This piece is the first in a series, which will explore different perspectives on leadership. As an MBA applicant, showing the reader your leadership abilities and potential through personal narrative is essential. We hope this series will inform and inspire you.
In a Financial Times article, Hitendra Wadhwa, a professor at Columbia Business School, calls for a “serious overhaul” in leadership. Pointing to a variety of recent failed leadership moments, including Boris Johnson’s government, Elon Musk’s Twitter acquisition, and the turmoil surrounding the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and then Credit Suisse, Wadhwa notes that it's time to reconsider how we view leadership.
Our current practice is to define leadership as an ever-expanding list of competencies. But Wadhwa points out that there is no “silver bullet” for successful leadership. And, after compiling a database of more than 1,000 moments of “exemplary leadership,” Wadhwa contends that we need a new paradigm. First, he says, we need to reframe leadership, then reconstruct it, then redesign how we teach it.
First, let’s examine the reframe. Wadhwa discusses the importance of creating a culture where diverse voices, representing an array of experiences and knowledge, are comfortable speaking up. To do this, he says, an organization must cultivate an environment where leadership is “an inner choice” rather than a job title, and people with knowledge feel able and driven to share it.
Now, the reconstruction. Forget the list of competencies. Wadhwa’s view is that leadership is about something deeper. He says leaders must find the ability to access their “inner core,” the place where they are at their most high-functioning, where they can access peak levels of resilience, optimism, creativity, and relatability. And then, a leader must get their team members to that place as well. Leadership is about moving from a group of individuals with various motivations to a team committed to a shared goal. To do this, Wadhwa suggests one must “tap into five core energies: purpose (commitment to a cause); wisdom (calm, receptive to truth); growth (curious, open to growing); love (connected with their team and those they serve); and self-realization (centered in a joyful spirit).”
And finally, the redesign. While leadership comes from practice, Wadhwa does share the approach he recommends to the executives he coaches. “First, prior to a big meeting, you pause and take time to access your “inner core” and consider how you will encourage others to do the same.” Strategies he named to do this include: Creating a positive intention for the meeting, taking time to recenter yourself, and visualizing actions that will promote a positive and productive energy within the group. Wadhwa reports that Executives who use this technique report a “threefold gain in their ability to meet their goal and in how [favorably] others respond.”
“To develop a new generation of leaders, we should not keep adding new arrows to executives’ quivers while far from the battlefield. We should instead guide them on how to hold the bow steady and concentrate on the target in front of them, right in the midst of battle,” Wadhwa writes.