Wanted: leadership

StephenW

Wanted: leadership                                            
By Richard P. Grant
18 May 2011  
Morgan‘s posts about careers, science and science funding seem to strike nerves with some of our readers. One thing Morgan hasn’t addressed, although I’m sure it’s on her list, is leadership.
We’ve just published an evaluation of an article in the Harvard Business Review, The Wise Leader, in their ‘The Big Idea’ series. The two (Japanese) authors–one at Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo, the other at Harvard Business School–have spent the last twenty years studying, teaching and interviewing business leaders in different types of organizations. They’ve come up with six abilities common to successful ‘phronetic’ leaders–that is, Aristotle’s ‘practical wisdom’.
Briefly (and paraphrased), these qualities are

• Wise leaders make good moral decisions;
• They quickly grasp the essence of any situation or problem;
• They create informal and formal shared contexts for colleagues to interact;
• They use metaphors and stories educate individuals and groups;
• They exercise political power to bring people together and motivate them;
• They mentor front-line employees to develop practical wisdom.
  

The authors expand on what is necessary for each of these six qualities, and you can read all about it on the HBR website. I suspect that these abilities or qualities apply equally (rather, they should apply) well to scientists and medics. Our evaluators, Jessica Heath and Mitchell Tsai, go further, saying “the application of these principles will be necessary to create change in the health care system.”
What do you think? (And yes, I’ll make sure Morgan knows about this…)