I think it’s both exciting and
depressing that messages like mine have
an audience you know I talk about really
simple things like how to be fulfilled
you know and like how to do things that
inspire us and how to work for a company
that sort of gets the best out of us and
makes us feel good while they’re doing
it and and you know it’s kind of
upsetting that people are even wanting
to hear that meaning that there’s a
demand for it but it also presents the
most remarkable opportunity in the world
which means there’s an opportunity for
us to change the way work is done so
that all of those things are not the
exception but rather the rule you know
it’s it’s it is the exception when
somebody says I love my job you know so
you meet somebody at a bar is like what
do you do I love my job
oh you’re so lucky right it’s like that
that should be something special is
remarkable and so the amazing thing is
is that ability to say I love my job I
love what I do is actually not that
complicated to find and not ironically
it has nothing to do with the work that
we do it has everything to do with the
people with whom we work and you don’t
even have to like the people with whom
you work that’s the most amazing thing
of all if you think about it in the
military there are people who are
willing to risk their lives for people
they don’t even like we don’t even like
to get a credit for things you know so
what is it that creates an environment
in which people care about each other so
much that they would risk their lives
for people that they don’t even like
right sometimes this is remarkable
human beings in all their complexity and
all of the nonsense and all the
messiness what drives us is kind of
simple and this is what I like to
research and learn about and write about
which is you understand the very basic
mechanics of this machine called the
human being
it’s becomes fairly obvious as to what
conditions in which the machine will
perform well and in what conditions the
machine will not perform well very
simply our machine is a social machine
we are social animals and we respond to
the environment
we’re in that’s it good people are
capable of doing very bad things if
they’re in the wrong environment and
people who society may have given up on
if you put them in the right environment
are capable of performing remarkable
remarkable things this is the job of
leadership which is to make that
environment the leader sets the tone and
the tone that is set will determine how
we respond accordingly and again we are
relatively simple in our motivations if
you go back to the Paleolithic era when
Homo Sapien first stepped foot on the
planet about 50,000 years ago there were
other hominid species that existed at
the same time but we were the ones that
survived they died we weren’t
necessarily the strongest we weren’t
necessarily the fastest and yet we’ve
done quite well look at this remarkable
world that we’ve built one of the huge
advantages we had and have is that we
are social animals and things like trust
and cooperation are absolutely essential
for our survival they’re not just nice
ideas they’re absolutely essential you
can imagine why when we existed when we
lived in populations that never really
got bigger than about a hundred and
fifty people for forty thousand of the
fifty thousand years we’ve been on this
planet we never lived in populations
bigger than 150 people
I understand scale present some inherent
problems but you can you can understand
the benefits of the group living what it
meant was I could fall asleep at night
and trust that someone in my tribe was
watch for danger if I didn’t trust the
people in my tribe I couldn’t go to
sleep and this is not a very good system
for survival or performance or anything
any other metric it’s the same at work
when we work with people with whom we
trust I don’t need to double-check your
work I don’t need to see it before it
goes out to you no I don’t need you
don’t need my approval right when we
have trust we can let people go do their
work and even if they’re subordinate we
don’t need to double-check or approve or
anything things will happen because we
trust them because we all have each
other’s backs we all have each other’s
interests in mind the problem with
things like trust and cooperation is
that they are not instructions I
constantly tell you trust me you can’t
simply ask people to trust you in your
advertising and you can’t simply tell
people I want you two to cooperate trust
and cooperation are feelings and this is
the problem so the question is where are
those feelings come from now again we
are basic pretty simple in in our
motivation in our constructions you can
imagine what light what color clay you
can imagine what life must have been
like in these Paleolithic times it was a
world filled with danger all of these
forces working extremely hard to kill us
whether it was the weather or lack of
resources saber-tooth Tiger nothing
personal but all of these forces were
working together to end our lives and so
as tribal animals we work together and
lived and worked amongst people around
whom we felt safe
and when we felt safe amongst the people
with whom he lived and work the natural
human response is trust in cooperation
it’s just what happens when we do not
feel safe amongst the people with whom
we work however the natural human
inclination is cynicism paranoia
mistrust and self-interest when we do
not feel safe amongst the people with
whom we work if our leaders do not make
us feel safe we have no choice but to
spend our own time in our own energy to
protect ourselves from each other when
