after I graduated Business School I
decided I wanted to take a year off and
learn Gomorrha Talmud in memory of a
dear 12 year old cousin of mine that
passed away from cancer so I came back
here to yeshiva University to learn
gemara and while I was here I had a
conversation with the Dean of the
business school where I was raving about
the case study method that I had just
learnt at the Harvard Business School a
couple of days later he approached me
and asked me if I would teach a course
that revolved around the case study
method and I agreed I taught a class and
I loved it I knew I wanted to come back
and teach but at the same time I knew I
had to get on with my business career so
after 20 years in the workforce which
included various roles such as
investment banker and fortune 50 senior
executive I was blessed to have the
opportunity to come back here to UC the
University and recently I took a step
back and I wondered what was the
difference in the way I taught 20 years
ago with the way that I teach today and
what brought about those changes and
what I realized was being an executive
has given me the tools to enhance my
navigation system which has made me a
better professor and more importantly a
better person and so tonight I’d like to
share with you just a few of the
elements of my navigation system element
number one it’s not just about me we all
understand what this icon says what it
means it tells you where you are but
does it really
I think this icon tells you absolutely
nothing it’s not until you understand
everything else around you it’s not
until you have the map and then you
place that icon on the map do you
realize where you are and what you need
to do to get to where you want to go
it’s not just
about me I remember sitting in the
conference room of an executive at
Medeco health 12 years ago getting ready
to listen to the summer interns make
their summer intern project to prep
their presentation and Debbie a summer
intern got up to speak and as she got up
to speak and started her presentation I
noticed that all of my colleagues had
tuned out I noticed that they weren’t
paying attention
Debbie unaware of what was going on
around her continued on with her goal of
completing the presentation
Debbie was so focused on her goal that
she failed to realize the true goal was
to make sure that she engaged senior
management in a conversation related to
a topic that she had just spent the last
six weeks researching what Debbie did
was not uncommon too often when we are
so focused on our own goal when we are
so focused on ourselves we fail to
understand everything around us we fail
to look at things from the perspective
of others unlike 20 years ago when I
enter the classroom it’s not about me
it’s not about teaching the information
that I want to teach it’s about making
sure the students understand it’s about
making sure the students have a learning
experience and if I see a blank face
after a blank face it’s up to me to find
a way to teach them even if I have to
rip up the material that I worked so
hard to present element number one it’s
not just about me element number two
defines success in today’s day and age
most of the time we don’t define success
and when we do define success we focus
on the short term and we lose sight of
the journey
focus on our next destination and not
the long-term I remember
getting ready for a multi-billion dollar
negotiation with a national retailer
sitting with my team preparing for the
negotiation and they laid out all of the
issues that we were currently facing and
what we were gonna do to solve those
problems
I then turned to the team and ask them
how are we defining success this is a
multi-year agreement three to five years
what are the problems that we see in
three and five years and what can we do
to solve those problems and my team
understood fortunately for us the other
side defined success based on the short
term and they were happy with the
negotiation we on the other hand focused
on the long term we maximize the true
value of the contract
unlike 20 years ago when I enter the
classroom my metric of success is not
solely based on making sure the
understand the students understand the
basic principles of leadership and
management I want to make sure the
students enhance their ability to think
on their feet to make decisions with
imperfect data and enhance their
emotional intelligence my metric of
success is not solely based on what they
know at the end of the semester my
metric of success is long term in 10
years from now how many students will
look back and say my class made a
difference in their leadership style my
class made a difference in their
professional or their personal lives
define success element number three
embrace feedback GPS utilizes
trilateration
to pinpoint your exact location
trilateration is the use of a minimum of
three to four satellites to provide
feedback we too need to embrace feedback
we need to embrace positive
and negative feedback early on in my
career I hated feedback who really wants
to hear when you’re not doing something
well I know I didn’t after I graduated
you CV University I worked at Coopers in
library and in one of my first
performance reviews fest my supervisor
started to go through all of the things
that I had done well that year and then
he started to go through the things that
he felt they didn’t do so well and he
kept on going and going and in my mind I
remember thinking do I deserve to be
getting criticized to be getting ripped
apart
I left that Business Review seething and
then I caught myself and realized that
just a few years earlier
I loved feedback I embraced feedback in
high school I was a gymnast I trained at
the wooden Center I spent hours and
hours every week at the wooden Center
with my coach you phim a silver medalist
as well as other members of the 1984
gold medal USA gymnastics team and as a
gymnast the second I was done with the
routine I would search out feedback from
my coach or other members in the gym in
the wooden center you embraced feedback
as an athlete you realized that feedback
was how you grew and feedback was how
you improved and just then I realized
that fest wasn’t telling me that I was
failing Fest was telling me that he
