Rob Goffee & Gareth Jones

Award-winning work infusing meaning and purpose into leadership.

HALL OF FAME

Inducted into the Thinkers50 Hall of Fame, 2022.

RANKED THINKERS

Ranked #49 in 2009.

Previous positions:

#32 (2007), #45 (2005). 

FAST FACT

Winners of the McKinsey Award for best article in HBR, 2000.

Ideas

The British duo of Rob Goffee and Gareth Jones are best known for their work on leadership. Originally sociologists, their work examined the role of authenticity in leadership and later exposed the new leadership dynamics involved in leading highly intelligent tech workers. In Why Should Anyone Be Led By You? they show how great leaders essentially act as “authentic chameleons”, consistently displaying their true selves throughout the changes of contexts that require them to play a variety of roles. Authentic leaders, they say, also skilfully balance the inherent tensions of the leadership role, such as highlighting strength while revealing human weaknesses, and maintaining individuality while conforming enough to hold the organization together.

Bio

Goffee is a professor emeritus of London Business School where he has also been deputy dean. He was previously director of the Innovation Exchange and faculty director of executive education at the school. Jones taught at Henley Business School and IE Business School and held senior executive positions in a number of corporations, including being HR director at the BBC. 



Content

The Character of a Corporation (HarperCollins Business, 1998); Why Should Anyone Be Led By You? (HBR Press, 2006); Clever: Leading Your Smartest and Most Creative People (HBR Press, 2009); Why Should Anyone Work Here? (HBR Press, 2015).



NATIONALITY: British

Media picks

Verdict

“Their ideas profoundly shaped leadership thought and practice, bringing needed focus to the importance of authenticity in leadership.”

Harvard Business Review

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