you
thanks very much and I appreciate the
invitation to speak at the TEDx here in
Shanghai
I appreciate Frank and Fred’s hard
efforts to put this together I was
thinking as I was listening to the
previous speakers that there must be a
real benefit to following three dynamic
original extraordinary speakers and
presentations but I can’t think of a
single thing it’s tough to follow such
wonderful speakers but today I would
like to talk to you a little bit about
encounters through a leadership lens you
know I’ve never really been intrigued by
the age-old question of whether leaders
are made or born but I have been in
recent years become very curious about
how people start to understand what
leadership is now I should give you a
context first context is everything
as Robert F Kennedy once said his views
on birth control were distorted by the
fact that he was the seventh of nine
children and my distortion is that I
have been teaching leadership to NYU
students for more than 15 years and
almost every year questions come up like
why are some people so skilled at
leadership why and how and when did they
learn it so I think it might be useful
to pursue these questions and find
answers because there is such a crying
need today for more and better leaders
to me encounters through a leadership
lens happens to us in different phases
of our life which I divided up into
three growth change and legacy the
growth phase
okay the growth phase is when you really
don’t have very much control yeah you
don’t control when you’re born where
you’re born what your family’s like what
your neighborhoods like or what school
you go to
but you receive thousands of inputs from
family friends teachers from social and
other media from technologies and from
all sorts of other externalities
sometimes during this early phase of
your life you develop some strong
interests sometimes even deep passions
but others must just just drift through
without that clarity and we are
remaining open to all possibilities and
have very few filters but we do start to
think at that early phase about what
leaders do there are examples we see
from different settings for example
there’s always the kid on the playground
to whom all other children naturally
gravitate and automatically trust there
are captain’s over the football teams
there are people who are student council
presidents or they are the leaders who
win all the prizes and awards we may
wonder how they do it we may sometimes
question their choices but we do notice
a few things about them they have more
responsibilities and generally more
respect than others they may work a
little harder than others and they
sometimes get blamed when things don’t
go well now my first encounter with a
leader was my own father Paul and you he
married my mother they were both doctors
here at Shanghai and they went to
America for a different than better life
they hoped this is their what I could
get there it’s their wedding picture a
little bit faint but they were married
here in China and they decided to
emigrate because they were both trained
in Western medicine and thought they
could practice a little bit more
actively in the US my father had an
impeccable reputation he was of high
character and integrity and he taught me
a lot including ethics and morals and
how to deal with bias and Prejudice
because they were immigrants to the
United States and he despite his in my
mom’s education and medical training had
to experience the humiliation of going
around the neighborhood in which they
hope to live and ask for permission to
move in because it was a restricted
they weren’t white they persevered they
managed to build their home raise their
family my father persisted in his career
as a cardiologist and rose to the top he
became the first foreign-born for an
educated president of the American Heart
Association this is him with President
Nixon he was just an extraordinary
person as I said in every way and after
he passed away he became the his name is
now on the University of Rochester
Medical Center’s Heart Center there’s a
picture of us cutting the ribbon an
amazing role model but my mother was no
slouch either
she was a clinical pediatrician raising
four daughters in upstate New York in
the 1960s and 70s which was almost
unheard of I have to confess I know
embarrassed to say this but I wasn’t
always supportive of her career choice
because I wanted her sometimes to be
home baking cookies like my other
friend’s mother’s were at the time so I
wasn’t exactly a feminist in my early
days but from her I’ve learned about
stamina time management about
determination and not sitting still just
because we were short asian women she
was very determined and she often gave
very very crisp advice for example to my
husband and me she often said don’t buy
dinner buy stock she was a very big
person in terms of the investment she
liked to do that and on real estate she
gave us advice always by the corner
house you get more light or if we were a
nun partment building go for the top
floor you get the best view she was
always strategic and that was some part
of her pioneering spirit that she passed
on to me now I followed their
inspirational examples and chose student
council as my first leadership activity
back in junior high I loved the
collective action I loved working
