Demigods in charge

What's so special about team leaders of market systems development programmes? 

There’s something about M4P Team Leaders isn’t there? They have a certain aura about them – well, the good ones do. They are rare, admired, passionate, driven. But let’s face it, some of them do have a bit of a "demigod complex" (and I use the term generically, although there sadly are precious few demigoddesses in M4P leadership roles).

demigod: ˈdɛmɪɡɒd/, noun
a being with partial or lesser divine status, such as a minor deity, the offspring of a god and a mortal, or a mortal raised to divine rank.

As someone who has been a team leader of a couple of M4P programmes, who manages them, who consults with them, and has some self-awareness; I think I have a fair idea of their metal. So does M4P team leadership of M4P programmes make, or attract, demigods? I have some theories:

Firstly, M4P and even private sector development, are still novel concepts, despite having been around for almost 20 years in their various evolutionary forms. I am still surprised as to how often I have to make a spirited defence of the basic concepts. It shocks me when somebody in the development industry questions whether we should work with the private sector at all, to which I reply ad nauseum, "do you think that 100 million people in China were lifted out of poverty because of a [insert donor/implementer] project?" Team leaders often need to defend M4P and PSD to their teams, their organisations, and their donors. In addition, with results taking a long time to build and become visible, team leaders also need to encourage their teams and donors to "keep the faith", which requires a strong leadership style. M4P team leaders are demigods because they need to be champions.

Secondly, leading an M4P programme requires a rare blend of skills. In addition to technical skills in the sector (agriculture, water, health) one also needs to "get" M4P and be able to communicate it well to a wide range of stakeholders – including high-brow economists. One also needs to be able to train and develop a team – usually from scratch because there are very few (though increasing numbers) of experienced personnel. M4P team leaders are demigods because they are rare and extraordinary.

Finally, when it all comes together the results from M4P programmes look almost superhuman – especially compared to the mediocre direct-delivery alternatives. However sadly, despite robust DCED accredited monitoring and results measurement systems, they are often disbelieved for this very reason so need to be defended (see above). 

The need for demigods in M4P leadership positions is therefore partly a product of the nature of the job (a rare mix of skills), but mostly a product of the environment (the need to be a passionate defender). Will team leaders always be demigods? I certainly look forward to a time when we can all just calm down a bit. When will we have donors who understand market systems, what it takes to affect pro-poor change, and that saving the world won’t fit into a logframe? I look forward to a time when there will be a critical mass of skilled personnel in organisations with cultures and support mechanisms to support M4P so that team leaders will not need to put so much energy into developing these. Finally, I look forward to a time when impacting hundreds of thousands of poor people, sustainably and cost-effectively will be the norm. If we are going to “save the world” we need to scale up our ambition from a mere few thousand, to millions of beneficiaries.

There will always be something a bit special about team leaders, but hopefully we can start to find them among mere mortals.

This blog is part of our series on adaptive management.