The Hindu Business Line : <I>Management, leadership are the yin-yang </I>

A must-do for any company boss is to deliver shareholder value, says Mark Thomas in `The Complete CEO,' from Capstone (www.wiley.com) . "For the CEO, once the honeymoon is over - and it is always over remarkably quickly - getting the business to deliver is all that counts."

For, there is a strong correlation between `the length of CEO tenure and the ability to deliver TSR (total shareholder return)'. TSR, for starters, is `a combination of the capital growth in the value of the share and the dividend yield'. CEOs who can average around 20 per cent or above `annualised TSR' can expect to enjoy tenure of `nine-plus years', one learns.

Thomas tries to find what makes a complete CEO, by looking at a sample of `the world's 100 best-performing large companies' with market cap of more than £10 billion, `based on long-term TSR'. Does the leader have to be `a hero, a charismatic talisman'? Not necessary, says the author. "The new leader should be a pragmatic dreamer, a person with an original but achievable vision." An important role for the leader is to build a team, by creating "a vision so compelling and seductive that the very best people want to be part of its success." As Bill Gates would say, the secret is "to surround yourself by people better than you."

Management and leadership are the yin-yang that a CEO has to balance, advises Thomas. "Management is more closely aligned with `yang' terms, such as cool, aggregating, conscious and reasoning; and leadership with `yin' terms, such as imagining, non-linear, holistic, and subjective."

Sounds good, yes; but where is the time? Anticipating such an excuse, the author gives tips for `effective allocation of time, across stakeholders, activities, and personal life'. He offers a ratio: "40 per cent management (work with them, connect their ideas); 30 per cent staff (be a leader, use your status at the right moments); 20 per cent investors (this may not always be productive); and 10 per cent customers."

Valuable insight is to split the time between "real (management) and symbolic (leadership) actions." Up to 40 per cent of a CEO's time is likely to be symbolic, anticipates Thomas. "Effective symbolism is crucial to good leadership."

Worthy read.

http://BookPeek.blogspot.com

D. Murali

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Management, leadership are the yin-yang