Short term or long term? The duality challenge for leaders

In the "Handbook of Leadership Theory and Practice (2010)", Nohria and Khurana rightly point out that leadership is primarily about dealing with different forms of dualities. For example, leaders must ensure that their organizations are perform well financially without compromising on ethical standards. Leaders are usually distinctive individuals, but they must also play a social role. In today's globalized world, leaders must have universal appeal, but they must also be sensitive to local differences. Leaders must make autonomous decisions but yet adhere to certain expectations of society. Finally, a leader must focus on developing their competencies without losing sight of their true selves.


I argue that in addition to these dualities, leaders have to constantly address the long term vs. short term orientation of their organizations and themselves. Although history is ample proof that success does not happen overnight, and we acknowledge the 10,000 hour practice rule to achieve perfection; we are quick to dismiss people when the going gets tough. The world's blue eyed boy, Mark Zuckerberg who achieved rock star status when Facebook went public, was within a year urging his shareholders to be patient in judging Facebook's less than stellar performance in the first year. He reminded them of  how Facebook's took over nine years to achieve its current status. Louis C.K now considered  the comedian of comedians,  in his typical self-deprecatory yet profound style, suggests that his few years at the top now, is backed up by his struggle for 43 years. The now bestselling car in India, the Tata Indica, was initially dubbed "Ratan's folly" after Tata CEO, who is now one of India's most admired leaders. Even the legendary Steve Jobs was fired from Apple before he made his triumphant return.

How can leaders deal with this duality?  Research indicates that convincing others to have a long term perspective is likely to be a losing battle. As human beings we are wired to value short term benefits over the long term even in matters directly affecting us. Wouldn't we be able to resist the second piece of chocolate cake otherwise?  This short term focus only intensifies as we move to more distant aspects like stock market performance and  profits. A leader therefore has to look within to strike this balance. As my boss pointed out "Life maybe unfair in the short run, but is fair in the long run".

This is why values based leadership is so important today. In the famous Merck case, CEO Vagellas gave away the river blindness drug Mectazan  for free despite Merck's huge investments in developing it. Vagellas says that the decision although extremely risky, was not difficult because he focused on Merck's values of "saving human lives" rather than the short term adverse implications on the company's profits. A leader with strong values concentrates on upholding them, rather than on long term or short term results. Doing this requires courage and the deepest level of conviction in oneself. Although it's too early to judge Mark Zuckerberg, it appears that all the software development in Facebook is geared around people building relationships, which is why protecting anonymity is not the first criterion in their product development. We may disagree, but having such a focal point makes decision making easy.


To restate Nohria and Khurana's last duality that leaders must come to terms with - the duality of acquiring competencies versus staying true to oneself-, the solution is to acquire those competencies that can help you stay true to yourself. These competencies are internal values rather than skills. Back to quoting Louis CK, whose current hit show Louie, was preceded by Lucky Louie which lasted only one season. Louis CK feels that compromising on his artistic freedom may have given the show a second season.

But I did what I wanted to, creatively. I’m so glad I did it that way. And now I’m further emboldened with this job.

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