Jon Baldoni with the Washington Post said he would and he would hope that Petraeus would address the aspects of his character that he feels makes him a leader. Even the parts of his character which allowed him to think he could get away with his adulterous indiscretion. Baldoni writes that Petraeus exhibited, throughout his career, a fundamental need to create a bond of trust between leader and follower. When therefore did temptation override his leadership characteristics? This information and honesty could be valuable to others in a leader’s position or those rising to a leader’s position.
Northouse (2013) writes that an assumption of the psychodynamic approach to leadership is that we all have motives and feelings that are beneath our immediate awareness. This means that our behavior results from both observable actions and an emotional residue from prior experiences. Could this be part of the reason for someone to kill their career and destroy a bond of marriage?
In the commentary this week, it explains the term “shadow self” which is described as the negative aspects about oneself which is often hidden to us on self-examination. The “shadow self” is the part of our personality that is unacceptable and we deny its existence. (PSU WC, L 13.) Is this part of Petraeus’s character his “shadow self” which he may have felt was unacceptable and still may deny even though other people can now see this part of his character?
I would be interested in reading his book if it contained this information. I don’t think I could read a book that just describes him as a great leader with no faults. There is no such thing, in my opinion.
References:
Baldoni, J. (2012). If David Petraeus wrote a book on leadership, The Washington Post. Retrieved Jan. 23, 2013 from: http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-leadership/if-david-petraeus-wrote-a-book-on-leadership/2012/11/30/5042f766-3a5f-11e2-8a97-363b0f9a0ab3_story.html
Northouse, P. G. (2013). Leadership: Theory and Practice (6th edition). Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publications.
Penn State World Campus (2013). PSYCH 485 Lesson 3: Leadership in work settings. Retrieved on Jan. 23, 2013, from: https://courses.worldcampus.psu.edu/sp13/psych485/002/content/03_lesson/01_page.html