单选题 It is only natural for leaders to try to make the most of their strengths. The theory of comparative advantage directs people, as well as countries and firms, to focus on what they are good at. Management experts have tended to {{U}}concur{{/U}}: one of the bestselling business books of recent years is called Now Discover Your Strengths. When business schools (and indeed business columnists) profile bosses, they often assume that more is better. But is this right? Three recent books express some doubts.
In Fear Your Strengths, Robert Kaplan and Robert Kaiser argue, "what you are best at could be your biggest problem. " Forcefulness can become bullying; decisiveness can turn into pigheadedness; niceness can develop into indecision. In From Smart to Wise, Prasad Kaipa and Navi Radjou argue that the strengths that today's leaders are most likely to overuse are what Americans called "smarts"—the sort of skills managers pick up studying at business school or working in consultancies. In Tipping Sacred Cows, Jake Breeden goes further, arguing that many so-called management virtues are just as likely to be vices in disguise.
These three books are all valuable exercises in iconoclasm—deliberate destruction of icons. But the trouble with iconoclasm when you apply it to the analysis of leadership is that you can go on forever. Many successful leaders are successful precisely because they push their strengths to the limit. Richard Branson has turned Virgin into a global brand by relentlessly exploiting his two biggest strengths: his ability to take on "big bad wolves"—firms that are overcharging and underserving the public-and his talent for infusing Virgin with a counter-cultural personality.
Leadership skills are context-dependent. Margaret Thatcher was undoubtedly a nightmare to work for. In 1981 her closest advisers were so angry with her that they produced a memo that criticized her for breaking "every rule of good man-management", including bullying her weaker comrades, criticizing her colleagues in front of officials and refusing to give praise or credit. It warned her that she was "likely to become another failed Tory prime minister sitting with Edward Heath". But her abrasive style was exactly what Britain needed in the 1980s.
The word that is too often missing from leadership studies is "judgment". Everybody involved in the business is desperate to appear scientific: academics because they want to get research grants and consultants because they want to prove that they are selling something more than just instinct. But judgment is what matters most, and it is hard to measure. It takes judgment to resist getting carried away with one quality (such as decisiveness) or one measure of success (such as the share price). It takes judgment to know when to modulate your virtues and when to pull out all the stops. Unfortunately judgment is in rather shorter supply than leadership versatility indices.
单选题 The word "concur" (Line 3, Para. 1) most probably means ______.
  • A. coincide.
  • B. agree.
  • C. doubt.
  • D. object.
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】[解析] 第一段第1句指出领导者会没法最大限度地发挥自己的优势，第2句进一步解释比较优势理论引导人们注重自己的优势，第3句以畅销书为例提出管理专家们的意见，之后的书名《现在发现你的优势》表明专的意见最可能是肯定赞成之前的观点。题干问的是concur最可能表示的意思，因此，B项为正确答案。 该句需要说明专家的意见与之前的观点的关系，A项“巧合”与上下文的逻辑不符，C项“相信”语气过于肯定，D项“反对”与前文观点不一致。
单选题 According to Jake Breeden, ______.
  • A. Americans tend to overuse their strengths.
  • B. there exist no such things as management virtues.
  • C. management virtues and vices are interchangeable.
  • D. management virtues should be closely examined.
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】[解析] 题干问的是Breeden的观点，与第二段最后一句相对应。该句指出在《打倒圣牛》一书中，布雷登更深入发展了之前的观点，指出那些美其名曰的“管理者优点”恰恰可能是伪装成优点的缺点，由此可以推断出优点和伪装成优点的缺点之间很难辨别，我们需要认真辨别优点和缺点。 A项“过度使用优势”与该段中第二本书《从聪明到睿智》中作者的观点(overuse)相对应，但不是第三本书中布雷登的观点。原文指出领导者过度使用的优势就是美国人所谓的“聪明”，前提条件已经肯定了管理优势的存在，B项完全否认世上存在管理优势，是对原文smarts(聪明)的错误理解。C项中interchangeable说明管理优势和缺陷可互换，是对文中第一本书的观点“你所擅长的东西可能是你最大的问题”的延伸，而非第三本书布雷登的观点。
单选题 The story of Richard Branson shows that ______.
  • A. there are many successful leaders like Branson.
  • B. iconoclasm is not applicable to successful leaders.
  • C. strengths have contributed to many leaders' success.
  • D. Virgin's success is mainly attributed to his strengths.
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】[解析] Richard Branson的案例出现在文章第三段，文章第3句指出许多领导者成功的原因恰恰就是因为他们将他们的优势发挥到了极致，接下来文章利用Branson的案例来进一步说明Branson的成功在于他把自己的两大优势发挥到了极致。因此，Branson的故事恰好证明了上一句的观点，因此，选项C为最佳答案。 Richard Branson的故事仅仅表明了自己的成功，并没有证明其他人的成功，从他的故事很难推出世上有很多像Branson一样的成功领导者，因此A项的推断没有依据。第三段第2句指出iconoclasm的问题在于用它来分析领导力时，可以无止境地进行下去，因此破除偶像崇拜可以用于任何领导者，B项指出其并不适用于成功的领导者是错误的。第3句指出很多领导者的成功原因正是因为他们将他们的优势发挥到了极致，而维珍的成功原因主要在于其领导者把自己的两大优势发挥到极致，而非维珍本身的任何优势，因此D项属于偷换概念，为错误选项。
单选题 In her advisers' eyes, Margaret Thatcher was ______.
  • A. a nightmare.
  • B. a poor leader.
  • C. a failure.
  • D. a savior.
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】[解析] Margaret Thatcher出现在文章第四段，文中第2句指出与撒切尔共事是一个噩梦，第3句具体说明了她的亲密顾问们如何批评她不具备优秀领导者的技能。因此，在她的顾问眼中，玛格丽特·撒切尔是一个很差的领导者，B项正确。 第四段第2句指出与撒切尔共事是一个噩梦，而非撒切尔本人是个噩梦，A项认为撒切尔是个噩梦属于偷换概念。第4句指出撒切尔有可能成为又一位失败的保守党人，原文使用了likely，仅表达了一种可能性，而非肯定指明她是失败者，C项理解错误。最后一句指出撒切尔的强硬作风正是八十年代的英国所需要的，但没有提到她就是一个savior(救世主)，因此D项错误。
单选题 It is indicated in the last paragraph that ______.
  • A. leadership studies should focus more on judgment.
  • B. businesspeople, leaders in particular, are versatile.
  • C. strengths can turn into weakness sometimes.
  • D. judgment is the most crucial measure of leadership.
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】[解析] 最后一段第1句为主题句，明确指出在领导力研究中，我们总是忽视了“判断力”，进一步说明判断力才是最关键的，可以防止人们忘乎所以，帮助人们审时度势。因此，从最后一段我们可以推断出领导力研究应当更加重视对判断力的研究，A项为最佳答案。 B项中versatile虽然与文章最后一句中的versatility相对应，选项中versatile是指多才多艺的，而最后一句中versatility是指多功能指标，因此B项理解错误。C项认为优势有时会变成劣势，与文章第二段相呼应，但最后一段并没有提及这一观点。D项虽然说明判断力是衡量领导力最关键的标准，与最后一段matters most相对应，但仅仅重复了原文的部分结论，没有进一步的推断，属于干扰项。