wanted me to improve and that he
believed that I can’t improve and from
that point on I was fascinated with the
concept of feedback and as I continued
my journey and became an executive I
realized that anytime I encountered
feedback I wanted to think about it from
the mind frame of an athlete from the
mind frame of a gymnast and realized
there were
three things I needed to work on one I
needed to create an environment that was
feedback friendly two I needed to find a
way to give feedback and three I needed
to find a way to use feedback so what
can one do to mimic the environment of
the wooden Center supervisors tell their
employees embrace feedback friends tell
colleagues embrace feedback but the
person that needs feedback most is the
one that runs furthest away from it so
it has an executive what I would do is I
would reach out to those individuals and
I would ask them for feedback on me for
two reasons one I wanted to hear what
they had to say but more importantly I
wanted them to engage with me on a
conversation that revolved around
feedback in a non-threatening way where
I was the topic of conversation and then
I can turn the tables and give them
feedback but what can you do to give
feedback like my kochiya fame the key
issue the key point is to make sure that
when you’re giving feedback they
understand that you’re giving them
prospective guidance and not
retrospective criticism they need to
understand that you want them to improve
and that you believe they can’t improve
and most importantly they need to
understand that you want to be their
coach using feedback and this is where
most people fail when you get feedback I
would always work on coming up with an
action plan an action plan that shows
the person giving me the feedback that I
heard what they had to say and most
importantly that I was going to do
something about it 20 years ago I was
more than happy with the two-minute
feedback that students gave me at the
end of the semester I really wasn’t
interested in hearing
today I actively and openly embrace
feedback during the semester and at the
end of the semester students are
required to submit a minimum five page
critique and after reading over a
hundred pages of critique sometimes
quite painful I develop my own action
plan and I send it to all my students I
let my students know I heard what they
had to say and what I’m going to do to
improve this teaches students the
importance of feedback but it also helps
because then when I want to give them
feedback at the end of the semester they
embrace it we all need to embrace
feedback whether personal professional
or in school I’m blessed to be the
father of four amazing children and
early on as a father there would be
numerous times where a child of mine
would come home and talk to me about a
problem or a situation that frustrated
them and being an action-oriented person
the first thing I would do would be
suggest a solution or try to figure out
what else they could have done to have
avoided the situation and undoubtedly
the conversation would always
deteriorate so I turned to my wife my
best source of feedback and what she
told me was sometimes when our kids come
to you they just want to vent and
sometimes they just want empathy and
sometimes when they come to you they
want you to put yourself in their
perspective to think of things from
their perspective and not from yours and
what was she telling me element number
one it’s not just about me and
fortunately for me I embraced that
feedback and have enhanced my
relationship with my children feedback
is essential feedback helps you know
exactly where you are
we all will make mistakes in life we all
will hit roadblocks if it’s the end of a
journey
then we’ve failed with strength courage
resilience and feedback we will be able
to reroute and continue on with our
journey 20 years ago I remember driving
home after teaching a class that I
didn’t feel went so well and when I came
home I told my wife this teaching stuff
is not for me a similar thing happened
just last semester with a different
outcome
I came to stern to teach my honors class
in entrepreneurial leadership a group of
students that always came to class
prepared engaged and ready for a great
dialogue and as I started teaching the
case I realized I saw a blank face after
blank face after blank face and so I hit
the pause button and I tried to find a
different way to teach my students but I
don’t think I did a good job and I got
frustrated I got frustrated because I
felt the students didn’t put the time
into reading the case and preparing for
the conversation so after class I asked
a couple of students for feedback and
what I found out
surprised me the students had in fact
read the case but unfortunately the case
was not well written and the homework
that I gave confused them even more so
as I was driving home I realized I had
two options I could do nothing or I can
do something about it
do nothing sweep it under the rug
pretend like it never happened or do
something to create a learning
environment so when I got home I sent a
long email to with my students and the
email included the following I strive
for every class to be a learning
experience and tonight I failed but
let’s not fail to learn from tonight
when you make a mistake not if you make
a mistake don’t hide from it
don’t sweep it under the rug be
accountable find a way to learn from it
and find a way to grow stronger tonight
I fail to teach you the lesson that I
initially sought out to teach but maybe
the lesson on accountability was far
more important looking forward to a
better class next week
sincerely professor Cornwall and other
than twenty years ago I probably wasn’t
a good professor you learned a few of
the elements of my navigation system one
it’s not just about me to define success
trilateration we all need numerous
sources of feedback as a source of
growth and a way to improve and finally
recalculate as we continue on with our
journey whether it’s personal or
professional unexpected detours are
inevitable find a way to engage your own
personal navigation system to
recalculate and stay focused on your
journey to success please share with me
your feedback by emailing me at feedback
is awesome at gmail.com thank you
[Applause]
[Music]
