Lindsay launches IUR Program for the Study of Leadership with talk to capacity crowd

BY FRANZ BROTZEN
Rice News staff

Great leaders may serve their own interests, but they also work for the common good. That was one of the messages delivered by Michael Lindsay, assistant professor of sociology and Rice Scholar at the Baker Institute for Public Policy, at a July 20 lecture given to a full house in Duncan Hall’s McMurtry Auditorium.

	MICHAEL LINDSAY

Lindsay’s lecture, titled “Selecting and Developing the Best,” was the inaugural event of the Program for the Study of Leadership at Rice’s Institute for Urban Research (IUR).

Lindsay has conducted extensive research on the nature of leadership or, as he put it, “who are those people who are having the biggest impact on our society today, and what lessons can we learn from them?” He interviewed 500 leaders in business, government and the nonprofit sector in recent years, logging 400,000 miles and gathering 8,000 pages of data. “Leaders,” he discovered, “like to talk about themselves.”

He also found that the best way to learn about leadership qualities is by studying successful models. One example was Thad Allen, commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard, who has played a prominent role in the effort to stop the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Allen, Lindsay said, is “perfectly suited for the job he’s been given.” He “is a great leader for the Coast Guard but wouldn’t be a terrific CEO or a good college president.” According to Lindsay, Allen exemplifies the point that “great leaders find a match between their talents and their strengths and the roles of their responsibilities.”

Another subject of Lindsay’s research is businessman Mike Ullman, who revived the fortunes of retailer JCPenney. Lindsay highlighted Ullman’s efforts to build relationships and share credit as characteristics of a successful leader. And former CNN President Tom Johnson demonstrated the willingness to take risks — a trait that leaders need, Lindsay said — when he gambled on maintaining a news bureau in Baghdad after U.S. bombs began to fall on the Iraqi capital in 1991. “Another thing that great leaders do is to take advantage of whatever opportunities might be along their path.”

Johnson also led Lindsay to the importance of the White House Fellows Program, an initiative launched by President Lyndon Johnson to train early career leaders who eventually rise to leading positions in virtually every sector of American society. The former CNN president won a White House fellowship in 1965.

Lindsay went on to study the White House Fellows Program, interviewing 78 percent of the program’s 627 living fellows. In addition to what Lindsay referred to as “supercharging the networks,” building relationships across different fields, the program offered four distinct benefits to its participants, Lindsay found.

The program facilitated a cohort-based model of leadership. “Leadership grows the best in the presence of other leaders,” Lindsay said. The White House fellows were also assigned significant work to accomplish. And they were provided with a chance to have a broadening education — beyond their own organization or background — as well as a chance to travel. Finally, they received public recognition. “We value what we recognize, and we recognize what we value,” Lindsay noted.

Asked about the role of wealth in creating opportunities for leaders, Lindsay acknowledged that “money makes a difference to a certain extent,” by opening doors to cultural and travel possibilities. But he argued that money alone does not motivate leaders. “You reach a point where you get no real added value by the more money that you earn,” he said.

The lecture was co-sponsored by Leadership Rice and was the first of several events organized by the Program for the Study of Leadership during the 2010-2011 academic year.