why leadership and mentorship does not
need to fail us trust and confidence two
of the things we value two of the things
we know we want to the things we know we
need but yet so regrettably we’re in a
moment a severe crisis of leadership and
failing trust in our institutions over
the past 17 years
the Edelman barometer for trust has
measured confidence and credibility in
our institutions and the people behind
them and there’s been a steady decline
each and every year there’s been a
fall-off in our trust and our confidence
it goes well beyond politics but let’s
start in government in government and
media the trust factor is that basically
an all-time low of approximately 40
percent what about the institutions of
business and even NGOs the trust factor
is only at about 50 percent none of the
major institutions are immune to the
current distrust of the system and it
gets even worse if we double-click
behind the people that lead those
institutions look at CEOs CEOs currently
have a trust factor of about mid 30 ish
percent on a good day but what is really
alarming is what impacts each and every
one of us that’s in a workplace a
workplace that’s supposed to give you
independence development care and some
level of mentorship beyond earnings
employee engagement as measured by
Gallup and defined as having some sense
of interest and some intention of
commitment to your job has been stagnant
at about 32 to 33 percent
over the past decade now let me do the
inverse of that to make that point more
stark 67% of us in the workforce today
are either indifferent or want to quit
our job but yet I am optimistic why this
leadership and mentorship not need to
fail us we need to first answer three
big questions what does it even mean to
be a good leader why is it so hard and
what can we collectively do about it as
a response to the failing institutions
and lack of confidence and crises and
leadership the first question what does
good leadership mean I’ve been so
privileged over 20 years to have be
given the gift of leading multiple
organizations and mentoring several
people and equally I’ve had the gift of
being a beneficiary of great leadership
and great mentorship by some phenomenal
human beings human beings that of course
include my parents teachers and yes
business colleagues who sometimes just
often said those four simple words I
believe in you I believe in you what is
good leadership what does it mean
because of the great leadership I’ve had
for the past five years I’ve reflected
over the 50 founders that we have
invested in I’ve thought about the times
when we made real good business
decisions in the times when we just had
a misjudgment on the character of a
person and over five years I’ve looked
at doing research and writing on some
40-thousand entrepreneurs and 100 case
studies in depth of leaders across all
walks religion culture arts sports
business entrepreneurship military and
government to try to see what is that
common thing that binds good leadership
and unequivocally it’s one simple thing
at its root good leadership equates with
good people we use this phrase a lot
good people he’s a good person she’s a
good person they’re good people you know
you kind of know when you feel it and
see it each of you can imagine a moment
where you might have felt a little more
inspired a little more supported but
bringing definition to that word and
accuracy and precision is so difficult
so how do we define good leadership and
good people there are two dimensions to
start with the first component of good
leadership and good people is this
people committing to character as much
as competency and confidence we have had
an unbelievable bias of leadership of
confidence and competency over
leadership of character as the current
Dean of Harvard Business School has said
who is one of those good people to a
recent incoming class what this
institution has been so long on is
teaching goodness of competency but
relatively short on teaching and
cultivating leadership of character this
is what we must do for the next
generation it’s not that leadership of
confidence doesn’t matter
and clearly competencies matter but if
we have those without a foundation of
character and values you have nothing
and you have short term leadership
what’s the second dimension really
special good people and great leaders
are people who help others become better
versions of themselves think of those
people who you’ve interacted with who
helped you feel a higher inner
expression of your true inner self good
people aren’t people seeking to be
starstruck there are people seeking
followership
there are people as Tom Peter said
they’re not there they’re not leader
seeking followers they’re leaders going
business of producing other leaders they
understand leadership is a duty to serve
but with that how do we bring some
common standards common values and
common language so that we can have a
dialogue around how we cultivate the
values that underpin leadership of
character and leadership of goodness
there are three cornerstone values truth
compassion and wholeness what is truth
truth begins with humility it extends to
the practice of self-awareness
understanding our biases our strengths
and weaknesses and it culminates in the
practice of integrity where integrity
really means living each day in self
congruence where we actually do what we
say we actually say what we think we
actually think what we feel and we
understand how we feel is who we are
with a foundation of truth you have the
capacity for compassion leadership is a
duty to serve
we need more compassionate leadership
compassion begins with openness it
extends to practicing empathy where we
can transpose ourselves into the shoes
of another such that we can feel such we
such that we can feel exactly as that
other person and ultimately and
ultimately it’s about acts of generosity
acting with kindness acting with
mentorship understanding that leadership
is a privilege it is a duty to serve and
wholeness
what is wholeness wholeness should be
our new definition for success that is
the Assam topic goal the Assam topic
goal is not success is winning or losing
it’s not about a winner-take-all it is
as John Wooden the great NCAA basketball
coach once said wholeness and success is
having self-satisfaction and peace with
oneself knowing that we have done the
best to which we are capable to that
calling we are seeking he has said their
games that they were
scored and they did not feel like they
had lost and there were days when they
outscored the opponent but they did not
feel like they had won the best games
are when both teams walked off and you
did not know who won or lost we have to
move beyond this zero-sum game we have
to move beyond the Aksum of the
traditional definition by Milton
Friedman of business that the only
purpose of business is to maximize
profit wholeness is about looking at the
bigger picture the collective the
collective that we now need to see
across all stakeholders so if we
understand those two dimensions we need
people of character we need people who
can help others reach a higher inner
expression around truth compassion and
wholeness why is this so hard
seems easy to intellectualize it’s so
hard because we live in the real world
and in the real world we have everyday
tensions that face us extrinsic
realities 5 tensions such as pragmatism
versus idealism what’s your ideal vision
how do you pragmatically execute against
it grit versus acceptance the will to
keep going versus when to no to give in
our vulnerabilities versus our
conviction or what I call the tightrope
of entrepreneurship embracing the
risk-taking as our vulnerabilities while
having a sense of conviction of the
purpose driven vision and idiosyncrasies
versus connectivity the pixie-dust
of courts that make us each special and
human are idiosyncrasies but yet a deep
human desire to connect to some common
denominator and a greater whole and
perhaps the biggest and toughest tension
of all short-termism versus long-term
ism this is what is killing goodness in
the system of leadership and
institutions we have a cognitive bias
towards short-termism what Metcalfe has
said we overestimate the short term and
underestimate the long term our life is
a sprint when it should be thought of as
a
marathon short-termism is killing
innovation good culture and good
leadership the Mona Lisa
da Vinci’s masterpiece ten years to
complete every immaculate stroke every
precision of shadow and light a decade
we all know good things take time but
yet we have long-term problems and
long-term opportunities but we act and
think with short term actions think in
politics every two years we’re raising
capital as opposed to solving big social
issues think in education is it about
learning or about testing and in my own
industry short-termism how often do we
think about the exit strategy before
anyone’s had a discussion of the
freaking entry strategy microwave
capitalism has surrounded us value
capture / value creation so what can we
do about it there’s a collective
response we can do and there are three
things I want to leave you with first
think of goodness in terms of a daily
guiding principle second what are the
heuristics and habits we can do daily to
practice goodness and third can we when
given the opportunity ask better
questions a guiding principle for
goodness the great jazz legend Herbie
Hancock 14 time Grammy Award winner when
asked the question how is it that you
are such an amazing and awesome musician
over five decades you have transversed a
landscape of classical jazz classical
music hip hop funk electronic – modern
jazz how is it possible and he answers
with this I remember that first and
foremost I’m a human being I’m a human
being that happens to be a musician we
need to put the humanity back in to
business and institutions the humanity
and humanities must be rejected we have
lost that human factor
live by a guiding principle of people
first the next time you have a decision
to make
ask yourself what’s the human factor who
are the people that will be impacted be
people first how about a heuristic and
daily habit you can take with you I was
so privileged as I said to have had some
superlative mentors one of them was Jay
Chiat he found a TV whi it day one the
greatest advertising firms ever in
history a creative icon and he died
unfortunately 70 years too young of
cancer and before he left us we had some
conversations and he asked me to
remember to maintain openness and
optimism Jay had an unbelievable gift
when anyone approached him with an idea
to do something special and I ask you to
consider this when someone approaches
you with an idea 24 by 3 someone
approaches you with an idea can you wait
24 seconds before saying something if
you can wait 24 seconds might you wait