decided I wanted to take a year off and
learn Gomorrha Talmud in memory of a
dear 12 year old cousin of mine that
passed away from cancer so I came back
here to yeshiva University to learn
gemara and while I was here I had a
conversation with the Dean of the
business school where I was raving about
the case study method that I had just
learnt at the Harvard Business School a
couple of days later he approached me
and asked me if I would teach a course
that revolved around the case study
method and I agreed I taught a class and
I loved it I knew I wanted to come back
and teach but at the same time I knew I
had to get on with my business career so
after 20 years in the workforce which
included various roles such as
investment banker and fortune 50 senior
executive I was blessed to have the
opportunity to come back here to UC the
University and recently I took a step
back and I wondered what was the
difference in the way I taught 20 years
ago with the way that I teach today and
what brought about those changes and
what I realized was being an executive
has given me the tools to enhance my
navigation system which has made me a
better professor and more importantly a
better person and so tonight I’d like to
share with you just a few of the
elements of my navigation system element
number one it’s not just about me we all
understand what this icon says what it
means it tells you where you are but
does it really
I think this icon tells you absolutely
nothing it’s not until you understand
everything else around you it’s not
until you have the map and then you
place that icon on the map do you
realize where you are and what you need
to do to get to where you want to go
it’s not just
about me I remember sitting in the
conference room of an executive at
Medeco health 12 years ago getting ready
to listen to the summer interns make
their summer intern project to prep
their presentation and Debbie a summer
intern got up to speak and as she got up
to speak and started her presentation I
noticed that all of my colleagues had
tuned out I noticed that they weren’t
paying attention
Debbie unaware of what was going on
around her continued on with her goal of
completing the presentation
Debbie was so focused on her goal that
she failed to realize the true goal was
to make sure that she engaged senior
management in a conversation related to
a topic that she had just spent the last
six weeks researching what Debbie did
was not uncommon too often when we are
so focused on our own goal when we are
so focused on ourselves we fail to
understand everything around us we fail
to look at things from the perspective
of others unlike 20 years ago when I
enter the classroom it’s not about me
it’s not about teaching the information
that I want to teach it’s about making
sure the students understand it’s about
making sure the students have a learning
experience and if I see a blank face
after a blank face it’s up to me to find
a way to teach them even if I have to
rip up the material that I worked so
hard to present element number one it’s
not just about me element number two
defines success in today’s day and age
most of the time we don’t define success
and when we do define success we focus
on the short term and we lose sight of
the journey
focus on our next destination and not
the long-term I remember
getting ready for a multi-billion dollar
negotiation with a national retailer
sitting with my team preparing for the
negotiation and they laid out all of the
issues that we were currently facing and
what we were gonna do to solve those
problems
I then turned to the team and ask them
how are we defining success this is a
multi-year agreement three to five years
what are the problems that we see in
three and five years and what can we do
to solve those problems and my team
understood fortunately for us the other
side defined success based on the short
term and they were happy with the
negotiation we on the other hand focused
on the long term we maximize the true
value of the contract
unlike 20 years ago when I enter the
classroom my metric of success is not
solely based on making sure the
understand the students understand the
basic principles of leadership and
management I want to make sure the
students enhance their ability to think
on their feet to make decisions with
imperfect data and enhance their
emotional intelligence my metric of
success is not solely based on what they
know at the end of the semester my
metric of success is long term in 10
years from now how many students will
look back and say my class made a
difference in their leadership style my
class made a difference in their
professional or their personal lives
define success element number three
embrace feedback GPS utilizes
trilateration
to pinpoint your exact location
trilateration is the use of a minimum of
three to four satellites to provide
feedback we too need to embrace feedback
we need to embrace positive
and negative feedback early on in my
career I hated feedback who really wants
to hear when you’re not doing something
well I know I didn’t after I graduated
you CV University I worked at Coopers in
library and in one of my first
performance reviews fest my supervisor
started to go through all of the things
that I had done well that year and then
he started to go through the things that
he felt they didn’t do so well and he
kept on going and going and in my mind I
remember thinking do I deserve to be
getting criticized to be getting ripped
apart
I left that Business Review seething and
then I caught myself and realized that
just a few years earlier
I loved feedback I embraced feedback in
high school I was a gymnast I trained at
the wooden Center I spent hours and
hours every week at the wooden Center
with my coach you phim a silver medalist
as well as other members of the 1984
gold medal USA gymnastics team and as a
gymnast the second I was done with the
routine I would search out feedback from
my coach or other members in the gym in
the wooden center you embraced feedback
as an athlete you realized that feedback
was how you grew and feedback was how
you improved and just then I realized
that fest wasn’t telling me that I was
failing Fest was telling me that he
wanted me to improve and that he
believed that I can’t improve and from
that point on I was fascinated with the
concept of feedback and as I continued
my journey and became an executive I
realized that anytime I encountered
feedback I wanted to think about it from
the mind frame of an athlete from the
mind frame of a gymnast and realized
there were
three things I needed to work on one I
needed to create an environment that was
feedback friendly two I needed to find a
way to give feedback and three I needed
to find a way to use feedback so what
can one do to mimic the environment of
the wooden Center supervisors tell their
employees embrace feedback friends tell
colleagues embrace feedback but the
person that needs feedback most is the
one that runs furthest away from it so
it has an executive what I would do is I
would reach out to those individuals and
I would ask them for feedback on me for
two reasons one I wanted to hear what
they had to say but more importantly I
wanted them to engage with me on a
conversation that revolved around
feedback in a non-threatening way where
I was the topic of conversation and then
I can turn the tables and give them
feedback but what can you do to give
feedback like my kochiya fame the key
issue the key point is to make sure that
when you’re giving feedback they
understand that you’re giving them
prospective guidance and not
retrospective criticism they need to
understand that you want them to improve
and that you believe they can’t improve
and most importantly they need to
understand that you want to be their
coach using feedback and this is where
most people fail when you get feedback I
would always work on coming up with an
action plan an action plan that shows
the person giving me the feedback that I
heard what they had to say and most
importantly that I was going to do
something about it 20 years ago I was
more than happy with the two-minute
feedback that students gave me at the
end of the semester I really wasn’t
interested in hearing
today I actively and openly embrace
feedback during the semester and at the
end of the semester students are
required to submit a minimum five page
critique and after reading over a
hundred pages of critique sometimes
quite painful I develop my own action
plan and I send it to all my students I
let my students know I heard what they
had to say and what I’m going to do to
improve this teaches students the
importance of feedback but it also helps
because then when I want to give them
feedback at the end of the semester they
embrace it we all need to embrace
feedback whether personal professional
or in school I’m blessed to be the
father of four amazing children and
early on as a father there would be
numerous times where a child of mine
would come home and talk to me about a
problem or a situation that frustrated
them and being an action-oriented person
the first thing I would do would be
suggest a solution or try to figure out
what else they could have done to have
avoided the situation and undoubtedly
the conversation would always
deteriorate so I turned to my wife my
best source of feedback and what she
told me was sometimes when our kids come
to you they just want to vent and
sometimes they just want empathy and
sometimes when they come to you they
want you to put yourself in their
perspective to think of things from
their perspective and not from yours and
what was she telling me element number
one it’s not just about me and
fortunately for me I embraced that
feedback and have enhanced my
relationship with my children feedback
is essential feedback helps you know
exactly where you are
we all will make mistakes in life we all
will hit roadblocks if it’s the end of a
journey
then we’ve failed with strength courage
resilience and feedback we will be able
to reroute and continue on with our
journey 20 years ago I remember driving
home after teaching a class that I
didn’t feel went so well and when I came
home I told my wife this teaching stuff
is not for me a similar thing happened
just last semester with a different
outcome
I came to stern to teach my honors class
in entrepreneurial leadership a group of
students that always came to class
prepared engaged and ready for a great
dialogue and as I started teaching the
case I realized I saw a blank face after
blank face after blank face and so I hit
the pause button and I tried to find a
different way to teach my students but I
don’t think I did a good job and I got
frustrated I got frustrated because I
felt the students didn’t put the time
into reading the case and preparing for
the conversation so after class I asked
a couple of students for feedback and
what I found out
surprised me the students had in fact
read the case but unfortunately the case
was not well written and the homework
that I gave confused them even more so
as I was driving home I realized I had
two options I could do nothing or I can
do something about it
do nothing sweep it under the rug
pretend like it never happened or do
something to create a learning
environment so when I got home I sent a
long email to with my students and the
email included the following I strive
for every class to be a learning
experience and tonight I failed but
let’s not fail to learn from tonight
when you make a mistake not if you make
a mistake don’t hide from it
don’t sweep it under the rug be
accountable find a way to learn from it
and find a way to grow stronger tonight
I fail to teach you the lesson that I
initially sought out to teach but maybe
the lesson on accountability was far
more important looking forward to a
better class next week
sincerely professor Cornwall and other
than twenty years ago I probably wasn’t
a good professor you learned a few of
the elements of my navigation system one
it’s not just about me to define success
trilateration we all need numerous
sources of feedback as a source of
growth and a way to improve and finally
recalculate as we continue on with our
journey whether it’s personal or
professional unexpected detours are
inevitable find a way to engage your own
personal navigation system to
recalculate and stay focused on your
journey to success please share with me
your feedback by emailing me at feedback
is awesome at gmail.com thank you
[Applause]
[Music]
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