LEADERSHIP SKILLS MID STES

The objective of this group is to identify what is unique about R&D leadership. What are the leadership skills unique to R&D leadership, and what are the natural gaps and blind spots? In addition to its original research, the group is looking at previous research to identify the key leadership characteristics studied.

Daniel J. Carpenter, Alan R. Fusfeld, and Eouis A. Gritzo

What are the skills and attributes necessary for leadership in R&D, and are they the same general skills and attributes required for leadership in other functions? This is a critical question for innovation-centered organizations for whom R&D is the source of innovation and future wealth generation. R&D leadership is a key component of success for these companies; identifying these critical skills and attributes may lead to more effective selection and development of R&D leaders, and consequently to a stronger R&D organization. IRI's Research-on-Research working group on R&D Leadership Skills and Styles sought to explore these questions and identify those critical factors that differentiate successful R&D leaders from leaders elsewhere in the company. The working group kicked off an initial discussion about what factors are unique to R&D leadership at a meeting in early 2008. The group identified as its objective an examination of "how leadership skills and styles may be different in the R&D community and explore bow to leverage those attributes to develop stronger, more effective R&D leaders." A quick review of the literature identified few recent publications dealing specifically with leadership in R&D organizations. Jerald Hage et al., observing that "while research on leadership styles in R & D remains rare, a handful of studies provide useful guides for identifying key aspects of effective leadership" (2008, 263), cites work by J. R. Hollingsworth (2004). Hollingsworth identifies for successful R&D leaders three essential abilities: long-term scientific vision, cognitive mentoring of researchers (valuing and encouraging ideas), and emotional mentoring of researchers (valuing and encouraging the person). In his analysis of the results of a long-term study, Robert Keller (2006) demonstrates that a leader's capacity for transformational leadership, or the ability to inspire through a vision, positively predicts team performance for research project teams over time. On the other hand, Keller identifies a leader's capacity for initiating structureassigning tasks and defining subordinates' rolesas the stronger predictor of project team performance in development projects. As Keller states: The inspiration and intellectual stimulation effects of transformational leadership were likely more effective in research projects, which usually deal with more radical innovations that require originality and the importation of knowledge from outside the project team. Further, initiating structure was more effective in development projects, in which the focus is on incremental innovations and modifications of existing products, more of the needed scientific and technical information resides within the project team, and the leader tends to direct tasks to achieve product development. (209) This work clearly argues for the need for different leadership styles in different leadership roles. Exploring Leadership with R&D Leaders Having surveyed the available literature, the working group explored the subject further by conducting a series of facilitated discussions with R&D leaders who had demonstrated success in leadership roles over an extended period of time. Participants were selected from among the Industrial Research Institute's recent medalists and award winners, leaders whose contributions over an extended period of time had been recognized in a juried selection process using consistent selection criteria. The awardees came from organizations of all sizes, from small to very large, and from start-ups to some of the world's largest multinational corporations. Based on discussions in the working group sessions and the group's identified areas of interest in R&D and innovation leadership, we developed a standard set of questions to use with the focus group participants in exploring leadership characteristics:
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 What are the essential characteristics of R&D and innovation that may make leadership of these efforts different from other fianctions? What are your leadership principles for success in R&D and innovation? What is your leadership style? Which of these principles have been the most challenging to implement successfully? How has "risk" in R&D and innovation impacted your leadership style? Are there other factors that may have caused you to modify any of these principles? If so, which ones and why? What suggestions do you have for other critical R&D and innovation leadership style issues? Two dialogue sessions were conducted, one with three and and one with five participants, as well as three sessions that each included a single participant. In each case, the group's subject matter expert, Alan Fusfeld, and co-chairs facilitated the discussion. In all of the sessions, dialogue between participants, or between participants and facilitators, led to additional insights and allowed for building on identified topics to expand the terms of the discussion. In each session, facilitators captured notes during the discussion. These notes were then compiled by the working group; the most frequently discussed concepts were grouped into key themes or areas. The notes from each dialogue session were then reviewed against the identified themes to ensure that we had captured the most commonly mentioned ideas. Common Themes and Unique Challenges The common themes that emerged from the discussions included: 1. In an innovative environment, culture is more important than discipline. R&D leaders must create an environment where colleagues are both motivated and inspired. This is tme on both a personal and an organizational leyel; leaders must demonstrate both personal energy and an ability to energize others. They must challenge colleagues to reach and stretch without allowing them to break. 2. R&D leaders must align the vision of the R&D organization with that of the company as a whole. They must know where to play and how to win for the company as well as for their organization. They must establish clear priorities and then protect the resources assigned to them. They must also have enough courage to end projects when they need to be ended. 3. R&D leaders must value the unique characteristics and styles of colleagues, leveraging differences to
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create energy and spark innovation. They must effectively build the chemistry of the team while embracing diversity. 4. R&D leaders must manage risk while allowing failure. Leaders must leam to take the risks that they can afford to take. They must allow projects to fail without allowing individuals to fail. 5. R&D leaders must recognize, reward, and celebrate colleagues' efforts and accomplishments. This requires a variety of programs and opportunities for ongoing recognition as well as an annual major recognition and rewards program. 6. R&D leaders must leam to plan the role of catalyst and coach. The R&D leader is needed more as the enabler than as a doer. 7. R&D leaders must leam to lead through questioning. They need to ask insightful, thoughtful questions that catalyze innovative thinking in team members. They must have the ability to grasp and understand both technical and interpersonal issues quickly. 8. R&D leaders must have a technical intuition built through a lifetime of experience. They must be willing and able to listen to their gut, allowing good judgment to override mechanical processes when necessary. R&D leaders must have the courage to make bold, long-term bets. This list is not comprehensive, but it does capture the common lessons we gathered from our conversations with eleven leaders who together have hundreds of years of remarkably successful R&D leadership. Next Steps The working group's next steps will be to break these critical areas into specific skills, which can be taught, and attributes, which can be identified and developed in current and future R&D leaders. The group will also work to see if these specific or similar skills and attributes are actually present to a larger extent in the R&D management population than in managers in other functions;

