thank you
that’s a beautiful room so hrodna we’ve
been hearing a lot about leadership
these days and you run a Leadership
Institute that works with all different
professions and age groups two questions
for you what does leadership mean to you
and what’s been on your mind about it
Wow yeah so first of all it’s a big
privilege to work with and learn
alongside leaders like Heather you and
to me leadership is a verb not a noun
titles don’t make leaders it’s what they
do that makes them leaders any I in
terms of they’d be here a lot of talk
about leadership these days right I mean
whenever there is a phenomenally great
leader on the scene or a phenomenally
not-so-great leader on the scene there’s
a lot of fodder for us leadership geeks
but what has been on my mind lately
is what the parallels between leadership
theory and cities okay so correct me if
I’m wrong but are you referring to
leaders in the city city leaders not
quite that what I mean is so so cities
are being thrust into this position of
leadership right I mean there are the
centers for innovation sometimes social
problem solution and those are
leadership responsibilities so it’s
imperative that cities get savvy very
quickly about sustainable leadership
behaviors so that they can help the
globe navigate the biggest population
shift in world history
okay so let’s dive in can you tell me
more about that okay so the cities
occupied 2.6 percent of the Earth’s
crust but 50 percent of the world
and UN estimates that by 2050 there will
be about nine point six billion people
on the planet and sixty-six percent of
them would be living in cities which
means imagine like about 6.5 billion
people living in cities so we think
cities matter now they’re gonna matter
even more in the future
great so cities are set up to be our
laboratories for leadership and probably
one of the largest ways to do a lot of
good for a lot of people what are the
leadership principles that every city
needs to know lots of them but the dead
stage so we will try and focus on the
poor that I think are most important
learnings from leadership theory for
cities the first one is that the best
leaders are mindful leaders not reactive
and there is some research and
neuroscience that is being extrapolated
into the practice of leadership
basically a mindful leader is one who is
looking at not just the physical and an
material well-being of herself but also
of the emotional and social well-being
and mental well-being of herself and her
team and the organization she might be
leading so that’s why Google is teaching
meditation inside and out Wall Street
executives are now getting into five
mindfulness and meditation never mind
the fact that Indian Yogi’s have been
practicing this for like a couple of
centuries but now that Google and Wall
Street is doing it it must be hip it
must be legit so never mind bad but what
do I mean by my cities being mindful I
you know I’m not saying that we should
all leave here or all city people across
the globe should leave here and go and
meditate in Market Square that may not
be a bad idea but but if what I mean by
cities being mindful is that they have
to stop being reactive they have to go
deep look at their authentic selves and
see that if they’re growing are they
growing in a healthy manner because if
they are growing and sometimes cities
judge ourselves by numbers and others
judge us by numbers like other cities
major just by numbers but if we are
growing by displacing those people who
have lived in those cities for a long
time in the long run it’s going to cause
grief not just for those people and
their families but also for cities yeah
so let us be mindful that we are as as
we are on that cusp of greatness all of
those kinds of cities including our
wonderful city of Pittsburgh that that
we are being intentional about the city
becoming promising doesn’t also become
the moment of our downfall it’s it’s
extremely important
there is a literary critic who said the
whom gods would destroy they first
called promising cities on the verge of
becoming promising watch it don’t get so
full of yourself don’t buy into your own
hype okay so you had mentioned four
principles and the first principle is
the city needs to be mindful what’s next
a city needs to be humble humility and
maybe that’s the way I was raised I
believe a lot in humility but the the
connection between leadership and
humility is as old as time
there is he’ll go back to that right
gods would destroy if you’re not humble
right so so we we need to make sure that
that we are reminding ourselves
of all aspects of of how do we remain
humble I think earlier we had been
talking there’s some great examples in
history I know more contemporary with
Enron but also throughout history any of
those points you could maybe speak to
yeah the yeah thank you for that the
people we were talking about the
historical examples of like Ken Lay sure
about the end you know or was that the
other one that we were talking about I
forget people talking about these so
many examples back there okay we spent a
