CLAP: Center for Leadership, Authority and Performance

The following Introduction to the work of the Center was penned by its first Director, Dr Henry Jekyll (pictured above), who has recently resigned from King's College Dublin in order to spend more time with his family. He had come to us highly recommended, having worked in Continental Europe, and we had no reason to doubt his competence.

Dr Jekyll wrote: "The term 'Leadership' is trotted out obsessively in contemporary debates about society and social direction. When used rhetorically by halfwitted reactionaries, the term is usually left undefined, but is presumed to reside in some inner charisma attaching to certain self-important individuals who have an ability to exert some form of mysterious magnetic control over other people, persuading these people to abandon their normal standards of critical intelligence and follow whatever empty fashion is proposed by the so-called 'Leader'. If this version of 'leadership' were generally accepted, it would be a quality, or a charisma, easily exploitable by economic interests wishing to recruit, publicize and promote spokesmen for trends or beliefs reflecting the economic interests of the paymasters of these so-called 'leaders'.  

"It is odd" (Dr Jekyll continued) "that many educational institutions purport to offer courses in 'leadership', or to contribute to the formation of leaders in society, whereas few institutions purport to provide training in 'followership'. This disparity is indeed remarkable, given that, if each leader is assumed to be leading more than one person, then the majority of people at any one time must by definition be followers. Why is this larger market being neglected? Surely there is some skill involved in the 'follower' role? Might not the education of critical 'followers' itself be a worthy aim (though harder to sell to ambitious students and their mammies and daddies). Indeed, might one not suspect that many so-called 'leaders' are delusional frauds, slavishly mouthing whatever 'leadership' fashion is current at any given time?"

Following the departure of former Director Jekyll, CLAP is currently being reorganized under the guidance of Distinguished Professor Edward Hyde (pictured below), and the revamped Center was recently launched at a champagne reception for business leaders at Cheltenham Races, Where Ireland Leads the Field.