Organization Leadership, Fall 2010

Authors:

Samantha Arsenault, Ajoy Bhattacharya, Mary Fudeman,

Jessica MacLean, Scott Mogel, Jason White

© 2010 Team Kratos. All Rights Reserved.

Team Kratos Organization Leadership, Fall 2010

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Great leaders exist in all types of organizations and inspire others in a myriad of ways.

While great leaders may share many common attributes, they each exhibit unique leadership

styles that have developed through varied experiences. The following profiles discuss these

different senior leaders and their respective leadership qualities that enable them to be effective

within their respective organizations.

Dan St. Onge began working as the Chief Operating Officer of Eagle Investment Systems

LLC in 2000 when Eagle was a small start-up company. Dan has been instrumental in growing

the company into an industry leading software provider with operations in seven countries. The

ability to transform a start-up company into a global business requires strong leadership skills.

Dan demonstrates these skills by encouraging the hearts of others (Kouzes and Posner, 1995). He

frequently conveys his gratitude toward employees by commending them for a job well done and

helping them to take pride in their work. Every summer, Dan invites the operations team and

their families to his lake house for food, fun and games. His warm-hearted, friendly demeanor

encourages his employees to go the extra mile. Dan also demonstrates emotional intelligence

through self-regulation, empathy and social skills (Goleman, 2004). He is always in a great mood

and greets everyone with a smile and friendly conversation. Dan encourages his employees to

maintain a sustainable work-life balance. While Dan exhibits a high degree of emotional

intelligence, he struggles to enable his employees to act. Despite this shortcoming, he is a great

leader, dedicated to his work and humble about his contributions.

Frank Ollington is the Senior Vice President of the Product Supply Management group at

Genzyme Corporation. Frank’s group manages the distribution of two of the company’s

products. These products were rationed when a virus in Genzyme’s Allston manufacturing

facility shutdown production in the summer of 2009. When the company first became aware of

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the drug shortage caused by the plant shutdown, Frank quietly took control of the situation. He

assembled a small team to identify the issues, the people who needed to be involved and the long

and short-term impacts of the supply shortage. Despite the tension and the uncertainty the

company has faced since the virus outbreak, Frank has exhibited self-regulation by remaining

calm, disciplined, and steadfast. Never seeking recognition, he constantly provides others the

opportunity to take on responsibilities and ensures they are recognized for their hard work. Frank

gives employees room to be great. His door is always open and he is an incredible mentor to

people across the organization. During his tenure he has fostered a familial environment by

building a foundation on respect, care, success and encouragement.

Dr. Robert A. Brown became President of Boston University in 2005. President Brown

has a Ph.D. in chemical engineering and has worked in research and education for most of his

career. He envisions the future changes that need to be made at the university. He constantly

challenges the process with a desire to make BU great through continuous improvement

initiatives. President Brown instituted “Choosing to be Great,” a ten year plan which establishes

a shared vision and goals for BU on its quest to becoming one of the nation’s leading research

institutions. The plan enables others to act by encouraging collaboration between departments.

This collaboration creates a competitive advantage for BU by offering a diverse curriculum and

an abundance of opportunities for students. When faced with challenges, President Brown

remains calm and resilient and does not allow his emotions to get in the way. For example, when

the economy declined, he ensured that financial aid would be a top priority and took funding

away from other departments to guarantee students would have enough financial assistance.

President Brown demonstrates strong professional will by his constant drive to improve BU, yet

despite all of his successes he remains humble.

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In 2004, Ellen Zane became the first woman to lead Tufts Medical Center. After six years

under her leadership, Tufts has risen to one of the nation’s top ranked teaching hospitals for

quality standards. She achieved this status despite the loss of millions of dollars in revenue from

the 2006 cuts to Medicaid and Medicare and the subsequent nationwide financial crisis. Ellen

remains humble and encourages her employees to continue to work hard and strive for

excellence. She enables employees to take action and make difficult decisions; allowing the

hospital to be more efficient. For example, when forced to cut the liver transplant program, the

hospital developed a successful affiliation with another nearby hospital to facilitate the

procedures. Through careful analysis, Ellen has outlined a process to achieve future success with

explicit objectives and a well thought out action plan. She models her vision through her daily

actions and uses her social skills to communicate her vision with employees at regular town hall

style meetings and monthly management reviews. As a result, the hospital’s leaders are prepared

to properly execute the mission of delivering the highest standard of service. Moreover, she

inspires everyone to leave their mark on the organization just as she has done.

Brian Light became the CIO of Staples Corporation in 1998 following a successful career

as a partner at Accenture. He continuously challenges the process, most notably in his efforts to

evolve the primary business model from paper intensive to paperless. Brian is extremely

motivated as evidenced in his persistence to complete the integration of the Corporate Express

acquisition amid numerous obstacles and setbacks. He makes use of monthly meetings to

communicate his vision and delegate responsibility to employees, thus empowering his direct

reports to act. Recently, Brian challenged his employees to deliver projects faster and

empowered them to lead a restructuring effort across the organization. Brian reminds his

employees to be warm and empathetic to others. When meeting new employees, he typically puts

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his arms around their shoulders, shakes their hand and gives them a warm welcome to Staples.

He makes people feel at home and ensures that employees know their contributions to the

company are important

Stefan Borgas became CEO of Lonza Biologics in 2004. He has evoked a leadership style

reminiscent of Sergio Nacach of Kimberly-Clark (Anderson, 2009). Andreas Helm, a Lonza

employee, described his experience of meeting Stefan over a cup of coffee as informal and

warm, adding, “Stefan is personable and approachable” (http://www.lonza.com). During his term

as CEO, Stefan has transformed Lonza into one of the world’s leading suppliers of products and

services to medical device and pharmaceutical companies by challenging the process. Stefan has

endorsed numerous initiatives to develop innovative new products and groundbreaking

technologies, such as the world’s largest fermentation reactor. Stefan has challenged the process

by acquiring bio-product manufacturing and technology companies thus strengthening Lonza’s

market position. Above all, Stefan is a creative thinker who is adept at inspiring a shared vision

throughout the company. He shares his vision for the organization through the Lonza intranet

and companywide town hall meetings. Through his communications, Stefan outlines his agenda

in a manner that encourages all employees to become involved. Stefan, along with the other five

leaders, embodies many common qualities of great leaders. These qualities are discussed in

further detail below.

“The most effective leaders are alike in one crucial way: They all have a high degree of

what has come to be known as emotional intelligence” (Goleman, 2004: 213-214). All six

leaders exhibit most of the five attributes of emotional intelligence, but the three common

attributes are self-awareness, self-regulation and motivation. Self-awareness and self-regulation

enable leaders to understand their emotions and manage them in stressful situations. The actions

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and emotions of senior leaders are closely watched and emulated by others in the organization. If

a leader exhibits a calm, personable and good-humored demeanor, other employees will, in turn,

do the same. Motivation is one of the main driving forces behind any leader’s success. One

cannot advance to any level of senior management if one is not intrinsically driven to achieve

greatness. Furthermore, motivated leaders are never satisfied with the status quo and are

continually raising the bar and tracking results to achieve higher levels of performance. Similar

to self regulation, motivation permeates throughout an organization and enables a company to

flourish in a competitive global economy. In corroboration, Goleman writes, “Emotional

intelligence not only distinguishes outstanding leaders but can also be linked to strong

performance” (Goleman, 2004: 214). This is apparent in the way each of the six leaders has

taken their organization to a higher level through their ability to lead change.

Besides emotional intelligence, there are other commonalities observed in leadership

approaches. These approaches are seen in the contrasting leadership styles of the six leaders on

the Leadership Compass (The Leadership Compass). Thorough analysis revealed that 50% of the

leaders use vision as their main leadership approach, while the other 50% use analysis as their

main leadership approach. The leaders that use vision as their primary approach are idea-oriented

and forward thinking. They need to think outside the box in order to stay one step ahead of their

competitors. These leaders value innovation and the idea of possibility, which inspires their

employees to be creative in finding a competitive advantage. This approach was not as prevalent

in all of our leaders as some approach leadership in a more analytical manner. Analytical leaders

understand how to use past information effectively to make important decisions to improve the

future of their companies. These leaders are viewed as dependable and practical, which

establishes trust in their leadership from their employees. Employees feel confident that the

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companies’ needs have been carefully examined to create the best possible future. Although

these approaches are very different, both are equally effective forms of leadership.