together with people to get things done
and I understood that actually was the
essence of leadership getting things
done some of my friends chose other
routes like athletic
music art drama community service as
their a form of leadership and still
others were terribly interested at the
time but all told the whole experience
of being in high school and having these
kinds of adventures and encounters maybe
understand that leadership was something
critical and I’m so happy that I
personally got an early start in it
because I learned a lot of lessons that
have carried me well throughout so oops
sorry this is my mother I don’t know if
you can guess how old she was at the
time but this is a kind of energy that I
got from my parents she’s 95 in this
picture so that’s the growth phase very
early on the next phase I’d like to talk
about is change change this is the time
usually you’re a young adult I hope
you’re a young adult at the time you
decide you want to take more charge of
your life you can make your own
decisions you want to be independent you
want freedom to operate and in this
phase you discover many of your game
aims and goals in life you can’t do on
your own you need help and if you’re
smart and you’re fortunate you’ll find
mentors and guides and champions for you
they will give you advice they’ll guide
you and most importantly they’ll
critique you they’ll give you feedback I
am forever indebted to some of my
Oberlin College professors who gave me
advice after I graduated a year or two
and I came back and I asked them what
should I do with my life I really didn’t
have a good idea in four of them wrote
back and said Diane you should go to law
school you do well there and I never met
a lawyer but what sealed the deal was I
found out there’s no math on the Law
School Admission Test I thought okay I
have a chance so I went to law school
Berkley fell in love with California I
had started my law practice and the best
thing ever
I met my wonderful husband Michael who’s
here today and he’s we’ve been married
for 24 years
he loves to tease me especially in a
climate like this that he’s very
visionary because predicted China’s
great rise to power in the world and he
thought it would be smart
to be married to someone who have
changed assent so thank you Mike
but you know I don’t look like central
castings idea of an attorney so I did
encounter some racial and gender
discrimination in my life but I
remembered my mother’s determination and
my father’s advice which was basically
to overcome bias work hard and be
competent and then those even prejudiced
against you might be won over so I
persevered
I became California’s first
asian-americans Superior Court
commissioner and the first woman and
first person of color to be the general
counsel for the State Bar of California
where I had 160,000 students start
clients all lawyers oh so that was fun I
had a great time thank you
I also took advantage of an amazing
opportunity to become a White House
Fellow the White House fellowship is I
think America’s best leadership program
it was founded by John W Gardner a great
leader himself he was the Secretary of
Health Education and Welfare under
President Lyndon Johnson and his idea
was to bring people from different
sectors different fields and professions
to Washington DC for one year to work
for a cabinet official or ahead of a
White House office I worked for the US
Trade Representative’s office and it was
a fantastic experience to go around and
watch trade negotiators and participate
in negotiating sessions it was exciting
but the even more exciting thing was we
met my class this was my class
unfortunately I’m way out on the edge
but you can see a very short person
that’s like that’s me anyway something
like I cut on the picture
anyway our class were friends for life
believe me we’ve made great great
friends friendships out of this we had
to hear over a hundred incredible
leaders throughout this two to three a
week it was extraordinary
people who were opera singers CEOs
Supreme Court just
this is the president of the United
States members of Congress we met people
in four different cities around the
United States Boston New York Colorado
and five different yes la in San
Francisco it was amazing and we were
supposed to bring back what we learned
to our communities the insights and
perspectives and experiences that
experience has changed me in so many
ways and as you’ll see inform some of
the things I did later in the 1990s as I
said I met my husband but another very
momentous person I met some of you know
John Sexton he was then the Dean of the
New York University School of Law and I
was very active in the American Bar
Association including the section on
legal education and admissions to the
bar John and I became very good friends
we served on a couple committees
together and the ABA and so years after
we first met we bumped into each other
in 2001 at a hotel in San Francisco for
a bar convention and he said let’s have
a cup of coffee I want to tell you
something and he sat me down and then he
regaled me as only John Ken in the story
of how the NYU Board of Trustees had
approached him about becoming the 15th
president of the University he was
mulling it over he was weighing the pros
and cons he loved being the law school
