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December 19, 2005

Fletcher Professor Jeswald Salacuse Talks About His New Book "Leading Leaders: How to Manage Smart, Talented, Rich, and Powerful People"

Professor Jeswald Salacuse, Henry J. Baker Professor of Law at The Fletcher School, said that while some people are born with inherent leadership qualities, these traits may also be acquired through proper training and practice. “If leadership skills cannot be taught, I wouldn’t have written this book.”

The book is “Leading Leaders: How to Manage Smart, Talented, Rich, and Powerful People”, which provides useful insights on how leaders can leverage the strong personalities and opinions of the people working with or under them, overcome power struggles and keep focused on the goals of the organization.

Salacuse said leadership in this context is a relationship –one where the leader is able to cause the persons he is leading to act in ways that are beneficial to the group. “Trust is the key” to establishing a good relationship with the ‘leaders’ that one is leading, he said.

“Obviously, if you are leading diplomats, government officials, corporate executives, board members, lawyers and other professionals, you can’t lead by instilling fear in them—there is great difficulty in using fear as a technique. You have to be able to foster a relationship with them that is built on mutual trust,” he said.

Throughout the book, Salacuse uses case studies to illustrate his ideas— Lyndon B. Johnson as majority leader of the U.S. Senate, the success of George Bush, Sr. in building a coalition of nations during the gulf war in contrast to his son, incumbent President George W. Bush, in bringing together allies in the Iraq War, among others.

As a teacher and scholar, Salacuse said that he has always been focused on formulating ideas that would “help leaders and professionals do their tasks”. He said that in this book, he wanted to explore how negotiation can be used as a tool for leadership “in order to help the group find a sense of direction, represent their common interests, foster trust, motivate and educate them, and help mediate any conflict that may arise.”

Salacuse noted the growth of the negotiation field in Fletcher. He recalls: “When I came to Fletcher in 1986, there were no negotiation courses being offered yet. They were only introduced when the late Professor (Jeffrey) Rubin and I collaborated on developing the courses.”

Salacuse said that his experiences as a dean at The Fletcher School from 1986 to 1994 served as one of his inspirations for writing the book.

“I was placed in a position where I had to lead a group of highly talented, intelligent and motivated professionals—all experts in their fields—who also happen to also have their own strong opinions about doing things. My challenge, then, was how to perform my role as a leader of the school, acting as a custodian at the same time, while being able to meet the challenge of dealing with the strong personalities of the professors and school administrators whom I had to deal with,” he said.

As a strategy, Salacuse said that he remained focused on his priority goal as dean—setting a vision for the School that would guide later administrations in moving the school forward. “Eventually, the professors realized that despite our differences in opinion, we all shared that common interest in furthering the interests of the organization.” This, he said, made it easier for him to get consensus from the group on some common issues.

“Taking the example of Lyndon B. Johnson, a leader must be able to build one-on-one relationships with each member of the group. Communication is crucial because a leader should be able to find out the interest of each member of the group,” Salacuse said.

Shuang Geng, a first-year MALD student from China, asked if culture will factor into leadership in this context.

“Leadership is also a cultural thing. Wherever you may be and whatever the nationalities are of the persons you are leading, you have to know how to make followers follow, and to do this you have to find your common interests,” he replied.

Salacuse also spoke briefly about his current project—a treatise on international investment treaties.

“The trend in the world now is toward treaty-based systems for investments which are parallel to the current treaty-based trade regime. This benefits the parties as treaties lend stability to their investments, clarifies the terms and conditions and enables them to formulate a dispute resolution mechanism in case of any disagreement,” Salacuse said.

Salacuse also serves as president of an international arbitration tribunal which was created under the auspices of the World Bank’s International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes.

He said that as president of the tribunal, his work also revolves around negotiating, “this time with the parties, arbitrators and counsels, in order to move the arbitration process forward.”

“So you see, negotiation is pervasive. It is a critical skill to learn because you will be able to use it in whatever organization you may be working,” Salacuse said.

By Sharon Rivera, MALD '07

Posted by jessica at December 19, 2005 09:04 AM