Part II: The Leadership-Industrial Complex — 40 Years of Selling the Same Book
If you stacked every leadership book published since the 1980s, you could climb it and slap the International Space Station.
And every single one says the exact.
Same.
Thing.
They just rearrange the buzzwords:
• “Transformational synergy.”
• “Empathetic authenticity.”
• “Agile vision alignment.”
• “Servant leadership modalities.”
• “Holistic empowerment structures.”
It’s corporate Mad Libs.
Companies pay $50,000+ for seminars that boil down to:
“Be confident, be kind, and don’t yell at Karen in Accounting.”
Leadership coaches recycle the same oatmeal advice under new nouns.
Here are the facts:
• The global leadership coaching industry is now a $366 billion juggernaut (Training Industry Report).
• 58% of executives admit leadership books “did not improve decision quality.”
• 63% say training was “inspirational but not practical.”
• 41% couldn’t remember a single thing they learned 30 days later.
But boy do they remember the free tote bag.
Meanwhile, actual problems — corruption, mission failure, incompetence, institutional rot — get swept under the rug so we can focus on vision statements and “values alignment breakout exercises.”
The Leadership-Industrial Complex doesn’t teach courage.
It teaches posture, inspiration theater, and emotional yoga.
What used to be leadership is now performance art.
Part III?
That’s when we go nuclear.
⸻
This is Part 2 of a 3 part series. Links below become active as each segment is published and on the dates indicated:
December 3: Part I: The Age of Coward Leaders — How We Got Here
December 4: Part II: The Leadership-Industrial Complex — 40 Years of Selling the Same Book
December 5: Part III: The Global Collapse of Courage — and Why It’s Killing Us
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