Alliance leadership: Template for the future

The premise of this chapter is the following: strategic alliances offer the kind of organizational context that encourages a new kind of leadership and the attributes of effective alliance managers today are the foundational characteristics of global leaders of the future. Drawing on extensive field research as well as work with companies, we examine the alliance context and the challenges it offers to managers. We describe those leadership challenges, and detail both the actions and behaviors required of effective alliance managers and the cognitive characteristics that seem to distinguish them from other line managers. We end with some concrete suggestions about grooming alliance managers, albeit leaders of the future.