Barbara Kellerman

James McGregor Burns Lecturer in Leadership
Center for Public Leadership
Office Address
Taubman-158
Mailing Address
John F. Kennedy School of Government
Mailbox 124
79 JFK Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
Contact
Phone: 617-495-7570
Fax: 617-496-3337
Email: barbara_kellerman@harvard.edu
Assistant
Mike Leveriza (617-495-1386)
Barbara Kellerman

Profile

Barbara Kellerman is the James MacGregor Burns Lecturer in Public Leadership at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. She was the Founding Executive Director of the Kennedy Schools Center for Public Leadership, from 2000 to 2003; and from 2003 to 2006 she served as the Centers Research Director. Kellerman has held professorships at Fordham, Tufts, Fairleigh Dickinson, George Washington, Uppsala, and Dartmouth. She also served as Dean of Graduate Studies and Research at Fairleigh Dickinson, and as Director of the Center for the Advanced Study of Leadership at the University of Maryland.

 

Kellerman received her B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College, and her M.A., M.Phil., and Ph.D. (1975, in Political Science) degrees from Yale University. She was awarded a Danforth Fellowship and three Fulbright fellowships. At Uppsala (1996-97), she held the Fulbright Chair in American Studies. Kellerman was cofounder of the International Leadership Association (ILA), and is author and editor of many books including Leadership: Multidisciplinary Perspectives; The Political Presidency: Practice of Leadership; and Reinventing Leadership: Making the Connection Between Politics and Business. Her most recent books are: Bad Leadership (2004); Followership (2008); Women and Leadership (co-edited in 2008 with Deborah Rhode); Essential Selections on Power, Authority, and Influence (2010); and The End of Leadership (2012).She has appeared often on media outlets such as CBS, NBC, PBS, CNN, NPR, Reuters and BBC, and has contributed articles and reviews to the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Boston Globe, the Los Angeles Times, and the Harvard Business Review.

 

Kellerman speaks to audiences all over the world, including, in recent years, Berlin, London, Moscow, Rome, Sao Paolo, Shanghai, Zurich, St. Gallen, Jerusalem, Turin, Toronto, Montreal, Mumbai, New Dehli, and Amsterdam. She is on the Advisory Board of the Leadership Research Network, on the Advisory Panel of the White House Leadership Project Report, on the Publications Committee of the International Leadership Association, and on the Advisory Board of the Brookings Institution Leadership Initiative. She was ranked by Forbes.com as among Top 50 Business Thinkers (2009) and by Leadership Excellence in top 15 of 100 best minds on leadership in 2008-09 and again in 2010-2011. In 2010 she was given the Wilbur M. McFeeley award by the National Management Association for her pioneering work on leadership and followership.  During the 2012-2013 acadmemic year Kellerman was Visiting Professor of Business Administration at the Tuck School of Business (Dartmouth), and also Visiting Senior Scholar at New York University.  She is currently working on a book about leadership and followership in the contemporary context.      

 

 

 

 

Courses

Not Offered

Media Expertise

Barbara Kellerman welcomes media inquiries on the following subjects:

Additional experts may be found by clicking on each subject listed. You may contact faculty directly or if you need assistance contact the Communications Office at 617-495-1115.

Research

For a complete list of faculty citations from 2001 - present, please visit the Harvard Kennedy School Research Report Online.

Selected Publication Citations:

  • Academic Journal/Scholarly Articles
    • Kellerman, Barbara. "When Should a Leader Apologize -- and When Not?" Harvard Business Review (April 2006).
    • Kellerman, Barbara. "Leadership: Warts and All." Harvard Business Review (January 2004).
    • Kellerman, Barbara. "Required Reading." Harvard Business Review (December 2001).
    • Kellerman, Barbara, and Scott Webster. "The Recent Literature on Public Leadership: Reviewed and Considered." Leadership Quarterly (December 2001).
  • Book Chapters
    • Rhode, Deborah L., and Barbara Kellerman. "Women and Leadership: The State of Play." Women and Leadership: The State of Play and Strategies for Change. Ed. Barbara Kellerman and Deborah L. Rhode. Jossey-Bass, 2007, 1.
    • Gergen, David, and Barbara Kellerman. "Public Leaders: Riding a New Tiger." For the People: Can We Fix Public Service? Ed. John D. Donahue and Joseph S. Nye, Jr. Brookings Institution, 2003.
    • Kellerman, Barbara. "For the People: Can We Fix Public Service?" The Difference "Difference" Makes: Women and Leadership. Ed. Deborah L. Rhode. Stanford University Press, 2002.
  • Books
    • Kellerman, Barbara. Bad Leadership: What It Is, How It Happens, Why It Matters. Harvard Business School Press, 2004.
  • Commentary
    • Kellerman, Barbara. "These Leaders Get the Respect They Deserve." Washington Post, April 17, 2005: B03.
  • Edited Volumes
    • Kellerman, Barbara, and Deborah L. Rhode, eds. Women and Leadership: The State of Play and Strategies for Change. Jossey-Bass, 2007.
  • Magazine and Newspaper Articles
    • Kellerman, Barbara. "Followers Flex Their Muscles." U.S. News & World Report (November 19, 2007).
    • Kellerman, Barbara. "Behind Closed Doors." Forbes.com October 16, 2006.
    • Kellerman, Barbara. "Public Displays of Bad 'Leadership.'" Forbes.com September 11, 2006.
    • Kellerman, Barbara. "Back to Basics." Forbes.com August 7, 2006.
    • Kellerman, Barbara. "Leaders and Followers." Forbes.com July 6, 2006.
    • Kellerman, Barbara. "Men Behaving Badly." Forbes.com May 26, 2006.
    • Kellerman, Barbara. "Yin and Yang of Leadership in China." Compass Fall 2005: 5.
    • Kellerman, Barbara. "How Bad Leadership Happens." Leader to Leader Winter 2005.
    • Kellerman, Barbara, and Deborah L. Rhode. "Viable Options: Rethinking Women and Leadership." Compass: A Journal of Leadership Fall 2004.