Sunday, 4 June 2006
Domain leadership and people leadership = leadership.
Here are some thoughts on why leaders (or CEOs) are not plug-n-play:
http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item.jhtml?id=5361&t=leadership&iss=y
Domain experience at high level of abstraction (w.r.t scale) is as important as, if not more important than, managerial experience.
While a leader that lacks the ability to listen is a pain to manage, and put up with; if all a leader does is hear and listen from his experts, and doesn't have the ability to make a decision (i.e., doesn't know the urgency of "why" he should be making one), all we'd need was experts and no leader. That is, a transperant leader who doesn't have any power of his own would suffice. So, a leader must have a strong say, and a backing by some power and authority invested in his capabilities.
On the other hand, if the leader knows management of people, but in a domain different from the one he is currently leading, he'll use the tricks and techniques of one domain onto the people with challenges of the other. For example, a person who has managed people in art industry would not be able to manage people in engineering industry -- as he has to deal with hardcore professionals who don't appreciate art like pressures and art like differentiation. Whether that's good or detriment to itself depends upon the factors in question, but one manager with a different mindset cannot successfully change the world in another domain.
This reminded me of the article on CFO.com that I had blogged a while earlier on CFO's challenges:
You're Not CFO Material
http://www.cfo.com/printarticle/0,5317,8874|BS,00.html?f=options
In essence, a leader needs to know the waters he will be operating in as much as the ship he'll be commanding. At these times, leaders who can adapt to changing environments successfully offer the best brain-value to the profession.
- Kaleem Aziz.
http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item.jhtml?id=5361&t=leadership&iss=y
- Not all managers are equally suited to all business situations. The strategic skills required to control costs in the face of fierce price competition are not the same as those required to improve the top line in a rapidly growing business or balance investment against cash flow to survive in a highly cyclical business.
Domain experience at high level of abstraction (w.r.t scale) is as important as, if not more important than, managerial experience.
While a leader that lacks the ability to listen is a pain to manage, and put up with; if all a leader does is hear and listen from his experts, and doesn't have the ability to make a decision (i.e., doesn't know the urgency of "why" he should be making one), all we'd need was experts and no leader. That is, a transperant leader who doesn't have any power of his own would suffice. So, a leader must have a strong say, and a backing by some power and authority invested in his capabilities.
On the other hand, if the leader knows management of people, but in a domain different from the one he is currently leading, he'll use the tricks and techniques of one domain onto the people with challenges of the other. For example, a person who has managed people in art industry would not be able to manage people in engineering industry -- as he has to deal with hardcore professionals who don't appreciate art like pressures and art like differentiation. Whether that's good or detriment to itself depends upon the factors in question, but one manager with a different mindset cannot successfully change the world in another domain.
This reminded me of the article on CFO.com that I had blogged a while earlier on CFO's challenges:
You're Not CFO Material
http://www.cfo.com/printarticle/0,5317,8874|BS,00.html?f=options
- A prospective CFO also needs to dig into the company’s core competencies, says ImmunoSite’s Vennare, who demands that his finance chief understands the company’s business and financial model, not to mention its relationship with the capital markets. “If the CFO is still learning about my business, the learning curve is already too long,” notes Vennare. He adds that a candidate hoping to join the C-level should be more of a teacher than a student. “If I wanted a CFO who was just good at finance,” quips Vennare, “I would have hired a graduate student with good marks in finance.”
In essence, a leader needs to know the waters he will be operating in as much as the ship he'll be commanding. At these times, leaders who can adapt to changing environments successfully offer the best brain-value to the profession.
- Kaleem Aziz.
