Cargo Cult Management

Actually observing the management style of some of the people I have worked for recently brought to mind the idea of Cargo Cult Management - which I think I'll coin (if no-one has already done so before me).
This is management by the book: saying the right thing ("thanks for that valuable input") and doing the right thing ("I appreciate your effort over the weekend") according to the latest management treatise doing the rounds. Be it '7 Habits' or 'Who moved my cheese' these people are following the prescriptive advice without actually understanding where it comes from. I won't make any direct comment on the books themselves except to say that there seem to be an awful lot which flash in and out of fashion like an old fluorescent tube.
Commonly the followers of this management style are ex-technical people who are deliberately trying to be leaders. Sadly, many of them were better leaders when they weren't trying to be managers; when they weren't trying to live up to some imaginary standard.
On the other hand, there are a great many senior managers - who should know better - who come up with Mission Statements and Visions etc. These can useful tools to bind a team and engage employees. But something whipped up on a weekend junket is not going to engage those people who had to stay at work and keep the engines ticking over while you live it up at a 5 star resort. A good vision emerges from the views and goals of the team. A good leader develops it in conjunction with his staff, not isolated from them. It needs to be relevant and contextual to everyone who is supposed to sign up to it - something they can relate to and aspire to. It does not contain the word "Synergy".
Leadership is not prescriptive (or proscriptive). It varies according to the people in your team and the work that they are doing. It does not come out of a book.
On the other hand 'fake it until you make it' does work - just be prepared for people to laugh at your attempts along the way; and don't believe everything you read.