A new form of leadership, “Desperate leadership” has been born.

Chrysler’s new chief executive believes former military personnel make the best managers (The Telegraph, UK, 7th August) . Not only the new CEO is an ex-marine himself but thinks that ex-soldiers are the best possible employees. The Telegraph’s headline was ‘Yes sir, that’s affirmative sir” Robert Nardelli has been brought in by the private equity firm Cerberus. Well, I suppose he knows a thing or two about command and control and probably ‘point of destiny’. In my book I distinguish between point-of-destiny leaders and journey-leaders. In the extreme, the former know exactly where to go, which, I did confess in the book, scares me pretty much. Ex-marines and ex-soldiers can certainly be good leaders ( and pretty much anything else) but what the private equity plus ex marine CEO seem to be looking for is a chain of command, which, I assume matches that ‘exact vision’ of where to go. I think that it sounds pretty desperate. But, hey, best of luck. Maybe there is a stream of possibilities here. What about ex-bishops? Just joking.