24 minutes to not criticize the idea if
you can wait 24 minutes is it possible
to actually wait 24 hours to think about
every reason why that idea might work
over all the reasons why it won’t the
optimism rule 24 by 3 practice goodness
daily this is compassionate leadership
this is openness now I’ve said that I’m
optimistic about a new model for
leadership a new model that can save the
failing institutions and it starts with
each of us it starts with each of us
because if good leadership is good
people
by extension anyone who’s a good person
has the capacity to be a good and even
great leader every day we are faced with
opportunities to mentor help and
cultivate and and and reach and realize
people’s full potential mentorship and
CEO ship and leadership are fancy terms
put on by institution
and business schools many of us are
natural mentors but here are five
questions you might consider next time
someone comes to you for advice what is
it that you’re really trying to achieve
what is it within you that is a
superpower a natural capability that can
help you get there what’s slowing you
down what are you gonna change tomorrow
about that and then how can I help these
five questions effectively go back to
the root of what is being human in
leadership it’s effectively
understanding that mentorship is not a
check the Box activity like it’s become
in several institutions it starts with
an authentic relationship that means
authentic listening authentic listening
means asking some questions what is it
you’re really trying to achieve what is
special about you that can get you there
what’s slowing you down what are you
gonna do different then how I can help
as opposed to how can I help you we have
a mentoring session let’s move on so I
leave you with this thought and
challenge goodness is within all of us
leadership and mentorship does not need
to fail us anyone that has goodness and
wants to express it is a natural-born
leader and is a natural-born mentor what
if each of us just picked in our own
minds ten people over the marathon of
our life ten people who we would
positively imprint goodness on who we
would work to give truth compassion
wholeness toward so that they can be a
higher expression of their inner selves
pick ten people and what if those 10
people passed it on to another ten and
those ten another ten
it sounds audacious it sounds idealistic
that helping ten people who help another
ten who help another ten might actually
make profound and meaningful global
change and at times when you’re doing it
I’m sure it just feels like a drop
in the ocean but remember the following
every single River every single ocean
and yes every single waterfall begins
with one single drop thank you
[Applause]
need to fail us trust and confidence two
of the things we value two of the things
we know we want to the things we know we
need but yet so regrettably we’re in a
moment a severe crisis of leadership and
failing trust in our institutions over
the past 17 years
the Edelman barometer for trust has
measured confidence and credibility in
our institutions and the people behind
them and there’s been a steady decline
each and every year there’s been a
fall-off in our trust and our confidence
it goes well beyond politics but let’s
start in government in government and
media the trust factor is that basically
an all-time low of approximately 40
percent what about the institutions of
business and even NGOs the trust factor
is only at about 50 percent none of the
major institutions are immune to the
current distrust of the system and it
gets even worse if we double-click
behind the people that lead those
institutions look at CEOs CEOs currently
have a trust factor of about mid 30 ish
percent on a good day but what is really
alarming is what impacts each and every
one of us that’s in a workplace a
workplace that’s supposed to give you
independence development care and some
level of mentorship beyond earnings
employee engagement as measured by
Gallup and defined as having some sense
of interest and some intention of
commitment to your job has been stagnant
at about 32 to 33 percent
over the past decade now let me do the
inverse of that to make that point more
stark 67% of us in the workforce today
are either indifferent or want to quit
our job but yet I am optimistic why this
leadership and mentorship not need to
fail us we need to first answer three
big questions what does it even mean to
be a good leader why is it so hard and
what can we collectively do about it as
a response to the failing institutions
and lack of confidence and crises and
leadership the first question what does
good leadership mean I’ve been so
privileged over 20 years to have be
given the gift of leading multiple
organizations and mentoring several
people and equally I’ve had the gift of
being a beneficiary of great leadership
and great mentorship by some phenomenal
human beings human beings that of course
include my parents teachers and yes
business colleagues who sometimes just
often said those four simple words I
believe in you I believe in you what is
good leadership what does it mean
because of the great leadership I’ve had
for the past five years I’ve reflected
over the 50 founders that we have
invested in I’ve thought about the times
when we made real good business
decisions in the times when we just had
a misjudgment on the character of a
person and over five years I’ve looked
