Making Better Leaders Out of Alpha Males and Females

ﾩ JAMES PAULS

Ellen McMahon was a rising star as leader of the cardiovascular research group at Pharmacia before its merger with Pfizer. But she started to get grumbling from her team, and talks about management style from her bosses. McMahon says her staff "was struggling with my leadership, they didn?t feel involved in making decisions. I was more in the mode of driving towards goals rather than considering team dynamics." McMahon, an acknowledged "alpha female," decided she could be a better manager. "Every one of your strengths turns into a weakness when you over play it," she says.

McMahon, now a senior director in the field-based medical group at Pfizer, is one of the success stories for Eddie Erlandson, a former vascular surgeon who is now an executive coach. Erlandson?s new book, written with his business partner and wife Kate Ludeman, is named for what he says is a typical description for life science executives: Alpha Male Syndrome (2006, Harvard Business School Press). Erlandson says the life sciences is rife with alpha males who are "smart as a whip, forceful and assertive, but can come off as domineering and resistant to feedback." To become more effective leaders, "they have to be willing to be awkward, trying different ways of listening and feedback. The nice thing about an alpha is once they commit to something they will make a move, because they are quite competitive and urgent." McMahon describes the process of having Erlandson come in to get feedback on McMahon from her team and colleagues, and then confront her with it, as "reenergizing," and the commitment to the process itself a strong positive message to her team.