Personal Leadership Lessons

When I applied for MBA programs, almost three years ago, virtually every interview question, essay, and interest statement carried an overtone of leadership. Almost by definition, it’s an amorphous term, and I suppose that’s the point: for every person, for every situation, it takes on a new meaning. Gandhi and Ceasar were both leaders in their time, after all. To be sure, the brand of leadership required by business school students is somewhat distinctive. It’s a tight-knit, non-hierarchical community, and in such settings, nothing gets done unless everyone’s motivated to be part of the solution. But when I met with Fuqua’s Board of Visitors last November, one member suggested that leadership in business school, in a relatively controlled setting, wasn’t necessarily a strong proxy for leadership in the real world.

It’s curious that leadership should be such a focal point of the MBA experience; after all, many graduates, myself included, go on to take jobs where they’re relatively low on the corporate totem pole. Day-to-day, I may have a few lower level colleagues aiding me, but, for the most part, I’m a foot soldier; the opinions I form have to be consistent, and have my company’s emblem tattooed on them, but they’re mine.

It doesn’t sound like a role where leadership would necessarily be a valued trait, but here again, when I interviewed for the job, it was embedded in everything. I wondered from day one why, when there were so many other skills that constitute a competent analyst, they chose to focus on this apparent red herring.

I guess the lesson I learned was that leadership becomes a lot more subtle as you become a professional, especially in a large organization – and there are different forms of leadership.

I’ve found that I’ve become less of a functional leader, and more of a diplomat. We have clients with pressing needs; if I’m the main point of contact and I’m unable to fulfill them, it reflects poorly not just on me, but on my organization. Even early on, I’ve come to stand for something much bigger than myself, and I’m starting to realize that I may have inadvertently honed this while in business school.

‘Branding,’ as a term, became something of a punch-line among students, but it’s more clear to me now than ever that it was more than just making sure you didn’t say anything inappropriate in front of recruiters. I got so tied up in finding a job and putting together a decent GPA that it became hard to see the bigger picture, that the whole experience, in a way, was grooming us to become stewards of Fuqua’s reputation. Fuqua, just like my company, doesn’t sell widgets, it sells people. From day one, we all, whether willingly or not, became representatives of the brand, and perhaps unconsciously, began crafting our pitches to fit that. For me, this was an enduring lesson, because once again, I have to do the same, even if the pitch is different; fortunately, I feel prepared to do so.



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1. Talk less, listen more.
People will pay attention to what you say, just because of your position. The leader’s job is to pay attention to what other people say, especially those who think their views don’t count. Show you’re listening by acting on what people tell you, and gain their trust by giving them the credit.

2. Don’t step in with solutions too quickly.
No-one learns anything new if you keep doing what you already know how to do, and don’t allow others to try. Anyway, they may find a different, or better way, and if not… mistakes are valuable too.

3. Be authentic.
Be authentic, passionate, even emotional, about what you believe in. Share your vision and live your values. The personal is more engaging, even inspiring, than the process.

4. Don’t ‘dis’ downwards.
Once a decision is made by the Board, or the leadership team, it’s yours even if you argued against it during discussions. Your job as leader is to get others to believe in, and work towards, a shared goal, not to divide opinion or loyalties.

5. I’m OK: You’re OK.
Start from the position that everyone is doing the best they can, then look for ways to support and encourage them – which is so much more rewarding than finding fault.

6. Don’t be the smartest person in the room.
Being a leader does not mean knowing more than anyone else. Recognise, encourage and promote others as experts. Give them the trust and autonomy to be creative and do excellent work, defined in their terms. You simply provide the direction, so that this excellent work contributes to a shared purpose.

7. Sense of purpose.
Your team know what they do and how to do it, but you can make a big difference by sharing a strong sense of why they’re doing it and where it’s heading. Help them develop a broad understanding of the team’s purpose, and faith in how their role contributes to the whole. (Remember the floor-sweeper at NASA?)

8. Being right isn’t enough.
A great idea is of no consequence unless you can convince others to believe it too, and then persuade them to help you make your idea a reality. The best way to do this is to make the idea theirs.

9. Focus on a few things.
Focusing on the things that really matter and where you can make a difference. There may be a hundred different distractions and demands on your time and a hundred ways you could respond, but it’s the dozen carefully chosen actions that deliver the results.

10. Get out and about.
Get out and about and in the work. It’s hard to retain that sense of what the job’s really about when you are sitting in your office. You’ll see what people actually do, rather than what people tell you they do. And you’ll see their commitment, effort and achievements first hand, and feel proud to be part of the same team. Always inspiring, and informative, and better than any meeting!

11. Keep trying.
Don’t beat yourself up when you don’t live up to your own expectations. Reflect and learn from those times when you stumble and fall over the other 10 resolutions.