Are You a Genuine Leader?

Stein Martínez, Guido

Original document: The Roots of Leadership

Year: 2013
Language: English

Anticipating problems; building a team with mutual trust; maintaining self-

control, common sense and energy: These are not concepts lifted from the
latest book on management. They come from Cyropaedia, a treatise written by
Xenophon in the fourth century B.C. describing the life of King Cyrus, who laid
the ideological foundation for what would later become the empire of Alexander
the Great.

Following this seminal work -- considered the first to analyze the foundations of
"leadership" in a systematic way -- countless pages have been written on the
elusive concept. In a technical note titled "The Roots of Leadership,"
IESE's Guido Steinseparates the wheat from the chaff, dispelling myths to get
to the qualities that a true leader must have.

Five Essential Ingredients

Leadership and personal effectiveness are virtually inseparable. Experience
shows that some executives invest a great deal of time, effort and concentration
into their work but may not achieve as much as other executives in comparable
situations. Effective managers need to lead effective teams to optimize results.
Moreover, true leaders cannot get by on talent alone. They also need the right
attitude and five key capabilities:

1. Influence. One gauge for measuring the effectiveness of people's leadership

is the respect and quality of their immediate circle.

2. Orientation. As Solomon recalls in the Proverbs: where there is no vision, the

people perish. Setting the course requires intuition that is grounded in
experience and supported by a method. Leaders know how to step back to see
the big picture and also zoom in to see the details and take action.

3. Connection. Leaders know how to reach others and be natural, sincere and
coherent in communication. Good communication also requires knowledge,
adaptability and confidence in those being spoken to.

4. Prioritization. Leaders are able to identify top priorities and feel comfortable
making decisions. If they know how to put first things first, their followers will
recognize what is relevant at each moment.

5. Delegation. After assembling their network of collaborators, leaders know

how to delegate and learn not to meddle in others' work. To multiply
effectiveness, they must ultimately lead other leaders.

The Scope of Leadership

There are four different levels of leadership:
1. Position. We start with the level of leadership that comes along with a job
title. Being the boss means giving orders that subordinates will follow out of
duty. This type of leadership is necessary for an organization to function, but
more is needed to unlock the full potential of its people.

2. Permission. At this level, the leader, in addition to having authority backed by

the job title, builds good personal relationships with peers who, in turn, are
willing to put in extra effort. In so doing they feel valued, which fosters a good
working environment.

3. Production. Apart from a positive atmosphere, the leader shows commitment

to the organization by achieving concrete objectives. Leaders get it done.
Reaching goals speaks louder than any other message.

4. People development. Being liked by employees and hitting production targets

only ensures short-term effectiveness. The leader must also look further down
the road and focus on adding value for the company and its stakeholders. That
will earn them loyalty.

Advancing to the next level takes time. In fact, leaders' relationships can vary
from one peer to another. For some, perhaps a leader is merely the boss (first
level). For others, they may also enjoy a good relationship with the leader
(second level); and certain others may extend their loyalty and commitment (up
to the fourth level).

From the Authentic Self to the Authentic Leader

Healthy leadership requires a good degree of self-

awareness. However, in the business world, where superficiality affects
relationships, inauthentic selves may flourish because they may be easier to
adapt to certain organizational policies.

Many executives project a false image of themselves to the point that they are
no longer capable of being their genuine selves as leaders. This lack of
authenticity may manifest itself in a lack of curiosity, creativity and spontaneity.
Conversely, inhabiting one's true self brings balance, focus and confidence. It
also opens the door to being spontaneous and natural enough to have close
relationships with others.

Companies need leaders who are psychologically mature with their

self-esteem and humility in balance. The entire team knows what drives
these leaders and they know how to read the hearts and minds of colleagues
just as they can read the reality of the business.

As a result, everyone knows they are on the same team and that their purpose
is a common good. Out of mutual respect comes commitment and dedication --
two essential ingredients for creating robust organizations whose purpose is
none other than to enable ordinary people to achieve extraordinary things.
Ultimately, it is a concept that has hardly changed since the time of Xenophon.

Case
Leadership and People Management
Working in Iraq: The Choice Between Safe and Right?
Al-Rikabi, Ammar; Ribera Azorín, Alberto

Original document: Working in Iraq (A)

Year: 2013
Language: English

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What do you do if what feels right and what is safe are incompatible? Emotional
and ethical motivations can collide with security and self-interest when your
homeland is Iraq.

When Ammar Al-Rikabi (MBA '10) accepted a job with a bank in Iraq, it wasn't
just the usual motivations that drew him to it. He had left the country of his birth
at the age of nine, and knowing the difficult times it was going through, he felt a
need to help in some way.