we do not fear each other we naturally
work together to face the dangers and
seize the opportunities it’s the exact
same thing in our modern business world
there are forces that are a constant and
beyond our control
that are working to kill you right maybe
I’m exaggerating
but there are forces outside things like
the uncertainty of an economy the ups
and downs of a stock market a new
technology that might render a business
model obsolete overnight your
competition that sometimes is trying to
kill you it’s trying to destroy that
product to put you out of business but
at the very minimum is trying to
frustrate your growth and steal your
customers these forces are a constant
and you have no control over them and
never will
the only variable are the conditions
inside the organization and when those
conditions are set in a manner that
allows us to feel like we can trust and
cooperate we do
this is what leaders are supposed to do
there is an exact definition of
leadership and it is not my opinion you
know III I love all the books that come
out and all the articles what makes a
great leader what are the five things
you need to be a leader you need
charisma you need vision you know all of
these things I can tell you right now
those things are sometimes useful but
they’re not essential
not everyone has vision does that mean
they’re they’re not allowed to be
leaders you know some people have
remarkable charisma and some people
don’t does that mean they will never
lead of course it’s all nonsense you
can’t manufacture these things some
people are good strategic thinkers and
some people are not some people are just
naturally good at basketball and some
people are not there are skills you can
get better at them for sure but you’re
either a visionary or not these are not
things that you can manufacture in other
words they’re not essential components
for leadership there’s only one
characteristic that I’m comfortable
saying that all leaders must have become
leaving and that’s part of you because
leadership is hard and it often requires
sacrifice and the that will happen that
you will have to put your interests your
comfort your advantages aside so that
others may gain and that sometimes
really hard in fact standing up for
others may mean that you might get your
head chopped you know a leader sometimes
loses their job because they did the
right thing right that comes with
significant risk the choice to be a
leader comes at significant risk and
this is why not everyone chooses to be a
leader
leadership has nothing to do with the
rank it has nothing to do with the title
you have on your card leadership is a
choice that’s it I know many many people
who sit in the senior echelons of a
corporation and they are not leaders
they are authorities and they have
authority and we do what they say
because they have authority over us but
we would not follow them I know many
people who sit at the bottom of
organizations who have no authority but
they are absolutely leaders and the
reason they’re leaders is
because they have made a choice they
have chosen to look after the person to
the left of them and they have chosen to
look after the person to the right of
them it doesn’t always mean they have to
sacrifice their interests but when it
really counts sometimes they choose to
sacrifice their interests because it’s
in the interest of the person to the
left and to the right of them this is
what leadership is the role of leaders
is not an accident either it’s built
into our anthropology it’s part of our
survival the reason we have hierarchy
and we have leaders for those times when
we lived in these austere conditions we
had a little bit of a problem as a very
practical problem it wasn’t necessarily
enough food to go around all the time
you didn’t miss us we didn’t have
supermarkets and cars we just go get
milk sometimes there was food readily
available and sometimes not which meant
if someone brought home some food and
we’re living in a population of up to a
hundred and fifty we would all rush in
to eat because we’re all hungry and if
you were lucky enough to be built like a
football player you could shove your way
to the front of the line if you were the
artist of the family you would get an
elbow in the face this is not a good
system for cooperation it’s not a good
system for survival because the odds are
that if I got punched in the face this
afternoon I’m not gonna wake the guy if
I see danger bad system and so we
evolved into these hierarchical animals
we are constantly assessing and judging
each other whose alpha whose beta we are
naturally higher are when we always
organize ourselves in hierarchies so
even in meetings we go to meeting like
everybody’s equal I want you guys to
work together it’s not gonna happen
we are never equals we always assess we
always judge we always allow some others
some difference in the role of
leadership and some of us defer and sort
of take a more subordinate role it
always happens not necessarily a bad
thing
and again the reasons are very practical
based on our history because what would
happen was when we would assess someone
as our alpha and let me be clear your
capacity to be an alpha in any
population is not an absolute it is
relative to the population your
so you might be a technologist or an
engineer and you might think you’re the
hottest best most fantastic engineer and
so does everybody else and you walk
around like this and you go take a dance
class all of a sudden you egos not so
big anymore right we’ve all had the
experience right we’ve all had the
experience where we shake someone’s hand
and we’re nervous
