The Benefit of Negative Examples: What We Can Learn About Leadership from the Taliban

Abstract

Approximately four months ago the author was sitting at his desk at the Air Force Academy preparing a course in leadership that he would be teaching during the fall semester. Then, something happened that would have a drastic impact on his professional life as an educator and a military officer. He was informed that he would be deploying to Kabul, Afghanistan, for the next six months to support Operation Enduring Freedom. At first, he was a little taken aback by the opportunity since he had planned a summer of lesson prepping and writing, as he has found this to be the best time for such endeavors. However, after a little reflection, he quickly realized what a great opportunity for him to grow as an educator by giving him a chance to see leadership from different perspectives. As he got to Afghanistan he quickly realized not only were there examples of good leadership, but negative as well. What he is referring to here is the Taliban and how that organization is organized and managed. He started to pay attention to the negative aspects of leadership he saw and realized that right before him were numerous examples of what not to do as a leader and challenges associated with leadership. In this article, the author discusses three major themes regarding negative leader behavior that were particularly interesting and have relevance to leadership educators: (1) followers; (2) character; and (3) leader distance.