The job, developing private-sector infrastructure investment, seemed a

worthwhile way to help Iraq move forward in troubled times. It would mean
spending time away from his family in Europe and his girlfriend in Turkey, but
both were supportive.

Rikabi knew that personal security was an issue in Iraq, but after a summer
internship the year before, he concluded he understood the risks. The job was
interesting, and a promise from his boss to help him transfer to the bank's
London office at the end of the summer helped make up his mind. He took the
job.

Then his bank was the target of suicide bombers in June 2010.

In this first-person case study, supervised by IESE's Alberto Ribera, Rikabi

reflects on his experience working in Iraq and the many questions it raised as
his sense of purpose came into conflict with other considerations about what
was right.

Structural Instability
Baghdad in June 2010 was a different place than the city Rikabi had
experienced just a year before. While sectarian violence between Sunni and
Shiite factions had decreased, unsuccessful parliamentary elections had led to
a political stalemate. "The power vacuum had been filled with violence," Rikabi
writes. Moreover, U.S. troops were due to pull out in September to make way
for an Iraqi security force; the levels of violence looked likely to surge higher.
Was al-Qaida behind some of the new wave of attacks? The truth was that no
one really knew.

Rikabi found the situation on the ground to be tense. In mid-June, bombers and
gunmen attacked the Central Bank of Iraq. The attackers, it seems, were led by
someone determined to destroy the economic infrastructure of the country, and
he began to worry that his job would make him a target. Still, the only way to put
such thoughts out of his head seemed to be to throw himself into his work.

A Bad Day at the Office

On the morning of June 20th, Rikabi was brainstorming ideas for a large-scale
infrastructure project aimed at helping Iraq get back on its feet. Around 10:30
a.m., he left his bank to get something to drink. By 11 a.m. he was taking a
bathroom break. As he was washing his hands he heard a sound like thunder
followed by high-pitched screaming. A cloud of dust blew in the window behind
him.

Bombs always come in twos here, he thought numbly, and even as the words
formed there were more bangs and another cloud of dust. Back out in the hall,
Rikabi found panic and chaos, with doors blown in, glass shattered and papers
scattered everywhere. He also saw one dazed-looking security guard
wandering about, bleeding from the head. Yet everyone else seemed fine. Was
it possible there had been no casualties?

Later he learned that 26 people had died, all of them outside the building, after
a security guard, in his last act, had closed the gate on a suicide bomber.
Another bomber had barreled in after with more explosives, but fallen into the
hole left by the first. The street outside was littered with rubble and with the
dead and wounded.

His bank had been the intended target of the bombers, but it was still standing,
thanks to the security personnel and effective blast walls.

Pulling Together Through Times of Trouble

"Don't worry," said his housekeeper, later that afternoon in the residential
compound where he lived. "You've just had your first boom."

In the midst of the stress and disillusionment, Rikabi was impressed by the
community spirit he saw everywhere around him. People worked hard to make
him laugh. A friend quietly gave his laptop a deep clean to remove all traces of
the dust from the bomb. He saw the surviving security personnel laughing and
playing football -- getting on with life in the midst of crisis. Meanwhile, his bank's
investment team moved their operations to the residential compound, for
safety's sake, and worked harder than ever, even holding meetings at 1 a.m. It
was a time of confusion and fear, but also of inspiring work ethics and
camaraderie.
Even so, the blasts had shaken Rikabi's sense of what was the right thing to do.
Not only was his safety clearly at risk, but he also started reconsidering his
reasons for being in the country. What was the point in working to improve Iraq
when some of his fellow Iraqis targeted the very enterprises that were trying to
help them? He was working in part to support his mother, but was it fair to risk
his life to that end? Since he had the option of getting out of Iraq, how much
was he prepared to risk for the altruism of staying?

Ammar Al-Rikabi worked with Professor Alberto Ribera on a series of first-

person case studies covering his summer internship in 2009, his first summer of
full employment (as discussed here) and then two more on what happened in
the following four years in terms of his career and the geopolitical and economic
developments in Iraq, especially in Iraqi Kurdistan. The cases include facts
about Iraq and Rikabi's immediate and subsequent thoughts on his
circumstances. One exhibit is a reprint of Rikabi's letter written less than 24
hours after surviving the bombing of his bank.

Case studies are meant to serve as launching points for class discussion. This
dramatic case raises questions about doing what is right on a personal,
professional and ethical level. Would you continue to work after the bombing?
Why or why not?