Cross Generational Technology Leaders - Shaping the Present and Redefining the Future

It’s a great honor and privilege for me to create and organize this panel with MIT Sloan Board.


http://www.mitsloanboston.com/article.html?aid=293

The Lies About Leadership. There is No Formula.

This is not one more article about all the good things a leader should be, must be or can be. I would like to offer here a different perspective and a more REAL analysis of the meaning of leadership and this “SUPER HERO” called leader.

With the avalanche of information about leadership: books, articles, training, workshops, movies, etc., we can surmise a leader is all the best things you can say about someone.

Peter Drucker defined a leader as "Someone who has followers," while John Maxwell says, "Leadership is influence -- nothing more -- nothing less." The Free Dictionary defines a leader as "One who is in charge or command of others.

Here are a few words that you can find to describe a leader: committed to a result, team player, honest, decisive, empathetic, confident, optimistic and inspirational. Let’s stop here, because we could spend several hours listing adjectives and qualities of a leader.
Or maybe we can create a formula for leadership, something like this (n=all qualities and adjectives)

(N)Superman + (N)Brad Pitt + (N)Steve Jobs + (N)Einstein+ (N)Shakespeare = Leader.

The truth is, there is no formula
Working with people from different countries, ages and cultures, I’ve learned many things from them but, I probably was not always their leader, because leadership qualities take may occur overtime or get lost over time. In the end, it is a matter of TIME and MOMENTUM in addition to some adjectives and qualities.

A few months ago, I was presenting at the Finance Forum of MIT and I had the pleasure to see a presentation from Andrew Lo (Director, Laboratory for Financial Engineering). It was a truly a unique experience. In that workshop, he mentioned something that I will quote here: “Do you know the difference between salad and trash ? …. TIME”. Yes time, the only thing that money can’t buy. You can buy hours from someone, but no one can buy the time that has already past.

Let’s try this exercise:

Collect all the adjectives that you’ve ever read and think about leadership. Yes, I know this sounds a Big Data task, but let’s try to make it easier.

A few words to start: committed to a result, team player, honest, decisive, empathetic, confident, optimistic and inspirational.

Step 1:
• Pick one adjective that best describes one of your characteristics;

Step 2:
• Take all the rest and put them in a bucket;
• Mix everything;
• Pick one more adjective;

Step 3 – The most important
• With these two adjectives of leadership, think of HOW, WHEN and to WHOM (personal or professional) you will transmit these characteristics. Let’s define ‘transmit’ as showing someone that you have those skills to see whether that person will take on those characteristics for himself with pride.

You don’t have to be a super hero to be a leader. It is all about time, momentum and whether you have the capacity to transmit those leadership qualities to someone else. Maybe you are really good and your leadership momentum could remain for a year or for more than a life time, i.e., Lincoln or Steve Jobs. Maybe your leadership momentum depends on your position, maybe your leadership momentum is one project or one job, or maybe your leadership momentum lasts for just a few moments for someone with no experience and who may simply need guidance.

As in Sports, sometimes a player can be a leader in the field but not make a good coach. However some players can be leaders in the field and also be great coaches. Thus their leadership momentum extends beyond theirs days, years or even for more than a lifetime. Keep your leadership momentum as long as you can, and always seek to transfers that momentum to someone else.

I hope you work hard enough to have at least one leadership experience;

Be good enough to last for several years; and

Have several mentees to transfer your leadership momentum to.

“You never know beforehand what people are capable of, you have to wait, give it time, it's time that rules, time is our gambling partner on the other side of the table and it holds all the cards of the deck in its hand, we have to guess the winning cards of life, our lives.”
José Saramago, Blindness