DUBAI:
Organisational changes require CEOs who cannot only persuade their team to buy into the vision, but who can persuade their own bosses — the board members and chairs — of the need for change, Professor Michael Useem told delegates to the HR Summit 2017 on Monday.
Such skills can be learnt, Useem, of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, but, “Above all, there’s no better school for leadership than to put people in a position where they can take the ideas, try them out and get feedback on them.”
The best US companies for leadership development — Useem cited firms such as GE, IBM, Procter & Gamble — “are those that seem to be very self-conscious about developing leadership that fits the company strategy,” he said.
Useem discussed the role of David Pottruck, former CEO of discount stock trader Charles Schwab, who took the firm into the internet age, persuading both his mentor, founder Charles Schwab and the board to back his plan to offer cut trading fees heavily to compete with new online-only traders, before breaking the news to his core team, then walking with them over San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge.
Pottruck won over his seniors and his juniors, but ultimately paid the price when the board decided the firm’s own stock prices had fallen too far.
Dr Jacqui Grey, Managing Director of the NeuroLeadership Institute, turned to science to make her points about the qualities of leadership.
Studies of neurological activity, she said, that stress tended to shut down activity in the prefrontal cortex, the brain’s decision area, and decision-makers needed to work out how to unblock it.
The summit, at Dubai World Trade Centre, runs until Wednesday.