you’re not the Alpha you know or when we
consent that someone’s nervous meeting
us you’re the Alpha right it’s it’s a
so when we assess that someone in the
population is our is alpha we
voluntarily step back and allow them
first choice of meat and first choice of
may we let them eat first
we may not get the best choice of meat
but we will eat eventually and we didn’t
have to get an elbow in the face to get
that food good system to this day we are
very comfortable with paying deference
and offering advantages to those more
senior than us there’s not a single
person in this room zero that has a
problem with somebody more senior than
you at the company making more money
than you as a salary by having a bigger
salary than you it doesn’t bother you at
all you might think they’re an idiot but
it doesn’t actually bother you that they
make more money than you because they
outrank you no issue it doesn’t bother
us at all that somebody more senior than
us has a bigger office
or a better parking space it is of no
issue whatsoever in fact we very often
find ourselves deferring to our alphas
doing nice things for our foes we open
doors for them and call them sir and
ma’am and get them tea and they didn’t
even ask I can promise you that if as
you were walking out of this room if
Steven Speilberg happened to walked in
walk in you would hold the door open for
him and then you would go home and tell
your spouse or your boyfriend your
girlfriend you’ll never believe what
happened today I held the door open for
Steven Speilberg how come you don’t
advertise when you hold the door from
for anybody else
it’s because we’re proud to sometimes do
menial labor for those who we perceive
as alphas in our system we’re proud to
work for the groups that they lead and
the organizations that they lead by the
way you can’t lead a company you can run
a company you can only lead people and
so this whole idea of deference and how
we always deference the volunteer to
these alphas is a natural human response
and it’s a survival instinct and it’s
all about this and that’s the point
none of those perks that you get for
being the leader for being the alpha
none of them
comfrey they come at a very high expense
you see the group is not dumb we expect
that the person who’s better fed the
person who’s actually stronger or
smarter than us
the person who has a higher
self-confidence has more self-confidence
but crucible or our love and deference
in hello sir and hello Amanda actually
boost their self companies we expect
that this more confidence stronger
better fed person when danger threatens
the tribe we expect them to rush towards
the danger to protect us that’s the cost
of leadership that’s why we gave you
first choice of mate because you might
die and we want to keep your genes in
the gene pool we’re not stupid and this
is what it means to be a leader the
willingness to rush towards the danger
to protect those in your care it is a
choice you don’t have to be a leader it
is a choice if you don’t like the costs
of leadership you may not accept the
perks of leadership because they do not
come for free this is the reason why we
are so viscerally offended by some of
the banking CEOs have these
disproportionate salaries and bonus
structures it’s not the money that
offends us it’s that we know deep inside
us that they have violated the very
definition of what it means to be a
leader they have accepted all of the
perks and bonuses and benefits of being
the leader and yet they’re not willing
to make any of the sacrifices for the
role that they have accepted in other
words we know that they allowed their
people to be sacrificed for them to keep
their bonuses and perks and advantages
worse sometimes they chose to sacrifice
their people to protect their bonuses
and their perks this is what so offends
us it’s not the money if I told you
we’re gonna give a hundred and fifty
million dollar bonus to Nelson Mandela
does anyone have a problem with that no
how about a two hundred and fifty
million dollar bonus to mother Teresa
got an issue with that no it’s not the
money it’s not the money it’s that
leadership is a choice and in our modern
day and age unfortunately many of the
people who like to call themselves
leaders are not leaders
at all they are authorities that’s all
they are and we have to do what they say
because they have authority over us but
we would not follow them and this is a
problem because when we do not feel that
they have our backs we we do not feel
safe work inside their organizations
they force us to spend our time and our
energy to protect ourselves from them
and the organization itself suffers it’s
it’s ironic to me that organizations
like your own who want to drive
innovation and ideas and new ways of
thinking would in the same breath lay
people off because they didn’t make the
numbers in one year
you do realize that those two concepts
are completely counterproductive it’s
like talking to a CEO and I asked what
are your priorities they say we have two
priorities innovation and efficiency not
possible
there is nothing efficient about
innovation try fail try fail try fail
try fail try fail try fail succeed not
efficient
it takes so you throw money to try
things out you can be innovative or you
can be efficient you can be efficient in
hope for innovation and you can be
innovative and hope for efficiency
there’s always gonna be one subordinate
to the other not bad not better or worse
but let’s not kid ourselves and think
that they can be equal grounds they
cannot it is impossible but worse an
organization that claims or hopes or
desires or aspires to be innovative must
