Earlier this month I was invited by the Center for Leadership, Innovation & Change of the Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland, to comment on Ed Fuller’s new book: You Can’t Lead With Your Feet on the Desk. Ed Fuller is President & Managing Director, Marriott Lodging International, and has worked with Marriott for nearly 40 years. He was key in growing their international business from 16 hotels to 400 properties in 70 countries, an awesome achievement.

In his entertaining book, Ed identifies some universal truths – the paramount importance of shared values, fairness, mutual respect, trust, clear communications, cultivating relationships, leading by example and, last but not least, of leaving one’s desk. I expressed my wholehearted admiration and felt humbled.

On reflection, it occurred to me that Ed’s leadership benefited from a big plus: it takes place in a business environment in a highly competitive market. Hard as leadership is, such a framework has the great merit of reducing uncertainty as to mission, goals and above all, metrics. An increasing number of business school students are pursuing “public good” careers in government and civil society organizations. In the public sector, leadership is embedded in a rules rather than a market framework, and “intra-preneurship” requires special skills. Vision, mission and metrics are seldom clear, and political processes loom large.

In the nonprofit world, even the handrails of public regulations are often lacking, and as Mark Moore of the Kennedy School of Government points out, successful leadership is borne of reconciling operational capacity, public value and the “authorizing environment”. Leaders in the philanthropic industry have even more discretion. In other words, outside the business sector, effective leaders must handle high levels of uncertainty.

Are business schools geared to hone leadership skills across the full range of uncertainties?