42 Leading with NLP
The most extreme example of the dark side of leadership
comes from a devious kind of authority sometimes called the
‘guru syndrome’.^1 A guru is a holy man who serves as a
spiritual guide and source of enlightenment in Eastern spir-
itual traditions. Genuine gurus are honourable leaders of
the best kind. However some people set themselves up
as quasi-gurus, promising their followers inner and outer
freedom – but only at the price of inner and outer slavery.
Their message is ‘Depend on me to be free!’ These are
bigots, not gurus. They want obedience and compliance
from their followers and they usually claim that their way is
the only way. Their demands are as authoritarian as those of
the most rigid hierarchical military organization. They gain
power by eroding the self-trust of their followers, who then
cling to them for certainty. Real leaders never demand a
person’s self-esteem and self-trust, they seek to increaseit.
They develop others, they do not impoverish them.
Leaders have power in the sense of having the ability to
get things done. There is another, darker side of power –
power over other people: a one-way passage of influence that
ignores the other person’s freedom of response. Influence is
universal – we all influence each other, we cannot stop our-
selves. To be alive is to be influencing and influenced. Most
influence is random and purposeless. Leaders use their
influence for good effect and their followers allow them-
selves to be influenced through the shared vision of where
they want to go, while also in turn influencing the leader.
But sometimes a leader’s attempt to maintain power be-
comes more important than the vision that inspired it and
the tasks needed to reach it. Such a leader will try and
manipulate people, to get them to do things that are not
in their interests. No one likes to be manipulated, but some
people allow it because they need someone to take responsi-
bility for them.
Many leaders create hierarchies, or find a position in a
hierarchy, usually near the top. Hierarchies are not bad, but
mostly useful ways of structuring power and authority, and
are a natural means of organizing people working together