The book is about the leadership culture in America today where a leader choosing their self-interest over their stated duties and obligations has, over time, morphed from being the exception to today it being the norm.
The author, Rande Somma, suggests that those individuals are not worthy of being called a leader of any kind. More appropriately they should be referred to as frauds.
There are many good leadership "how to" books on the market today. However, through Rande's personal experiences, there is a huge separation between words describing what leaders should be doing as compared to their real agenda and behavior... talk the talk versus walk the talk.
Rande personally led a Fortune 100 international business where he and his team made the commitment to meet financial objectives by operating through the company's Core Values, including Integrity and Our People, and not by ignoring them. The company's performance was exceptional however, more importantly, because the results were legitimate.
After moving into leadership positions in a variety of different organizations in an oversight role, Rande takes the reader into the board rooms and private conversations where he unexpectedly discovered that what he experience in the company that he led was an exception and not at all typical.
Based on Rande's observations over time he leads the reader through the logic where he concludes that "Wrong" has shifted to being "Wrong but Acceptable" and consequently "Right" shifted be being merely an inconvenience, maybe even a threat.
So, because of the erosion of the standards frauds fall into the "Qualified" category. And frauds have no problem complying with the disgusting associated operating behavior because they place no value on integrity, honor or shame.
The book contends that there has been another critical shift in America's leadership culture today. While there have always been organizations where we expected frauds to exist, ie. Politics, Corporate America and Religion, the book expresses an observation that organizations that we never would have thought would be infected the culture of frauds have indeed been infected. For example, institutions such as the Media, Military, Justice, Academia, and yes to some degree even parents.
Rande presents the case that this corrupt standard of today's leadership culture is spreading. Its adoption is gaining momentum and becoming deeply rooted. Rande expresses a sense of urgency and a need for a reset before our country hits a point where a correction is no longer an option.
The book offers some ideas on things that could be done to begin to move the needle back in the right direction.