at every expense commit themselves to
the safety of their people because only
when we feel safe and protected will we
voluntarily commit ourselves to the
support of each other and the
advancement of the vision there are very
here are just a few great leaders would
never sacrifice the numbers would never
sacrifice the people to save the numbers
great leaders would sacrifice the
numbers to save the people and so when
we live in a day and age where our
leaders are so comfortable sending you
home to tell your spouse and your kids
I’m sorry I no longer have an income
because the company had to make its
numbers for the year forget about the
people who lost their jobs what about
the people who didn’t get laid off
how inspire do you think they feel to
come back to work every day how do you
how safe do you think they feel do you
think we’re gonna give our best knowing
at the next time if the company doesn’t
make its numbers by the way which may or
may not have anything to do with us
remember all of those outside dangers
the ups and downs of technologies the
ups and downs of stock markets the ups
and downs of economies you think when
you have a bad year you set your
children down and say kids it’s been a
bad year we have to get rid of one of
you or worse or worse I got to keep my
Mercedes and so it’s either you or the
car and we’ve picked you right know we
tighten the belt we work together we
figure out ways to make it happen to see
it through the hard times we cannot
judge the quality of a crew based on how
they perform in good times we judge a
quality of the crew by how they perform
in rough waters and unfortunately we
throw our crew overboard when we hit
rough waters what makes them want to
commit to see the ships make it through
the rough waters what they do is they
sit down and watch their own backs
because nobody else is gonna watch my
back there is no innovation and in a
group like that there is no innovation
in a group like that backstabbing ideas
stealing plenty of that
nothing personal gotta look after numero
uno
so number one people come first numbers
are always subordinates people numbers
will not rescue you in our times people
will numbers will not come up with new
ideas
people will numbers are not innovative
people are that’s number one another one
which is really really really easy is
honesty it’s really easy to be honest
just tell the truth and if you tell the
truth on a regular basis we will say you
have integrity that’s all it means he’s
a really basic concept so for example if
somebody calls and the secretary picks
up the phone and says Dave’s on the
phone and you say you’ve just sanctioned
lying inside your organization that’s
what you’ve done you have said that when
it suits you even if these lies are
small you may tell lies that was dishonest
depressing that messages like mine have
an audience you know I talk about really
simple things like how to be fulfilled
you know and like how to do things that
inspire us and how to work for a company
that sort of gets the best out of us and
makes us feel good while they’re doing
it and and you know it’s kind of
upsetting that people are even wanting
to hear that meaning that there’s a
demand for it but it also presents the
most remarkable opportunity in the world
which means there’s an opportunity for
us to change the way work is done so
that all of those things are not the
exception but rather the rule you know
it’s it’s it is the exception when
somebody says I love my job you know so
you meet somebody at a bar is like what
do you do I love my job
oh you’re so lucky right it’s like that
that should be something special is
remarkable and so the amazing thing is
is that ability to say I love my job I
love what I do is actually not that
complicated to find and not ironically
it has nothing to do with the work that
we do it has everything to do with the
people with whom we work and you don’t
even have to like the people with whom
you work that’s the most amazing thing
of all if you think about it in the
military there are people who are
willing to risk their lives for people
they don’t even like we don’t even like
to get a credit for things you know so
what is it that creates an environment
in which people care about each other so
much that they would risk their lives
for people that they don’t even like
right sometimes this is remarkable
human beings in all their complexity and
all of the nonsense and all the
messiness what drives us is kind of
simple and this is what I like to
research and learn about and write about
which is you understand the very basic
mechanics of this machine called the
human being
it’s becomes fairly obvious as to what
conditions in which the machine will
perform well and in what conditions the
machine will not perform well very
simply our machine is a social machine
we are social animals and we respond to
the environment
we’re in that’s it good people are
capable of doing very bad things if
they’re in the wrong environment and
people who society may have given up on
if you put them in the right environment
are capable of performing remarkable
remarkable things this is the job of
leadership which is to make that
environment the leader sets the tone and
the tone that is set will determine how
we respond accordingly and again we are
relatively simple in our motivations if
you go back to the Paleolithic era when
Homo Sapien first stepped foot on the
planet about 50,000 years ago there were
other hominid species that existed at
the same time but we were the ones that
survived they died we weren’t
necessarily the strongest we weren’t
necessarily the fastest and yet we’ve
