Dr Lindsay Shares The View from the Top at MBS China Centre
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On10th May, 2013, Manchester Business School China Centre invited Dr. Michael Lindsay to deliver a speech on leadership for MBS Global MBA students, alumni and working professionals. The main content of the speech is Dr. Lindsay’s recent-finished study project on leadership.
Award-winning sociologist and educator Dr. Michael Lindsay is the eighth president of Gordon College. President Lindsay earned his Ph. D. in sociology from Princeton University. From 2006 until 2011, he was a member of the faculty at Rice University, where he directed the Program for the Study of Leadership. Lindsay is the author of the Pulitzer-nominated book, Faith in the Halls of Power, and is a prominent expert on leadership and culture. He has lectured on five continents and his work has been profiled in hundreds of news outlets worldwide, including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, CNN, Fox News Channel, and the BBC.
Through in-depth interviews and quantitative analyses, the project represents the largest and most exhaustive set of interview data conducted with senior leaders. Over 500 business, government, higher education, and non-profit leaders participated in the study, including two U.S. presidents; CEOs of Fortune 500 companies such as General Electric, JP Morgan Chase, Time Warner, and Xerox; and presidents of some of the world’s leading universities. It took him eight years to complete the project.
During his speech at MBS, Dr. Lindsay shared with audience the study result and his thought on leadership, he found out that among his interviewees, 35% work 60 to 69 hours per week, 31% work 70 to 79 hours per week and another 10% work 90 hours per week. Diligence indeed contributes to success. It is also told from the study that 61% interviewees admitted that network greatly contributed to their success, and Dr. Lindsay pointed out that MBA is an excellent way to expand high quality network.
Dr. Lindsay believes that there are mainly three approaches leaders can exert influence and power, which are organizational, institutional and paradoxical approaches. Dr. Lindsay gave an example of the Advisor to U.S. president, George Bush. She was the female that holds the highest politicalposition, the way she influenced greatly is when she resign after two and half years in position. She chose to accompany more his son and spend more time with family. This action and her value that demonstrated had a great influence on people around her and many others.
The excellent speech by Dr. Lindsay totally inspired the audience, and that’s why they can’t wait to ask questions. One of the MBS Global MBA Students asked that how about the background of the leaders, and whether or not and how the background influence the leaders’ management style. Dr. Lindsay answered that 59% of the interviewees came from middle class, 28% came from working class, only 4% came from upper class, and another 4% came from near poverty class. The backgrounds, indeed, influence management style. Those who came from upper class shows more generosity and kindness, yet those who came from poverty, middle or working class has two tendency: showy and guilty, some of them are very tough at work and often show wealth through fancy cars and otherluxury products, the other tendency is they feel deeply guilty for they became rich and many neighbors did not.
After Dr. Lindsay’s speech, Sherry Fu, Director of MBS China Centre thanked Dr. Lindsay for his excellent and inspiring speech.
Manchester business school is one of the first business schools in the UK and becomes a global leading business education provider after nearly 50 years development. MBS China centre which was launched in 2008 is committed to provide world-class business education opportunities to the Chinese people, continuously making contribution to the society and development of regional education.
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