Seeking to understand the faith we place in leadership, Metaphors We Lead By draws on a number of in-depth studies of managers trying to "do" leadership. It offers six metaphors for the leader which provide unexpected insights into how leadership does and does not work

1. Introduction / Mats Alvesson and Andre Spicer -- 2. Theories of leadership / Mats Alvesson and Andre Spicer -- 3. Metaphors for leadership / Andre Spicer and Mats Alvesson -- 4. Leaders as saints : leadership through moral peak performance / Mats Alvesson -- 5. Leaders as gardeners :...

Based on a case study of managers in a large, international knowledge-intensive company this paper suggests a rethinking of leadership, taking the mundane, almost trivial, aspects of what managers/leaders actually do seriously. In the study interviewed managers emphasized the importance of...