done quite well look at this remarkable
world that we’ve built one of the huge
advantages we had and have is that we
are social animals and things like trust
and cooperation are absolutely essential
for our survival they’re not just nice
ideas they’re absolutely essential you
can imagine why when we existed when we
lived in populations that never really
got bigger than about a hundred and
fifty people for forty thousand of the
fifty thousand years we’ve been on this
planet we never lived in populations
bigger than 150 people
I understand scale present some inherent
problems but you can you can understand
the benefits of the group living what it
meant was I could fall asleep at night
and trust that someone in my tribe was
watch for danger if I didn’t trust the
people in my tribe I couldn’t go to
sleep and this is not a very good system
for survival or performance or anything
any other metric it’s the same at work
when we work with people with whom we
trust I don’t need to double-check your
work I don’t need to see it before it
goes out to you no I don’t need you
don’t need my approval right when we
have trust we can let people go do their
work and even if they’re subordinate we
don’t need to double-check or approve or
anything things will happen because we
trust them because we all have each
other’s backs we all have each other’s
interests in mind the problem with
things like trust and cooperation is
that they are not instructions I
constantly tell you trust me you can’t
simply ask people to trust you in your
advertising and you can’t simply tell
people I want you two to cooperate trust
and cooperation are feelings and this is
the problem so the question is where are
those feelings come from now again we
are basic pretty simple in in our
motivation in our constructions you can
imagine what light what color clay you
can imagine what life must have been
like in these Paleolithic times it was a
world filled with danger all of these
forces working extremely hard to kill us
whether it was the weather or lack of
resources saber-tooth Tiger nothing
personal but all of these forces were
working together to end our lives and so
as tribal animals we work together and
lived and worked amongst people around
whom we felt safe
and when we felt safe amongst the people
with whom he lived and work the natural
human response is trust in cooperation
it’s just what happens when we do not
feel safe amongst the people with whom
we work however the natural human
inclination is cynicism paranoia
mistrust and self-interest when we do
not feel safe amongst the people with
whom we work if our leaders do not make
us feel safe we have no choice but to
spend our own time in our own energy to
protect ourselves from each other when
we do not fear each other we naturally
work together to face the dangers and
seize the opportunities it’s the exact
same thing in our modern business world
there are forces that are a constant and
beyond our control
that are working to kill you right maybe
I’m exaggerating
but there are forces outside things like
the uncertainty of an economy the ups
and downs of a stock market a new
technology that might render a business
model obsolete overnight your
competition that sometimes is trying to
kill you it’s trying to destroy that
product to put you out of business but
at the very minimum is trying to
frustrate your growth and steal your
customers these forces are a constant
and you have no control over them and
never will
the only variable are the conditions
inside the organization and when those
conditions are set in a manner that
allows us to feel like we can trust and
cooperate we do
this is what leaders are supposed to do
there is an exact definition of
leadership and it is not my opinion you
know III I love all the books that come
out and all the articles what makes a
great leader what are the five things
you need to be a leader you need
charisma you need vision you know all of
these things I can tell you right now
those things are sometimes useful but
they’re not essential
not everyone has vision does that mean
they’re they’re not allowed to be
leaders you know some people have
remarkable charisma and some people
don’t does that mean they will never
lead of course it’s all nonsense you
can’t manufacture these things some
people are good strategic thinkers and
some people are not some people are just
naturally good at basketball and some
people are not there are skills you can
get better at them for sure but you’re
either a visionary or not these are not
things that you can manufacture in other
words they’re not essential components
for leadership there’s only one
characteristic that I’m comfortable
saying that all leaders must have become
leaving and that’s part of you because
leadership is hard and it often requires
sacrifice and the that will happen that
you will have to put your interests your
comfort your advantages aside so that
others may gain and that sometimes
really hard in fact standing up for
others may mean that you might get your
head chopped you know a leader sometimes
loses their job because they did the
right thing right that comes with
significant risk the choice to be a
leader comes at significant risk and
this is why not everyone chooses to be a
leader
leadership has nothing to do with the
rank it has nothing to do with the title
you have on your card leadership is a
choice that’s it I know many many people
who sit in the senior echelons of a
corporation and they are not leaders
they are authorities and they have
authority and we do what they say
because they have authority over us but
