climates and their performance compared.

The 1945 Ohio State leadership study narrowed effective behaviours to 'consideration' and which other dimension?

Initiating structure covers task-oriented behaviours such as defining goals and how work gets done.

Besides the task itself, what does Fiedler's contingency model say a leader may prioritise?

Effectiveness depends on matching the style to what Fiedler called situational favourability.

Robert House's path-goal theory of leadership was built on whose expectancy theory?

It identifies four leader behaviours: achievement-oriented, directive, participative and supportive.

Which pair coined 'Managers ... do things right and leaders ... do the right thing'?

John Kotter likewise separates process-driven management from forward-looking leadership.