at doing research and writing on some
40-thousand entrepreneurs and 100 case
studies in depth of leaders across all
walks religion culture arts sports
business entrepreneurship military and
government to try to see what is that
common thing that binds good leadership
and unequivocally it’s one simple thing
at its root good leadership equates with
good people we use this phrase a lot
good people he’s a good person she’s a
good person they’re good people you know
you kind of know when you feel it and
see it each of you can imagine a moment
where you might have felt a little more
inspired a little more supported but
bringing definition to that word and
accuracy and precision is so difficult
so how do we define good leadership and
good people there are two dimensions to
start with the first component of good
leadership and good people is this
people committing to character as much
as competency and confidence we have had
an unbelievable bias of leadership of
confidence and competency over
leadership of character as the current
Dean of Harvard Business School has said
who is one of those good people to a
recent incoming class what this
institution has been so long on is
teaching goodness of competency but
relatively short on teaching and
cultivating leadership of character this
is what we must do for the next
generation it’s not that leadership of
confidence doesn’t matter
and clearly competencies matter but if
we have those without a foundation of
character and values you have nothing
and you have short term leadership
what’s the second dimension really
special good people and great leaders
are people who help others become better
versions of themselves think of those
people who you’ve interacted with who
helped you feel a higher inner
expression of your true inner self good
people aren’t people seeking to be
starstruck there are people seeking
followership
there are people as Tom Peter said
they’re not there they’re not leader
seeking followers they’re leaders going
business of producing other leaders they
understand leadership is a duty to serve
but with that how do we bring some
common standards common values and
common language so that we can have a
dialogue around how we cultivate the
values that underpin leadership of
character and leadership of goodness
there are three cornerstone values truth
compassion and wholeness what is truth
truth begins with humility it extends to
the practice of self-awareness
understanding our biases our strengths
and weaknesses and it culminates in the
practice of integrity where integrity
really means living each day in self
congruence where we actually do what we
say we actually say what we think we
actually think what we feel and we
understand how we feel is who we are
with a foundation of truth you have the
capacity for compassion leadership is a
duty to serve
we need more compassionate leadership
compassion begins with openness it
extends to practicing empathy where we
can transpose ourselves into the shoes
of another such that we can feel such we
such that we can feel exactly as that
other person and ultimately and
ultimately it’s about acts of generosity
acting with kindness acting with
mentorship understanding that leadership
is a privilege it is a duty to serve and
wholeness
what is wholeness wholeness should be
our new definition for success that is
the Assam topic goal the Assam topic
goal is not success is winning or losing
it’s not about a winner-take-all it is
as John Wooden the great NCAA basketball
coach once said wholeness and success is
having self-satisfaction and peace with
oneself knowing that we have done the
best to which we are capable to that
calling we are seeking he has said their
games that they were
scored and they did not feel like they
had lost and there were days when they
outscored the opponent but they did not
feel like they had won the best games
are when both teams walked off and you
did not know who won or lost we have to
move beyond this zero-sum game we have
to move beyond the Aksum of the
traditional definition by Milton
Friedman of business that the only
purpose of business is to maximize
profit wholeness is about looking at the
bigger picture the collective the
collective that we now need to see
across all stakeholders so if we
understand those two dimensions we need
people of character we need people who
can help others reach a higher inner
expression around truth compassion and
wholeness why is this so hard
seems easy to intellectualize it’s so
hard because we live in the real world
and in the real world we have everyday
tensions that face us extrinsic
realities 5 tensions such as pragmatism
versus idealism what’s your ideal vision
how do you pragmatically execute against
it grit versus acceptance the will to
keep going versus when to no to give in
our vulnerabilities versus our
conviction or what I call the tightrope
of entrepreneurship embracing the
risk-taking as our vulnerabilities while
having a sense of conviction of the
purpose driven vision and idiosyncrasies
versus connectivity the pixie-dust
of courts that make us each special and
human are idiosyncrasies but yet a deep
human desire to connect to some common
denominator and a greater whole and
perhaps the biggest and toughest tension
of all short-termism versus long-term
ism this is what is killing goodness in
the system of leadership and
institutions we have a cognitive bias
towards short-termism what Metcalfe has
