people. Caring means being compassionate, listening to those who look to you for leadership, and being empathetic regarding family situations and other disruptions. The Coronavirus Disease 2019( Covid-19) has amplified the importance of this approach.
Caring pays off not just for the organization, but for the leader. My own personal example is when a former student, now a professor, was on the search committee for a leadership position where I was a candidate. Our prior relationship did not influence his support- I had mentored him well- but presumably knowing of my caring first hand supported that important element of my value to the organization.
Rule 6: Be visionary
Those in the organization will look to you to lead. Your vision will go a long way in defining the organization. If done right, it will appear as a collective vision. Everyone in the organization will feel that they are part of creating the vision. In a way, your job is to seed the vision and enable others to refine, nurture, and promote the vision as their own. Strategic plans have a role to play here. They offer a roadmap for all to follow. You will be successful when others speak of your vision as their own and you are proud of them doing so. Adoption is the highest compliment.
When our new university president and provost were appointed, they set about developing a strategic plan that took enormous efforts through surveys, town halls, and other forums to capture the views of all stakeholders( see Rule 3). That so-called“ 2030 plan” was then embodied in a single statement,“ Be Both Great and Good.” Many stakeholders, including myself, use the phrase frequently. A simple statement of their vision shared by all in the organization.
Rule 7: Be decisive
Some leadership decisions are hard. There is not always a clear decision, and people and the organization will be impacted. An element of risk-taking is then necessary. Decisions should not be made based on how people in the organization will react to them, but on what you believe is right for the organization. What is worse is to not make a decision and leave the organization in an indecisive state.
Good leaders will make less than optimal decisions on occasion. The important thing to remember is to be transparent with all stakeholders, explaining why decisions were made and to work together toward a successful outcome. It is also important to acknowledge when you make a wrong
109 MAL74 / 26 ISSUE decision and correct the mistake in a timely way in consultation with your team members.
An example I have seen several times occurs in hiring. The search committee and other stakeholders are split between who to hire and the leader must make the decision. Being less than decisive may mean losing both candidates to other jobs, whereas deciding will upset half your stakeholders. A good leader takes all features of both candidates into consideration as well of input from all stakeholders and makes very clear why the choice is being made and expects all to respect the choice when the candidate they did not choose comes on board.
Rule 8: Get the right people on the bus and let them define the route
This is arguably the most important rule and implies you should pay close attention to who you hire. As I mentioned above, people define the organization. Hiring the right people for your organization is everything. In small organizations, one person who is a bad fit can upset the entire organization. Science thrives on innovation and so do organizations. Give your team members room to innovate. Don’ t be over prescriptive as this will hobble smart people. Also, be adaptive yourself. The directions you take may not be what you originally planned. The smartest people with the best credentials may not be the best hires if they don’ t have the personality or hunger to help the organization thrive. This is a fine balance in a scientific organization where the work of individuals is important. It may take mistakes to get it right.
As stated, the right people will be smarter than you are. The autocratic leader will find it hard to hire such people, which leads to suboptimal organizations where the best and brightest have been turned away.
A great leader I worked for did not give me the position I wanted and I moved on. However, I respected them for that decision, even initially, because they obeyed all the rules here. Over time observing the person that did get the job, I realized I would not have been the best fit, which would have left me and the organization not performing at our best.
Rule 9: Delegate
You can’ t do everything yourself. As an organization grows, this becomes increasingly apparent. You need to surround yourself with a manageable number of direct reports that you fully trust to do the work of the organization. This applies even at the level of a small individual lab when it grows and the more senior, experiencedmembers take on a leadership role.
In a larger organization, such as a university or funding agency, the dean will have a small number of associate deans as direct reports, and the director will have a small number of deputy directors, respectively. In highly functional organizations, these deputies are trusted and respected by the leader and have different skill sets, which, when taken together, enrich the whole enterprise.
Rule 10: Enjoy the experience but know when to stop
Contentment with the role you play in the organization is contagious. If you are not inspired by what you are doing, how can others be? If you are not enjoying being a leader, either you are not cut out for the job or you are not leading the right kind of organization. You need to ask yourselves these difficult questions. There may also be a temporal nature to your happiness. Leading a small organization is different from building a small organization into a large one and leading that. Know when to come and when to leave.
I had the good fortune to watch a great leader build a new school within a great university prior to undertaking such an endeavour myself. That leader obeyed these 10 rules but also knew when it was time to step aside. In doing so, they had built a team to continue, and they had a succession plan that meant the organization kept moving forward after they left. Hopefully, I have learnt that lesson as well.
Conclusion
There you have it. It is never too early to start thinking about leadership. There are endless books, videos, and courses on leadership. They may offer you better advice on being a leader. The most influential book I have read was“ From Good to Great” by Jim Collins.
Let me reiterate, that for me, most of what I have learnt about leadership and embodied in these rules was gained by observing leaders who I came to respect for what they have done for organizations. I like to think they have served me well in my own quest to be a good leader.
Dr. Clifford J. Ferguson is the Managing Partner of Rainmakers, and Board Member of Glad’ s House Kenya. You can commune with him on this or related matters via email at: Drcliffordjferguson @ me. com.