we would not follow them I know many
people who sit at the bottom of
organizations who have no authority but
they are absolutely leaders and the
reason they’re leaders is
because they have made a choice they
have chosen to look after the person to
the left of them and they have chosen to
look after the person to the right of
them it doesn’t always mean they have to
sacrifice their interests but when it
really counts sometimes they choose to
sacrifice their interests because it’s
in the interest of the person to the
left and to the right of them this is
what leadership is the role of leaders
is not an accident either it’s built
into our anthropology it’s part of our
survival the reason we have hierarchy
and we have leaders for those times when
we lived in these austere conditions we
had a little bit of a problem as a very
practical problem it wasn’t necessarily
enough food to go around all the time
you didn’t miss us we didn’t have
supermarkets and cars we just go get
milk sometimes there was food readily
available and sometimes not which meant
if someone brought home some food and
we’re living in a population of up to a
hundred and fifty we would all rush in
to eat because we’re all hungry and if
you were lucky enough to be built like a
football player you could shove your way
to the front of the line if you were the
artist of the family you would get an
elbow in the face this is not a good
system for cooperation it’s not a good
system for survival because the odds are
that if I got punched in the face this
afternoon I’m not gonna wake the guy if
I see danger bad system and so we
evolved into these hierarchical animals
we are constantly assessing and judging
each other whose alpha whose beta we are
naturally higher are when we always
organize ourselves in hierarchies so
even in meetings we go to meeting like
everybody’s equal I want you guys to
work together it’s not gonna happen
we are never equals we always assess we
always judge we always allow some others
some difference in the role of
leadership and some of us defer and sort
of take a more subordinate role it
always happens not necessarily a bad
thing
and again the reasons are very practical
based on our history because what would
happen was when we would assess someone
as our alpha and let me be clear your
capacity to be an alpha in any
population is not an absolute it is
relative to the population your
so you might be a technologist or an
engineer and you might think you’re the
hottest best most fantastic engineer and
so does everybody else and you walk
around like this and you go take a dance
class all of a sudden you egos not so
big anymore right we’ve all had the
experience right we’ve all had the
experience where we shake someone’s hand
and we’re nervous
you’re not the Alpha you know or when we
consent that someone’s nervous meeting
us you’re the Alpha right it’s it’s a
so when we assess that someone in the
population is our is alpha we
voluntarily step back and allow them
first choice of meat and first choice of
may we let them eat first
we may not get the best choice of meat
but we will eat eventually and we didn’t
have to get an elbow in the face to get
that food good system to this day we are
very comfortable with paying deference
and offering advantages to those more
senior than us there’s not a single
person in this room zero that has a
problem with somebody more senior than
you at the company making more money
than you as a salary by having a bigger
salary than you it doesn’t bother you at
all you might think they’re an idiot but
it doesn’t actually bother you that they
make more money than you because they
outrank you no issue it doesn’t bother
us at all that somebody more senior than
us has a bigger office
or a better parking space it is of no
issue whatsoever in fact we very often
find ourselves deferring to our alphas
doing nice things for our foes we open
doors for them and call them sir and
ma’am and get them tea and they didn’t
even ask I can promise you that if as
you were walking out of this room if
Steven Speilberg happened to walked in
walk in you would hold the door open for
him and then you would go home and tell
your spouse or your boyfriend your
girlfriend you’ll never believe what
happened today I held the door open for
Steven Speilberg how come you don’t
advertise when you hold the door from
for anybody else
it’s because we’re proud to sometimes do
menial labor for those who we perceive
as alphas in our system we’re proud to
work for the groups that they lead and
the organizations that they lead by the
way you can’t lead a company you can run
a company you can only lead people and
so this whole idea of deference and how
we always deference the volunteer to
these alphas is a natural human response
and it’s a survival instinct and it’s
all about this and that’s the point
none of those perks that you get for
being the leader for being the alpha
none of them
comfrey they come at a very high expense
you see the group is not dumb we expect
that the person who’s better fed the
person who’s actually stronger or
smarter than us
the person who has a higher
self-confidence has more self-confidence
but crucible or our love and deference
in hello sir and hello Amanda actually
boost their self companies we expect
that this more confidence stronger
better fed person when danger threatens
the tribe we expect them to rush towards
the danger to protect us that’s the cost
of leadership that’s why we gave you
first choice of mate because you might
die and we want to keep your genes in
the gene pool we’re not stupid and this
is what it means to be a leader the