lot of time together yeah so the you
know there is enough example of that
lack of humility in the business world
the in in Ken Lay as we were talking
about Ken Lay with Enron just just
before the whole downfall of Enron he’s
supposed to have sent an email which
said something like we are the best
example of American organization in the
business world today or something like
that and then of course you but you know
this this lack of humility is not just
restricted to American business people
if you can go back all the way to
ancient China
260 BC which is the example that I think
you found fascinating which is that in
the Battle of Shanghai this the warrior
Prince Zuko is leading this army of
about a half a million soldiers is about
to win this battle and but wants to
deliver the last crushing blow low so he
rushes ahead leaves his supply train
behind and so instead of winning the war
against this much smaller army he is
imprisoned beheaded within 46 days his
army of the remaining army of about
400,000 people soldiers is left alone
and starving
and conquered and executed all because
of the ego of one man cities be sure not
to let that kind of hubris take you over
it’s all right now aren’t we told that
often we need to be confident and
celebrate our successes but can
celebration go too far if you’re talking
about humility what can a city do to
become humble okay so that actually is a
great segue into my third point what
tell the whole story right I mean in in
leadership we say that leadership it’s
about balance that that leadership
stories that speak only of successes are
incomplete so cities need to tell the
full story and what is that ballot
banners looked like in in leadership so
so at the individual level I have been
privileged to be a part blessed to be a
part of many successes and both
personally individually and and through
through my organizational work but have
been so many failures you know at the
individual level at the personal level
my marriage did not last beyond 20 years
there’s a lot of pain I have applied for
jobs that I haven’t gotten I have hired
and fired the wrong people I have taken
my organization in two endeavors that
were not that great and so they were
there lots of things like that that
others would consider failures and that
I consider failures and I’ve got to
remember them and learn from them but
when you are kind enough to invite me to
your Ted stage or or we get an award or
something we don’t talk about that we so
it’s my responsibility to remember to
stay humble to stay real
to have that balance at the city level
so Singapore it’s it’s often hailed as
an urban paradise and it really is good
I was I was just there a few weeks ago
visiting my son and it’s pretty and
pristine and lots of trees and and no
crime and most millionaires in the world
but ten to fourteen percent of
Singaporeans have trouble accessing
their basic needs
hunger is a real thing real cities have
real problems you can’t wish them away
and you know you could have focused on
them as the as the urbanist Liz odd boo
set at this recent p4 conference that
was held in Pittsburgh she said
something about leadership that I’m
going to take a little bit of a poetic
license with and she said leaders I add
cities leaders and cities need to be
willing to listen to the pain create
space for grieving and commit to healing
you got to have that balance you’ve got
to be cognizant you’ve got to own up to
your challenges a good leader is honest
about her challenges and so are good
cities okay so if we buy the argument
that nothing’s perfect and there’s
always room for improvement what’s next
how do we get there whether as an
individual or a city I would say let’s
let’s go back to that okay let’s go back
to the fourth principle and in my head
all right so that’s because that’s a
beautiful segue into the fourth
principle is how do we get there that’s
about openness and there is a lot of
research in the business world about the
you know the the the the diverse talent
on teams makes the teams better
organizations better
boardrooms better and so on and so forth
so will not belabor at that point but
the four at the geographical unit level
if we you know a lot has been studied
about rise and fall of civilizations so
let’s look at China we’ve got a pic on
China today I don’t know why but we are
going to pick on China today so so China
scholars say that the most glorious days
of China but also its most open days
when medieval Europe was wracked with
the purges of Muslims and Jews because
basically anyone who was challenging the
Christian orthodoxy was being you know
purged out China was opening its
Imperial code ships were coming in from
from Central Asia trade was flourishing
cultural exchanges were happening that’s
how Buddhism got into China because of
that cultural exchange and all of that
and the the other cultures also
benefited from that from that reverse
exchange but not only that innovation
was at its peak the navigational compass
was created the paper currency was
created in China at that time gunpowder
