Heroic Leadership — An Influence Taxonomy of 100 Exceptional Individuals

Allison and Goethals (psychology and leadership studies, U. of Richmond) examine the intersection between heroism and leadership and identify five factors involved in leadership: persona, vision, ethics, actions, and influence. They focus on the exceptional type of leadership they call heroic leadership and direct and indirect leaders who are either superior or rare and excel in competence, morality, or both. They describe the traits and 10 categories of heroism based on influence--trending, transitory, transitional, tragic, transposed, transparent, traditional, transfigured, transforming, and transcendent heroes--and present 100 profiles of real and fictional individuals in these categories, such as Lady Gaga, Ulysses S. Grant, Sigmund Freud, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Gabrielle Giffords, Christa McAuliffe, Justin Bieber, Fred Rogers, Iron Man, Oedipus the King, Tiger Woods, John Edwards, Joe Paterno, Edith Wilson, the Dalai Lama, Confucius, Mother Theresa, Rosa Parks, Tina Fey, Monica Seles, Edgar Allan Poe, Secretariat, Lucille Ball, Oprah Winfrey, George Washington, Robin Hood, Sherlock Homes, Merlin, Betsy Ross, Muhammad Ali, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., Albert Einstein, John Lennon, Bill Cosby, Jesus, and Harry Potter. Profiles are drawn from the authors' blog. Annotation c2013 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Scott T. Allison is Professor of Psychology at the University of Richmond, where he has been on the faculty since 1987. He received his BA in Psychology from the University of California, San Diego and his PhD in Social Psychology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His research program focuses on human belief systems about heroes, villains, legends, leaders, underdogs, and martyrs. He has served on the editorial boards of the top empirical journals in experimental social psychology, including the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, and Group Dynamics: Theory, Research, and Practice. With George Goethals, he is author of Heroes, What They Do & Why We Need Them, published in 2011, and “Making Heroes: The Construction of Competence, Courage and Virtue” published in 2012 in Advances in Experimental Social Psychology. He is the recipient of the University of Richmond's Distinguished Educator Award and the Virginia Council of Higher Education's Outstanding Faculty Award.

George R. Goethals holds the E. Claiborne Robins Distinguished Professorship in Leadership Studies at the University of Richmond. Previously he taught at Williams College where he was Chair of the Department of Psychology, founding Chair of the Program in Leadership Studies, Acting Dean of the Faculty, and Provost. Goethals graduated with a BA from Harvard College and holds a PhD in social psychology from Duke University. Goethals explores leadership from psychological and historical perspectives. With Georgia Sorenson and James MacGregor Burns he edited the Encyclopedia of Leadership (Sage, 2004), with Sorenson, The Quest for a General Theory of Leadership (Elgar, 2006), and with Crystal Hoyt and Donelson Forsyth, Leadership at The Crossroads, Psychology and Leadership (Praeger, 2008). His recent research focuses on presidential debates, the presidency of Ulysses S. Grant, and the role of biography in shaping our understanding of leadership. With Scott Allison, he is author of Heroes, What They Do & Why We Need Them, published in 2011, and “Making Heroes: The Construction of Competence, Courage and Virtue” published in 2012 in Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, Volume 46.