Charles G. Beaudette

The Dark Side of Leadership: a Cautionary Fable for Those Who Serve As Trustees or Directors on Not-for-profit Boards. Charles G. Beaudette

Covert leadership gets dramatized and critiqued to permit the victims and bystanders, you and me, to recognize its symptoms and challenge its actions. Here is a story (along with overview Notes) in which the new president of a Board of Trustees harbors a concealed agenda. He advances it by covertly redirecting the organization?s members and activities. A Board of trustees is grabbed away from trustee influence by a sequence of such unique moves that no alarm is raised. Board members remain annoyed, puzzled, ignorant, and helpless. Here we can witness covert leadership in action through one-on-one dialog. This story reveals his methods by following his conversations. We see how the story?s protagonist, initially the Board?s president, deals to himself the necessary cards and then plays them deftly, if somewhat brutally, to achieve sole control of institution policy, a control that extends well beyond his term of office. By following the action in this story as it is presented in dialog form the reader learns how covert leadership gets done. A town council, a community college, fraternity, museum, orchestra, Masonic group, opera company, Knights of Columbus chapter, or parish church all face this takeover risk. Nonprofit, not-for-profit, and local governmental institutions attract members who are parents, artists, local professionals, local industrial managers, community leaders, and so forth. This book addresses itself to the victims and their peers who, as trustees, suffer while strange maneuvers float about them. They find themselves helpless to understand those maneuvers and to respond effectively. The overview Notes explain what to watch for, what response might be helpful and, for members who try to inhibit the protagonist?s purpose, what possible retribution to guard against.