Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/56529
Leadership is not a position, but a process. It is my job to help students understand their approaches to leadership." The Executive Coach Pratap Nambiar is a truly global citizen: He holds degrees from the University of Bombay and the National Uni- versity of Singapore and is a Fellow of the UK's Chartered Institute of Marketing. In jobs with a variety of companies, including Ernst & Young and KPMG, he has worked in Indonesia, Sing apore, Nigeria, India, and Russia. Before he founded executive coaching firm Thought Perfect Pte Ltd, he ran KPMG's Asia Pacific Global Client Program out of Singapore. Currently, he is Executive in Residence at the National University of Singa- pore Business School, where he teaches classes, presents lec- tures, meets with students on specific projects, and coaches students on dilemmas they might face in the workplace. What businesses will want most from graduates is clar- ity of thought and action. Obviously, clarity is an aspect of leadership that will be invaluable for executives work- ing in a complex, fast-changing, and uncertain world. A leader who thinks clearly can shape the beliefs of the team and bring about changes in behavior. These will lead to appropriate actions, which will bring about the desired outcomes. Graduates also will need to understand the importance of culture. They will need to understand that the ability to build trusted relationships at all levels can mean the difference between great strategy and great performance. The implementation of strategy and the constant search to deliver greater value to customers and stakeholders will help graduates become successful leaders. Leadership is not a position, but a process. It is a func- tion of the interaction between a leader, followers, and the context of a situation. I believe it is my job to help students understand their approaches to leadership. I must show them that the way they think and feel will shape their expec- tations, and their expectations will determine their results. As I have worked with business students, I have been impressed by their positive energy and their hunger for success. They are full of enthusiasm and good cheer in spite of all the problems around us. They also have a bal- 32 BizEd SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2009 anced and hopeful view of the world. They believe in global responses to global problems. They are open and transparent, and they take a long view that focuses on the betterment of the world as a whole. The Investment Banker Ellen Miller's 25-year career in investment banking included a long stint with the European office of Lehman Brothers, where she held a variety of high-profile positions. One of her responsibilities included building rela- tionships between Leh- man and elite European business schools. She devel- oped particularly close ties with London Business School after the firm provided initial funding for the school's Lehman Brothers Centre for Women in Business. In 2008, she took a sabbatical from Lehman to become executive-in-residence at the Centre, where she markets its research to other practitioners, does broad community outreach, mentors female students, promotes gender diversity in business, and advises the Women in Business Club. One of the lessons we've learned from the recent eco- nomic crisis is that it's a mistake for business schools to turn out graduates who are too one-dimensional. For example, I'm not sure the workers in the financial sector ever had a 360-degree understanding of what was happening last year. To some extent, the fault lies with businesses that deliberately recruited students with exclusively quantita- tive strengths. I've always believed that what is done in the financial world is not rocket science, and smart people should be able to learn how to do it. But much of the time, The reality now is that tomorrow's leaders will need to be well-rounded individuals with equally strong quantitative and qualitative skills.