Leadership or …I know it when I see it!

The excerpts from Chris Stevenson's article published at pharmaphorum.

We are living through one of those occasional periods when the simple extrapolation of events to predict the future is no longer valid; the future is very different and it takes bold and powerful leadership to create the future that you want. ....an exciting time for business and a fantastic opportunity for leaders to step forward and make their mark.

In a management world dominated by focus groups, advisory boards and consensus it takes a leader to state that they are going to do something that no one else has done, and that market research cannot define.

Henry Ford, an amazing business leader, said that if he had asked his customers what they wanted they would have asked for a faster horse. This is a great example of the limitations of research; it cannot predict things that it doesn’t know about. 

We have considered a couple of examples of leadership, and it is clear that a number of crucial aspects of leadership are belief in what you are doing, a disregard for the extrapolator view of the future, or perhaps a strongly held vision of a different future and a willingness to make mistakes, learn from them and move forward, as well as a constant hunger for improvement, better products and services, better client satisfaction and new solutions.

Let’s be specific and ask what leadership looks like in the marketing services and medical education world. Perhaps it is best to take a pragmatic view, just as US Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart did when asked to define obscenity (or pornography) in the movie The Lovers. Instead of trying to provide a detailed description he is widely quoted as saying “…..I know it when I see it…”. Let’s apply this approach to leadership and describe what we should look for in managers that might help differentiate them as leaders.

• Firstly, we might expect them to be difficult people to deal with. They present a view of the world that challenges the status quo and this will make many other managers uneasy. They often talk about intangible things, such as visions of the future, that make the data driven managers struggle to understand or measure the validity of what is being said. They spend time looking forward not backwards at numbers and charts. 

• Secondly, they may often be frustrated by the pace of change in their organisation. They may even become angry, intolerant, even belligerent and demanding, and other managers may describe them as unreasonable.

• Thirdly, they will not spend time on internal matters such as administration, or internal discussions unless they can help them achieve their vision. They are more likely to be with customers, at external meetings and may even be described as being neglectful of the internal operations of your business.  

• Fourthly, they may have a reputation for making mistakes. They might have had an idea or two that didn’t work, as well as a couple that did. Other managers might perceive them as somewhat reckless with resources, even negligent in their management role, and perhaps as irresponsible. In many cases the leadership person will be described as a bad manager. 

• Finally, and perhaps most importantly, they make things happen. They don’t sit in meetings talking about change; they drive change, they don’t allow obstacles to get in their way and they are impatient for change.

The description above illustrates that leaders are not always easy to work with. They are intolerant, often argumentative, demanding and impatient. Of course, they are also often exciting, inspirational, amazingly energetic, enthusiastic and positive about the future.

Accept the disappointments in the knowledge that to give up is not an option. Your business needs you today, more than it has ever done, and the opportunities are greater than they have ever been. 

Full article may be found here.

Nice said. Old story. Much has been written on the subject "Leadership vs. Management", but the author should have refrained from comparing the Outstanding Leaders with the Brilliant Managers. 

How many of those sparkle around you? 

Much less than those who mimic it, I presume.

And what type is dominating, I wonder, idiotic "blabbers" or meticulous "pedants"?