said we overestimate the short term and
underestimate the long term our life is
a sprint when it should be thought of as
a
marathon short-termism is killing
innovation good culture and good
leadership the Mona Lisa
da Vinci’s masterpiece ten years to
complete every immaculate stroke every
precision of shadow and light a decade
we all know good things take time but
yet we have long-term problems and
long-term opportunities but we act and
think with short term actions think in
politics every two years we’re raising
capital as opposed to solving big social
issues think in education is it about
learning or about testing and in my own
industry short-termism how often do we
think about the exit strategy before
anyone’s had a discussion of the
freaking entry strategy microwave
capitalism has surrounded us value
capture / value creation so what can we
do about it there’s a collective
response we can do and there are three
things I want to leave you with first
think of goodness in terms of a daily
guiding principle second what are the
heuristics and habits we can do daily to
practice goodness and third can we when
given the opportunity ask better
questions a guiding principle for
goodness the great jazz legend Herbie
Hancock 14 time Grammy Award winner when
asked the question how is it that you
are such an amazing and awesome musician
over five decades you have transversed a
landscape of classical jazz classical
music hip hop funk electronic – modern
jazz how is it possible and he answers
with this I remember that first and
foremost I’m a human being I’m a human
being that happens to be a musician we
need to put the humanity back in to
business and institutions the humanity
and humanities must be rejected we have
lost that human factor
live by a guiding principle of people
first the next time you have a decision
to make
ask yourself what’s the human factor who
are the people that will be impacted be
people first how about a heuristic and
daily habit you can take with you I was
so privileged as I said to have had some
superlative mentors one of them was Jay
Chiat he found a TV whi it day one the
greatest advertising firms ever in
history a creative icon and he died
unfortunately 70 years too young of
cancer and before he left us we had some
conversations and he asked me to
remember to maintain openness and
optimism Jay had an unbelievable gift
when anyone approached him with an idea
to do something special and I ask you to
consider this when someone approaches
you with an idea 24 by 3 someone
approaches you with an idea can you wait
24 seconds before saying something if
you can wait 24 seconds might you wait
24 minutes to not criticize the idea if
you can wait 24 minutes is it possible
to actually wait 24 hours to think about
every reason why that idea might work
over all the reasons why it won’t the
optimism rule 24 by 3 practice goodness
daily this is compassionate leadership
this is openness now I’ve said that I’m
optimistic about a new model for
leadership a new model that can save the
failing institutions and it starts with
each of us it starts with each of us
because if good leadership is good
people
by extension anyone who’s a good person
has the capacity to be a good and even
great leader every day we are faced with
opportunities to mentor help and
cultivate and and and reach and realize
people’s full potential mentorship and
CEO ship and leadership are fancy terms
put on by institution
and business schools many of us are
natural mentors but here are five
questions you might consider next time
someone comes to you for advice what is
it that you’re really trying to achieve
what is it within you that is a
superpower a natural capability that can
help you get there what’s slowing you
down what are you gonna change tomorrow
about that and then how can I help these
five questions effectively go back to
the root of what is being human in
leadership it’s effectively
understanding that mentorship is not a
check the Box activity like it’s become
in several institutions it starts with
an authentic relationship that means
authentic listening authentic listening
means asking some questions what is it
you’re really trying to achieve what is
special about you that can get you there
what’s slowing you down what are you
gonna do different then how I can help
as opposed to how can I help you we have
a mentoring session let’s move on so I
leave you with this thought and
challenge goodness is within all of us
leadership and mentorship does not need
to fail us anyone that has goodness and
wants to express it is a natural-born
leader and is a natural-born mentor what
if each of us just picked in our own
minds ten people over the marathon of
our life ten people who we would
positively imprint goodness on who we
would work to give truth compassion
wholeness toward so that they can be a
higher expression of their inner selves
pick ten people and what if those 10
people passed it on to another ten and
those ten another ten
it sounds audacious it sounds idealistic
that helping ten people who help another
ten who help another ten might actually
make profound and meaningful global
change and at times when you’re doing it
I’m sure it just feels like a drop
in the ocean but remember the following
every single River every single ocean
and yes every single waterfall begins
with one single drop thank you
[Applause]
Please follow and like us: