REFLECTIONS ON CHARACTER AND LEADERSHIP

302 REFLECTIONS ON CHARACTER AND LEADERSHIP

discussion, the leader makes the fi nal decision, and that decision becomes

a law for all.

Lesson 7: Foster a Charismatic Leadership Style

Whatever a Russian leader ’ s competencies and management style, he or

she has an enormous amount of power within the organization, simply

by virtue of their position. The Russian people have an archaic cultural

need for powerful charismatic leaders, assuming that their leaders are

superior beings who have unique rights and, by defi nition, deserve

compliance. This attitude on the part of Russian workers gives Russian

business leaders far greater room for maneuvering than their Western

counterparts have.

Lesson 8: Manage Meaning

Despite the difference in the scope and complexity of businesses headed

by the leaders mentioned so far all the men and women have one thing

in common: they actively employ the concept of a mission — an over-

arching goal — in mobilizing the efforts of their people.

Challenges for global Russian business leaders

The collective wisdom generated through these eight leadership lessons

has enabled many Russian business leaders to make unprecedented

advances, and enormous profi ts, in the newly opened market economy

in Russia. However, there are still many demands on Russian leaders,

as they and their organizations mature — challenges that they should

prepare themselves to face in the near future.

Challenge 1: Identify and Develop Successors

Leadership succession represents the single largest challenge for global

Russian leaders. Russian business leaders can learn something from the

rest of the world about effective succession planning. None of the entre-

preneurs I met was planning to hand their organizations over to their