The MIT Sloan Leadership Club hosted the 7th annual MIT Sloan Leadership Conference on “Leading Today, Shaping Tomorrow” on February 25, 2006. The theme highlighted the lasting impact that leadership has on individuals, organizations and communities. Vikas Jhingran served as the conference Co-Chair. In her opening remarks, Deborah Ancona, Seley Distinguished Professor of Management, MIT,  described leadership as “distributed, personal and developmental”.

In his keynote address, Jeff Clarke identified the five key points for leadership. “Communicate, Achieve Early Wins, Lead by Example, Make Decisions Based on Data and Economics, and Measure, Measure, Measure are the five key points for leadership,” said Clarke who is the  Chief Operating Officer of Computer Associates. Clark identified lack of communication as a big problem with leadership today.  "The better one communicates with all the stakeholders, the better it is for everyone.  Patience is over weighted,” said Clarke. There is a need to drive urgency and achieve some early victories in order to succeed. Additionally, it is important for the leaders to be visible. “Say what you will do and do what you say!” In Clarke's view other characteristics of leadership include communicating the process of decision making and developing the metric to measure outcomes and using them consistently.

The breakout sessions dealt with leadership in the 21st century, leadership in the global context, the personal side of professional leadership, and interaction with thought leaders such as Shoshanna Zuboff, Retired Professor, Harvard Business School, and David Maister, Independent Consultant. According to David Fialkow, Managing Director, General Catalyst Partners, “There are two types of leaders – one who are strategic and organized and the others who are charismatic. Everyone wants to be around charismatic leaders. They are needed to change the industry and are often innovators. However, they are often wrong and tend to take everybody with them. On the other hand, strategic and organized leaders are predictable. However, when things get tough, they tend to internalize.” “Hire people smarter than yourself and learn from other is key to success,” said S. Gopalkrishnan who is the  Deputy Managing Director and COO of  Infosys Technologies, Ltd.

Partha Ghosh, Former Partner, McKinsey & Company, emphasized the need for leaders to be genuine. As the world moves from industrial to knowledge economy, leaders must learn to work in a complex world. They need to deal with global terrorism. Leadership must change from a command and control structure to a catalyze and create structure, and help recognize the potential of others.

Victor Menezes, Retired Senior Vice Chairman, Citicorp, talked about the lessons learned from his more than 30 years of international experience. “Get experience managing people early in life rather than later in life, emphasize performance and achievements, embrace complexity, develop cultural bandwidth, plan for risk and change, marry well – integrate work/family, go for high thinking and simple living, learn something new everyday and have fun.”

Overall a great conference that gave the over 250 attendees something to think about as they assume leadership roles.

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