willingness to rush towards the danger
to protect those in your care it is a
choice you don’t have to be a leader it
is a choice if you don’t like the costs
of leadership you may not accept the
perks of leadership because they do not
come for free this is the reason why we
are so viscerally offended by some of
the banking CEOs have these
disproportionate salaries and bonus
structures it’s not the money that
offends us it’s that we know deep inside
us that they have violated the very
definition of what it means to be a
leader they have accepted all of the
perks and bonuses and benefits of being
the leader and yet they’re not willing
to make any of the sacrifices for the
role that they have accepted in other
words we know that they allowed their
people to be sacrificed for them to keep
their bonuses and perks and advantages
worse sometimes they chose to sacrifice
their people to protect their bonuses
and their perks this is what so offends
us it’s not the money if I told you
we’re gonna give a hundred and fifty
million dollar bonus to Nelson Mandela
does anyone have a problem with that no
how about a two hundred and fifty
million dollar bonus to mother Teresa
got an issue with that no it’s not the
money it’s not the money it’s that
leadership is a choice and in our modern
day and age unfortunately many of the
people who like to call themselves
leaders are not leaders
at all they are authorities that’s all
they are and we have to do what they say
because they have authority over us but
we would not follow them and this is a
problem because when we do not feel that
they have our backs we we do not feel
safe work inside their organizations
they force us to spend our time and our
energy to protect ourselves from them
and the organization itself suffers it’s
it’s ironic to me that organizations
like your own who want to drive
innovation and ideas and new ways of
thinking would in the same breath lay
people off because they didn’t make the
numbers in one year
you do realize that those two concepts
are completely counterproductive it’s
like talking to a CEO and I asked what
are your priorities they say we have two
priorities innovation and efficiency not
possible
there is nothing efficient about
innovation try fail try fail try fail
try fail try fail try fail succeed not
efficient
it takes so you throw money to try
things out you can be innovative or you
can be efficient you can be efficient in
hope for innovation and you can be
innovative and hope for efficiency
there’s always gonna be one subordinate
to the other not bad not better or worse
but let’s not kid ourselves and think
that they can be equal grounds they
cannot it is impossible but worse an
organization that claims or hopes or
desires or aspires to be innovative must
at every expense commit themselves to
the safety of their people because only
when we feel safe and protected will we
voluntarily commit ourselves to the
support of each other and the
advancement of the vision there are very
here are just a few great leaders would
never sacrifice the numbers would never
sacrifice the people to save the numbers
great leaders would sacrifice the
numbers to save the people and so when
we live in a day and age where our
leaders are so comfortable sending you
home to tell your spouse and your kids
I’m sorry I no longer have an income
because the company had to make its
numbers for the year forget about the
people who lost their jobs what about
the people who didn’t get laid off
how inspire do you think they feel to
come back to work every day how do you
how safe do you think they feel do you
think we’re gonna give our best knowing
at the next time if the company doesn’t
make its numbers by the way which may or
may not have anything to do with us
remember all of those outside dangers
the ups and downs of technologies the
ups and downs of stock markets the ups
and downs of economies you think when
you have a bad year you set your
children down and say kids it’s been a
bad year we have to get rid of one of
you or worse or worse I got to keep my
Mercedes and so it’s either you or the
car and we’ve picked you right know we
tighten the belt we work together we
figure out ways to make it happen to see
it through the hard times we cannot
judge the quality of a crew based on how
they perform in good times we judge a
quality of the crew by how they perform
in rough waters and unfortunately we
throw our crew overboard when we hit
rough waters what makes them want to
commit to see the ships make it through
the rough waters what they do is they
sit down and watch their own backs
because nobody else is gonna watch my
back there is no innovation and in a
group like that there is no innovation
in a group like that backstabbing ideas
stealing plenty of that
nothing personal gotta look after numero
uno
so number one people come first numbers
are always subordinates people numbers
will not rescue you in our times people
will numbers will not come up with new
ideas
people will numbers are not innovative
people are that’s number one another one
which is really really really easy is
honesty it’s really easy to be honest
just tell the truth and if you tell the
truth on a regular basis we will say you
have integrity that’s all it means he’s
a really basic concept so for example if
somebody calls and the secretary picks
up the phone and says Dave’s on the
phone and you say you’ve just sanctioned
lying inside your organization that’s
what you’ve done you have said that when
it suits you even if these lies are
small you may tell lies that was dishonest
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