Through the CIEME analysis, we found that all of the leaders share similar

characteristics. Some of our leaders’ strengths lay in their ability to analyze, such as Dan St.

Onge and Frank Ollington. Others, like Ellen Zane and Robert Brown, excel at creating a vision

for their organization. These differences do not prevent any of the leaders from inspiring a shared

vision within their organization. The leaders who tend to be more analytical have found

themselves in roles which require an analytical mind. Though analytical, Dan St. Onge and

Frank Ollington are able to inspire a shared vision to those around them.  

Almost all the leaders analyzed share a strong ability to enable others to act. As Kouzes

and Posner write in their article, “Leaders know that no one does his or her best when feeling

weak, incompetent, or alienated; they know that those who are expected to produce the results

must feel a sense of ownership” (Kouzes and Posner, 1995: 182). The ability to enable others

involves many qualities of a leader including empathy, inspiring a vision, and the ability to let

others assume ownership of their work. Being empathetic allows leaders to understand when

employees are feeling empowered and inspiring a vision makes it clear to employees what they

are working toward.

Similarly, many of the leaders demonstrated their willingness to challenge the process in

order to achieve results. For example, Brian Light is willing to challenge the process and wants

to make Staples a leader in an increasingly paperless world. This is a clear deviation from the

historic view of Staples as a leading supplier of paper, printers and other key supplies for a

paper-based world. Similarly, Dr. Robert Brown challenges the process in the way that financial

aid is distributed, encouraging students who otherwise may not have been able to afford an

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education at Boston University. All of our leaders share many of the attributes that Kouzes and

Posner have found to be critical for exemplary leaders.

Based on the common leadership qualities identified, all the leaders are regarded as Level

5 Leaders as this type of leadership involves a combination of many of the previously defined

qualities (Collins, 2005). According to Jim Collins article, Level 5 Leadership, Level 5 Leaders

are the most important factor in transforming a company from good to great. Level 5 leaders

recognize when the status quo is not working and seek to challenge the process by changing the

business model. Some examples of this are entering a new industry or shedding an unprofitable

division. However, before a leader can challenge the process they must have a vision of where

the company is headed in order to understand what changes need to be made. All the leaders

described in this paper have been instrumental in transforming their respective organizations.

One of the two main attributes of a Level 5 leader is professional will which parallels motivation

from the CIEME model. Transforming a company requires a strong drive to overcome obstacles

and setbacks along the way. Humility, the other main attribute of Level 5 leadership, corresponds

with self-awareness and self-regulation. Successful leaders are aware of their mistakes and prefer

to look in the mirror, rather than out the window when assigning blame for poor results. They

also maintain a calm demeanor at all times, especially during instability which typically

accompanies change. Lastly, Level 5 Leaders empower employees in order to develop the next

generation of leaders at the organization.

Despite sharing leadership qualities, similar executive leaders may not always be as

equally effective if they switched organizations. This is evident in the case of Dr. Robert Brown

and Ellen Zane (see Exhibit 1). In his article, What Makes a Leader, Daniel Goleman describes

social skills as friendliness with a purpose in order to move people in the direction that you

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desire. While Ellen Zane and Dr. Robert Brown both possess social skills on some level, Ellen

Zane possesses this quality to a much greater extent. Ellen Zane has a business degree and is

known for her charismatic, no-nonsense leadership style. Tufts Medical Center’s success largely

depends on the relationships that are established with outside entities such as insurance

companies and philanthropic sources. Part of her role is to serve as the hospital’s ambassador to

these organizations in order to gain financial support. She must engage in negotiations and

demonstrate that her hospital produces the highest quality of care possible. Ellen Zane is an

accomplished persuader with exceptional social skills. Conversely, Dr. Robert Brown is known

for leading from behind the scenes. He is not a dynamic speaker and is not known for having an

outgoing personality. He strives to move people in his direction, as Goleman describes, by

challenging processes. Financial contributions to Boston University are driven by the quality of

academic research and caliber of students. Dr. Robert Brown promotes these features by setting

goals and encouraging change that will elevate the university to one of the greatest research

institutions in the country. Due to the differences in their approach, Dr. Robert Brown and Ellen

Zane would not be as effective if they switched organizations.

Some leaders flourish in smaller organizations while others flourish in larger

organizations. Dan St. Onge, while effective at Eagle, which is relatively small, lacks the ability

to enable his employees and would therefore struggle in a larger company like Lonza, led by

Stefan Borgus. As seen in the analysis of the individual leaders, leaders of larger organizations

must have the ability to enable others to act. Stefan Borgas understands this and has transformed

Lonza into a nimble organization by empowering others. Ellen Zane, Dr. Robert Brown, Frank

Ollington and Brian Light have all excelled at enabling their employees, and their organizations

have thrived from employees taking ownership of their work and involvement.

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Just as an organization’s size can affect the style of leadership required for success, the

position of the leader is important also. Dan St. Onge, as Chief Operating Officer, does not

possess the same skills as those of a visionary like Stefan Borgas, CEO at Lonza (see Exhibit 2).

Leading a large pharmaceutical company like Lonza requires creative thinking. The biotech

industry is constantly evolving and its leaders must be able to envision the future and think

outside the box in order to stay ahead of the competition. Stefan fits the visionary mold, as

demonstrated by his Leadership Compass analysis. He has a vision of transforming Lonza into a

market leader, which involves several strategic acquisitions and heavy investment in research

and development. Stefan shares his vision with all Lonza employees in a manner that inspires

everyone and enables them to make decisions that are consistent with his vision. Dan St. Onge

would not be successful as the CEO of Lonza. He is not a visionary like Stefan Borgus and his

leadership style is defined the west location on the leadership compass as he is extremely

analytical. Dan St. Onge is able to recognize great ideas, but he is not the one who conceives the

actual vision. Instead, he acts in a supporting role by providing planning and resources to execute

the vision. Although a great leader, Dan St. Onge would not be as successful in Stefan Borgas’

role since he is not a visionary.

Some leaders possess qualities that would transfer successfully to other organizations or

positions. For instance, both Frank Ollington and Brian Light have qualities that are compatible

in both their organizations (see Exhibit 3). Both leaders can inspire a vision that employees can

follow. Additionally, both leaders have an open-door policy and employees feel welcome to seek

mentoring or to openly discuss issues that are present in current work situations. Frank Ollington

and Brian Light show qualities of integrity and self-regulation. They have expressed, in words

and actions, their vision for employees to feel enabled to take on challenges and responsibility.

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Overall, both leaders have many similar leadership qualities that would allow them to transfer to

each others organizations successfully.

All of the leaders analyzed in this paper demonstrated that they are Level 5 leaders and

possess several other common leadership qualities in regards to emotional intelligence,

leadership approach and the five pillars of exemplary leadership. Most of the qualities examined

can be transferred to any company regardless of industry or size; however, a lack of certain

qualities such as social skills or enabling others would prevent a leader from achieving success at

a different organization. It’s not surprising that the leaders analyzed share so many common

qualities, because as explained by the article, The Practices and Commitments of Exemplary

Leadership, “They’ve (the qualities) stood the test of time, and they’re available to anyone, in

any organization or situation, who accepts the leadership challenge” (Kouzes and Posner, 1995:

179).

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Works Cited

1. Anderson, M. (2009). Kimberly-Clark Andean: Creating a Winning Culture. Stanford Graduate School of Business. Case: OB-72

2. Helm, Andreas. Lonza Graduates 14 November 2010 http://www.lonza.com/group/en/company/c1/people_portraits/graduates.html

3. Goleman, D. (2004). What Makes a Leader. Harvard Business School Publishing.

4. The Leadership Compass, Exploring Your Approach to Leadership. City Year Academy

5. Kouzes, J. & Posner B (1995). The Practices and Commitments of Exemplary Leadership. Jossey-Bass

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Legend:

Represents an interchangeable attribute between the leaders being compared

6. Collins, J. (2005). Level 5 Leadership. Harvard Business School Publishing.

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