Day 91 in MIT Sloan Fellows Class 2023, Leadership in seminar 2, Wrapup
Robert C. Pozen | MIT Sloan provided us a really insightful summary of leadership.
Nurture your external leadership
Engage with your customers
- Prioritize the time with your customers
- Build not transaction but relationship
- Listen to them and use feedback to inform your strategy
Welcome global diversity
- be open to international opportunities
- Respect them and adapt yourself
- Monitor and make sure what happens in the world
Develop strong boards
- Select CEO and decide capital allocation
- Adopt strategy from managers and boards responds with feedback
- Boards don't like to be surprised. CEO should deliver constant info
Establish your internal leadership
Communication, communication, communication
- Make your strategy clear to all the stakeholders
- Be transparent with all stakeholders
- Proactive listening and respect. Build trust.
Form strong team with people
- Not surrounded by Yes-people. Surrounded by people who complement you.
- Focus on what you should do. Delegate everything else.
- Build a relationship with your employees. Develop and support them.
Implement culture into your company
- Start at the top. Encourage learning and tolerate mistakes.
- Org structure and compensation should be aligned with culture.
- Embrace difference and conflict but remove bad actors.
Technology and leadership
- Establish advisory committees
- Engage actively with entrepreneurs and disruptors
- Focus on identifying growth opportunity with technologies
- Attract and retain talent with tech skillsets
- Train workforce
- Foster innovation internally.
Be people manager. Not be task manager or individual contributer.
Career planning
- Assume uncertainty. Don't plan 10 years career.
- No leaders said they master their career plan. It's endless.
- Maximize options in making every career decisions. Not maximize your salary but maximize future options
- How to maximize future options?
- Have broad experiences and geographic transfer
- Actively build networks
- Find good mentors
- Most important, be honest with you.
- Critical questions on career structure
- Own your company? or be part f a large org?
- Be an individual contributor or a manager of people?
- Try to find an area adjacent to your past career. Don't take two steps at the same time. But constantly take one step.
- Look at two growth drivers. Technology and demographics=population.
What is the meaning of MBA?
Relationship and networking. Do peer grouping in any networking.
There is a tradeoff between deepening network and expanding network.
Do both to meet a lot of people and do peer grouping.