was created then but then same geography
right and 14th century Imperial rulers
decided that they wanted to curtail
other influences on China they wanted to
protect it and so they shall dumb the
borders there’s the the ships that had
gone they called them back and they cut
them up for scrap whereas China had been
flourishing in the open days China
started to fall behind and at the same
time the the Spanish and the Portuguese
sailors were going you know sailing the
seas and industrial and scientific
revolution rippled through Europe China
was crippled so what’s the message for
being welcoming and inclusive is hugely
important and as we sit here in this
beautiful city of bridges I want to say
to cities build bridges to ideas and
Sarada that’s very interesting that you
took us through the framework of what a
city needs to do make sure I got this
mindful humble balanced and open but as
we look around the world today it
doesn’t seem like those are the sort of
that’s that’s a very interesting
you know the here’s the thing the in the
short-run destructive behaviors can be
successful sometimes even more than the
healthy ones but in the short run but if
we are talking about cities as leaders
Sitter cities leading the globe through
that population major population shift
that’s gonna happen then they have to be
looking at the principles of leadership
which are the sustainable principles of
leadership or leadership sustainability
and that’s why I point to those four you
know be the mindful City don’t buy into
your own hype tell the whole story the
story of just the songbirds is just as
incomplete as just hearing just the
stories of the crows so tell the whole
story build bridges not once beautiful
so one final question for you we’re
leaving here we learn from the best of
leadership what do we gain as a society
what does this
if the city’s adopt the best of
leadership principles a more just
society a more inclusive society a more
equitable world and a more caring and
generous globe so that you know we sit
here and talk about the China and
scholars and history and all of that so
that if we follow of cities lead and
follow these principles my hope would be
that 2,000 years from now people
scholars machines computers are looking
back at this or some combination of
humans and machines are looking back at
this era and saying they got it that
century got it that’s that’s the century
that’s the world I want to live in so
thank you for your insight and thank you
for all that you do let’s go create that
world [Applause]
that’s a beautiful room so hrodna we’ve
been hearing a lot about leadership
these days and you run a Leadership
Institute that works with all different
professions and age groups two questions
for you what does leadership mean to you
and what’s been on your mind about it
Wow yeah so first of all it’s a big
privilege to work with and learn
alongside leaders like Heather you and
to me leadership is a verb not a noun
titles don’t make leaders it’s what they
do that makes them leaders any I in
terms of they’d be here a lot of talk
about leadership these days right I mean
whenever there is a phenomenally great
leader on the scene or a phenomenally
not-so-great leader on the scene there’s
a lot of fodder for us leadership geeks
but what has been on my mind lately
is what the parallels between leadership
theory and cities okay so correct me if
I’m wrong but are you referring to
leaders in the city city leaders not
quite that what I mean is so so cities
are being thrust into this position of
leadership right I mean there are the
centers for innovation sometimes social
problem solution and those are
leadership responsibilities so it’s
imperative that cities get savvy very
quickly about sustainable leadership
behaviors so that they can help the
globe navigate the biggest population
shift in world history
okay so let’s dive in can you tell me
more about that okay so the cities
occupied 2.6 percent of the Earth’s
crust but 50 percent of the world
and UN estimates that by 2050 there will
be about nine point six billion people
on the planet and sixty-six percent of
them would be living in cities which
means imagine like about 6.5 billion
people living in cities so we think
cities matter now they’re gonna matter
even more in the future
great so cities are set up to be our
laboratories for leadership and probably
one of the largest ways to do a lot of
good for a lot of people what are the
leadership principles that every city
needs to know lots of them but the dead
stage so we will try and focus on the
poor that I think are most important
learnings from leadership theory for
cities the first one is that the best
leaders are mindful leaders not reactive
and there is some research and
neuroscience that is being extrapolated
into the practice of leadership
basically a mindful leader is one who is
looking at not just the physical and an
material well-being of herself but also
of the emotional and social well-being
and mental well-being of herself and her
team and the organization she might be
leading so that’s why Google is teaching
meditation inside and out Wall Street
executives are now getting into five
mindfulness and meditation never mind
the fact that Indian Yogi’s have been
practicing this for like a couple of
centuries but now that Google and Wall
Street is doing it it must be hip it
must be legit so never mind bad but what
do I mean by my cities being mindful I
you know I’m not saying that we should
all leave here or all city people across
the globe should leave here and go and
meditate in Market Square that may not
be a bad idea but but if what I mean by
cities being mindful is that they have
to stop being reactive they have to go
deep look at their authentic selves and
see that if they’re growing are they
growing in a healthy manner because if
they are growing and sometimes cities
judge ourselves by numbers and others
judge us by numbers like other cities
major just by numbers but if we are
growing by displacing those people who
have lived in those cities for a long
time in the long run it’s going to cause
grief not just for those people and
their families but also for cities yeah
so let us be mindful that we are as as
we are on that cusp of greatness all of
those kinds of cities including our
wonderful city of Pittsburgh that that
we are being intentional about the city
becoming promising doesn’t also become
the moment of our downfall it’s it’s
extremely important
there is a literary critic who said the
whom gods would destroy they first
called promising cities on the verge of
becoming promising watch it don’t get so
full of yourself don’t buy into your own
hype okay so you had mentioned four
principles and the first principle is
the city needs to be mindful what’s next
a city needs to be humble humility and
maybe that’s the way I was raised I
believe a lot in humility but the the
connection between leadership and
humility is as old as time
there is he’ll go back to that right
gods would destroy if you’re not humble
right so so we we need to make sure that
that we are reminding ourselves
of all aspects of of how do we remain
humble I think earlier we had been
talking there’s some great examples in
history I know more contemporary with
Enron but also throughout history any of
those points you could maybe speak to
yeah the yeah thank you for that the
people we were talking about the
historical examples of like Ken Lay sure
about the end you know or was that the
other one that we were talking about I
forget people talking about these so
many examples back there okay we spent a
lot of time together yeah so the you
know there is enough example of that
lack of humility in the business world
the in in Ken Lay as we were talking
about Ken Lay with Enron just just
before the whole downfall of Enron he’s
supposed to have sent an email which
said something like we are the best
example of American organization in the
business world today or something like
that and then of course you but you know
this this lack of humility is not just
restricted to American business people
if you can go back all the way to
ancient China
260 BC which is the example that I think
you found fascinating which is that in
the Battle of Shanghai this the warrior
Prince Zuko is leading this army of
about a half a million soldiers is about
to win this battle and but wants to
deliver the last crushing blow low so he
rushes ahead leaves his supply train
behind and so instead of winning the war
against this much smaller army he is
imprisoned beheaded within 46 days his
army of the remaining army of about
400,000 people soldiers is left alone
and starving
and conquered and executed all because
of the ego of one man cities be sure not
to let that kind of hubris take you over
it’s all right now aren’t we told that
often we need to be confident and
celebrate our successes but can
celebration go too far if you’re talking
about humility what can a city do to
become humble okay so that actually is a
great segue into my third point what
tell the whole story right I mean in in
leadership we say that leadership it’s
about balance that that leadership
stories that speak only of successes are
incomplete so cities need to tell the
full story and what is that ballot
banners looked like in in leadership so
so at the individual level I have been
privileged to be a part blessed to be a
part of many successes and both
personally individually and and through
through my organizational work but have
been so many failures you know at the
individual level at the personal level
my marriage did not last beyond 20 years
there’s a lot of pain I have applied for
jobs that I haven’t gotten I have hired
and fired the wrong people I have taken
my organization in two endeavors that
were not that great and so they were
there lots of things like that that
others would consider failures and that
I consider failures and I’ve got to
remember them and learn from them but
when you are kind enough to invite me to
your Ted stage or or we get an award or
something we don’t talk about that we so
it’s my responsibility to remember to
stay humble to stay real
to have that balance at the city level
so Singapore it’s it’s often hailed as
an urban paradise and it really is good
I was I was just there a few weeks ago
visiting my son and it’s pretty and
pristine and lots of trees and and no
crime and most millionaires in the world
but ten to fourteen percent of
Singaporeans have trouble accessing
their basic needs
hunger is a real thing real cities have
real problems you can’t wish them away
and you know you could have focused on
them as the as the urbanist Liz odd boo
set at this recent p4 conference that
was held in Pittsburgh she said
something about leadership that I’m
going to take a little bit of a poetic
license with and she said leaders I add
cities leaders and cities need to be
willing to listen to the pain create
space for grieving and commit to healing
you got to have that balance you’ve got
to be cognizant you’ve got to own up to
your challenges a good leader is honest
about her challenges and so are good
cities okay so if we buy the argument
that nothing’s perfect and there’s
always room for improvement what’s next
how do we get there whether as an
individual or a city I would say let’s
let’s go back to that okay let’s go back
to the fourth principle and in my head
all right so that’s because that’s a
beautiful segue into the fourth
principle is how do we get there that’s
about openness and there is a lot of
research in the business world about the
you know the the the the diverse talent
on teams makes the teams better
organizations better
boardrooms better and so on and so forth
so will not belabor at that point but
the four at the geographical unit level
if we you know a lot has been studied
about rise and fall of civilizations so
let’s look at China we’ve got a pic on
China today I don’t know why but we are
going to pick on China today so so China
scholars say that the most glorious days
of China but also its most open days
when medieval Europe was wracked with
the purges of Muslims and Jews because
basically anyone who was challenging the
Christian orthodoxy was being you know
purged out China was opening its
Imperial code ships were coming in from
from Central Asia trade was flourishing
cultural exchanges were happening that’s
how Buddhism got into China because of
that cultural exchange and all of that
and the the other cultures also
benefited from that from that reverse
exchange but not only that innovation
was at its peak the navigational compass
was created the paper currency was
created in China at that time gunpowder
was created then but then same geography
right and 14th century Imperial rulers
decided that they wanted to curtail
other influences on China they wanted to
protect it and so they shall dumb the
borders there’s the the ships that had
gone they called them back and they cut
them up for scrap whereas China had been
flourishing in the open days China
started to fall behind and at the same
time the the Spanish and the Portuguese
sailors were going you know sailing the
seas and industrial and scientific
revolution rippled through Europe China
was crippled so what’s the message for
being welcoming and inclusive is hugely
important and as we sit here in this
beautiful city of bridges I want to say
to cities build bridges to ideas and
Sarada that’s very interesting that you
took us through the framework of what a
city needs to do make sure I got this
mindful humble balanced and open but as
we look around the world today it
doesn’t seem like those are the sort of
that’s that’s a very interesting
you know the here’s the thing the in the
short-run destructive behaviors can be
successful sometimes even more than the
healthy ones but in the short run but if
we are talking about cities as leaders
Sitter cities leading the globe through
that population major population shift
that’s gonna happen then they have to be
looking at the principles of leadership
which are the sustainable principles of
leadership or leadership sustainability
and that’s why I point to those four you
know be the mindful City don’t buy into
your own hype tell the whole story the
story of just the songbirds is just as
incomplete as just hearing just the
stories of the crows so tell the whole
story build bridges not once beautiful
so one final question for you we’re
leaving here we learn from the best of
leadership what do we gain as a society
what does this
if the city’s adopt the best of
leadership principles a more just
society a more inclusive society a more
equitable world and a more caring and
generous globe so that you know we sit
here and talk about the China and
scholars and history and all of that so
that if we follow of cities lead and
follow these principles my hope would be
that 2,000 years from now people
scholars machines computers are looking
back at this or some combination of
humans and machines are looking back at
this era and saying they got it that
century got it that’s that’s the century
that’s the world I want to live in so
thank you for your insight and thank you
for all that you do let’s go create that
world [Applause]
Please follow and like us: