March 31, 2011

Summary & Conclusions

Carol Stephenson, O.C.

Carol Stephenson, O.C. Dean, Ivey Business School March 31, 2011 South China Morning Post A wrap-up of the lessons on leadership we learned from researching “Leadership on Trial”.

In our report “Leadership on Trial”, we used recent events as a way of reflecting on leadership and specifically leadership of business organizations. Some may think this somewhat unfair but we considered it to be the type of crisis that was simply too good to waste.

It forced us to confront the gaps between what we know about good leadership and the state of practice. Our research supports the view that good leadership is about the competencies, character and commitment of leaders and how these are reflected in decisions made and implemented in continually changing contexts.

We set out by hypothesizing that good leadership would have made a difference in what happened, both in the buildup to the recent economic and financial crisis, and in the way individuals and enterprises managed the outcomes. We think that the evidence from our study supports this.

We concluded by presenting some basic principles of leadership and leadership development that address what good leaders do, the kinds of people they need to be, how they develop and how organizations can develop them. These principles form the basis for improving leadership practice today and for developing better leaders for tomorrow.

Business schools have an important role to play. In the wake of the financial markets meltdown, much criticism targeted the alleged narrowness of the curriculum, some the social irresponsibility of business school graduates, and some their arrogance, overconfidence and sense of entitlement.

All authors reflect their personal values in their writing, and we are no exception. The mission of the Richard Ivey School of Business is: "To develop business leaders who think globally, act strategically and contribute to the societies in which they operate."

We believe in this mission. It has shaped our research, our conclusions and the prescriptions we have presented. We will endeavour to reflect these values in our future work on leadership development.

Over the last six weeks, we have summarized our calls to action in the columns of this newspaper. This concludes our six part series.

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