this will help validate which particular skills might be unique to R&D or more critical for R&D success. The working group also intends to share our findings from this stage with the original focus group participants; that effort should produce additional dialogue and illumination on unique themes and challenges in R&D leadership.
References Hage, J., Jordan, G., Mote, J., and Whitestone, Y. 2008, Designing and facilitating collaboration in R&D: A case study. Journal of Engineering and Technology Management 25(4): 256258. Hollingsworth, J. R. 2004. Institutionalizing excellence in biomdical research: The case of the Rockefeller University. In Creating a Tradition of Biomdical Research: Contributions to the History

I P ieaders must l i a g e risit whiie illowinn failnre.

of Rockefeller University, ed D. H. Stapleton, 17-63. New York: Rockefeller Press. Keller, R. T. 2006. Transformational leadership, intiating structure, and substitutes for leadership: A longitudinal study of research and development project team performance. Journal of Applied Psychology 91(1): 202-210.

SOSDUHUBILITY IN R8D
This group is considering how sustainability may be effectively incorporated into R&D. The goals are to identify best practices for the use of sustainability assessments, establish baseline criteria and methodologies for the use of such tools, and develop a framework for building sustainability into new products and processes.

Richard Chapas, Virginia Brandt, Leslie Kulis, and Kent Crawford

Until recently, the "bottom line" of financial reports was the overriding measure of a company's success. Now, though, economic and political forces are pushing more and more organizations to measure performance against the "triple bottom line" of people, planet, and profits. In this context, sustainability^which can have profound impacts in all three arenasis an increasingly central challenge. The Research-on-Research working group on sustainability in R&D was initiated to address this reality. Because R&D is intimately involved in ensuring the environmental, societal, and economic performance of a company's products and processes, the working group concluded that sustainability begins in R&D and is core to its very practice. From designing new products and processes to meeting regulations relative to safety and the environment, R&D is continuously driving change in this area. Because the "triple bottom line" concept integrates these key parameters, we adopted triple-bottom-line performance as our working definition for sustainability. One of the challenges of considering the triple bottom line as a measure of performance is that providing clear metrics for social and environmental performance can be difficult. Social metrics, for instance, will often relate to the benefit the customer derives from the product, but they also may relate to societal and community benefits derived from both the product itself and the associated production processes, including such benefits as jobs and the innovative solutions to societal problems. In the past, the drive to meet regulatory and "green" standards would have resulted in passing this cost on to consumers, thereby moving a valuable product out of the reach of the poorer consumer. However, the emphasis today is on developing an innovative solution either in the design or choice of materials that prevents such trade-offs. In considering these questions, the group developed a model based on Six Sigma's Supplier, Input, Process, Output, Customer (SIPOC) tool. The modified SIPOC presented here was developed and refined through discussion with participating companies as a way to map all the elements in an R&D effort focused on sustainable products and processes. This model provides a way of thinking about sustainability that can be integrated into Research Technology Management [

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