Interview with Executive Director, Ian O Ihnatowycz Institute for Leadership, Richard Ivey School of Business
In a recent discussion with Rajarshi Bhattacharjee, Seijts says the issue of good leadership boils down to what leaders do when the media, shareholders and politicians are not looking at them.
What is your definition of a successful leader? Post the global economic meltdown, do you think leaders should look at running their enterprises any differently?
We had done some great research projects a few years back following our experiences during the global financial crisis. There was also a lot of talk in the media at the time that dealt with greed, as the financial crisis was a result of greed. I must tell you that many people, some of our alumni who are also our friends, knew that we are heading towards a financial crisis during the period. But they were not always greedy people. We engaged in conversations with 300 of these people and as you can imagine there was a shock in waiting — in terms of all kinds of leadership failures.