Artists, Craftsmen, and Technocrats: The Dreams, Realities and Illusions of Leadership

Artists, Craftsmen, and Technocrats: The Dreams, Realities and Illusions of Leadership by Patricia Pitcher. paperback edition. ISBN: 9780773758001.

In "Artists, craftsmen, and the dreams, realities and illusions of leadership" you can witness to the dramatic fall of a giant corporation and why it had to happen grounded in a grounded in a misunderstanding of the personalities and gifts of the company’s executives and managers. Pitcher embarked on an 8 year study of 15 chief executive officers. Her findings and recommendations are insightful and startling. Pitcher paints the portraits of the 3 types of leaders found in the Artist, the Craftsman and the Technocrat. The Artist is people-oriented, open-minded, intuitive and visionary. The Craftsman is humane, dedicated, knowledgeable and wise. The Artist and the Craftsman “fellow-travellers”. But the Technocrat is another story. Detail-oriented, rigid, methodical, and hardheaded, the Technocrat is the enemy of both the Artist and the Craftsman. His analytical thinking leaves no room for fresh ideas and new pathways; he follows an uncompromising set of rules he believes are right. To the Technocrat, the Artist is out of control, “nuts” and the Craftsman is old-fashioned. The terrible irony is that too many of us have been conditioned to think the same that is why so many Technocrats, rather than Artists, are mistakenly admitted into the corridors of power. But Artists are necessary for successful management, and Craftsmen play an equally important role. Technocrats, meanwhile undermine and ultimately destroy both. Artists, Craftsmen and Technocrats is a passionate appeal for us to develop the kind of leaders who can take us successfully into the 21st century.