dean but he could see this could be an
exciting prospect and after he finished
telling me these wonderful stories and
his weighing of pros and cons he sort of
bang the table he said so how about it I
said how about what he said how about
joining my team I said wait a minute
your team what team they haven’t picked
you yet have they
he said no is it imminent is gonna
happen tomorrow no I said well you’re
getting a little head of yourself aren’t
you he said well I was just thinking if
I could get some interesting people to
work with me it would be even more fun
so I said well alright we’ll go along
with this what would I do
I don’t know he said well would I be
general counsel the top lawyer I know
how to do that no I think you should do
something different where would I work I
don’t know
I said all right just for laughs how
much money would I make he said oh I
don’t know but a lot less than you’re
making as a lawyer I said John it was
the worst recruiting pitch I have heard
so I dismissed it I didn’t think he was
serious I didn’t think so
it turns out several months later he
actually did get appointed the 15th
president of NYU and he came back to me
he said okay Diane now it’s official
I do want you to join my core team my
cabinet and if you don’t like any of the
jobs that exist you can design your own
job Wow for that I took the risk I took
the leap I said okay I’m coming to New
York and I joined his administration as
his chief of staff and deputy the very
first position like that for any major
research university in the United States
as a matter of fact I later became
deputy president and I loved every
minute it was just an extraordinary time
to be at NYU and to work with a great
leader like John and the other members
of the team but the bonus was he said
you know Diane you should teach I said I
can I could teach just in my spare time
of course I said well that’s wonderful
and I decided I’d wanted to teach
leadership I worked through the deans of
the various undergraduate schools we
created a course for undergraduates from
our 9 different undergraduate colleges
and it’s been a joy of my life
and I patterned it after my beloved
White House Fellows Program so they
students in addition to normal academic
studies get to meet interesting
fascinating distinguished leaders for
example some classes have met Supreme
Court Associate Justice Elena Kagan and
heard her story from academia to
Solicitor General to the United States
Supreme Court another class heard
Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor and
her compelling personal story about how
she landed in the US Supreme Court some
have had a chance to question actress
Anna deavere Smith or Maria Bartiromo a
noted business journalist and
anchorwoman
from Danny Meyer the famed restaurateur
who developed Shake Shack and Union
Square cafe and
they’re terrific establishments they
learned one great piece of leadership
advice always take care of your people
first because without them there is
nothing that’s going to get done
including your vision from evan chess
ler he’s the head of Cravath Swaine &
Moore big law firm in New York they
learned many pieces of advice including
this one which is always treat people
with respect especially on your way up
because you might see them again on your
way down at the US Military Academy
the students were amazed to discover
that military leaders spent a lot of
time honing their communication and
persuasive skills because that class of
command control model doesn’t work even
in the military and from john sexton
himself they heard about his adored
teacher charlie about playing another
octave on the piano reaching stretching
and living a useful life so all of these
experiences have made me feel very
something very special about them and it
led to a quite unexpected opportunity in
2007 nyu
entered into an agreement with the
government of bubble Dhabi to create NYU
Abu Dhabi a world-class teaching and
research institution higher learning it
is an extraordinary place I recommend
you all go it really is amazing and as
part of that initiative I was asked to
do some startups that I actually hadn’t
done any starts not very many anyway a
few but this was something different I
had never been to the Gulf region I
hadn’t met anybody from there and I had
five months to create the Sheikh
Mohammed bin Zayed Scholars Program
because John Sexton told me that he was
starting to teach on September 14th of
2008 and it was April 10th of 2008 he
said make the program happen so somehow
we did I ended up teaching in that
program as well I teach the leadership
class there it’s now in its tenth year
we bring in students from the three
federal universities who are not NYU Abu
Dhabi students but we expose them to
what the campus has to offer in terms of
academics leadership and cross-cultural
experiences a couple years later I was
asked to create a high school college
prep
Academy for aspiring LW high school
students who wanted to go to English
language universities throughout the
world I didn’t know anything about high
schools either but I learned and we’ve
now are in our seventh year of the
Summer Academy
it’s an 18-month program and we’ve
gotten students into NYU NYU all both a
B+ Yale Penn Michigan Berkeley
Georgetown Boston University st. Andrews
a lot of wonderful places and it’s just
been a life altering experience for me
to be part of these community programs
in which I lead and also teach now the
next phase I want to talk about is
legacy I’ve talked about growth talked
about change legacy is the period in
your life when you discover whatever
leader you want to be you can create it
regardless of your natural talents or
your past experience if you want to
improve your emotional intelligence your
delegation skills your communication
skills your cognitive abilities or your
expertise you have the power to do it
you can also develop a lifelong passion
for learning and self-improvement and if
you do you’ll be able to take
responsibility and accountability for
your actions you’ll appreciate the
benefits of having compassion and
empathy be part of your portfolio and if
you do all these things you will be
ready and prepared for a truly unique
contribution that you can make to the
world
whatever legacy I leave is gonna be
bound up in students I know this my UAE
students I don’t know they they don’t
break my they build my heart every time
I see them even those who come from
educational systems that valued
memorization and regurgitation when they
come to our participation rich programs
when they come to our mixed-gender
programs which is a first for them they
thrive English is their second or third
language and yet within a few weeks in
our programs they can read complicated
texts some of them can dissect and
analyze US Supreme Court decisions they
can participate in competitive debates
and they can give dazzling
speeches it is extraordinary and at the
same time they value and treasure the
religious and cultural heritage so they
are both preserving tradition and
acknowledging they need certain skills
to survive in the modern world these
students and the ones that I teach I
love the ones I teach here at Shanghai
as well and New York are willing to make
the transformational leap from follower
to leader they’re willing to do the hard
work that that entails they are not
afraid they work hard they struggle they
succeed they fail and then they get up
and they try again they want to be path
breakers for their country and for their
generation and it is an extraordinary
thing and in response to the questions I
posed at the very beginning let’s talk
about leadership and what it is and how
and when people learn it they’ve learned
it fluctuates it changes it depends on
the circumstances on who else is there
what the challenge is you can be a
leader one day and a follower the next
you may be an early leader or you may be
one who comes in late and you may find
it’s not linear whether you’re gonna be
a leader or not it may be more circular
or rotational or a zigzag they know that
change is the mantra and as one Sheikh
Mohammed bin Zayed scholar told me she
said lead a scholar in the context of
this program let’s take Mohammed bin
Zayed Scholars Program is a leader with
a passion for change I hope we never
stop learning because I think that’s
what education is all about
finding the answers to questions and
questioning the answers the beauty of
this program is that we don’t all have
to think the same but we can come
together learn together and share our
knowledge I couldn’t say it better no I
don’t know the future but I do know that
even if part of your life is dedicated
to service to others you will find that
the highest level of encounter I
certainly have there are a lot of things
I haven’t accomplished in my life that I
set out to do
but the interactions and encounters I’ve
had with my students fill me with joy
they are an inspiration not just for me
but for everyone who comes in contact
with them and my wish for all of you is
that you will be able to put together
your growth and your change periods and
create a legacy of which you will be
proud I’ll borrow some terms that were
made famous by the motivational speaker
Zig Ziglar way back when but I’ll
reconfigure them so I’ll say first I
recommend you consider cultivating your
aptitude your brains your intellect your
talents then nurture your attitude your
heart your feelings your generosity
towards others and finally aim for
altitude a meaningful life something
that is going to take you up and higher
than you ever could before if you
combine aptitude attitude and altitude
these three components they will inform
all of your future encounters and I hope
for all of you that you will be blessed
with encounters that are full of love
beauty and enlightenment and I know for
these students that they will have those
kinds of encounters because they are the
best evidence that the best leaders are
still to come thank you very very much
[Applause]
thanks very much and I appreciate the
invitation to speak at the TEDx here in
Shanghai
I appreciate Frank and Fred’s hard
efforts to put this together I was
thinking as I was listening to the
previous speakers that there must be a
real benefit to following three dynamic
original extraordinary speakers and
presentations but I can’t think of a
single thing it’s tough to follow such
wonderful speakers but today I would
like to talk to you a little bit about
encounters through a leadership lens you
know I’ve never really been intrigued by
the age-old question of whether leaders
are made or born but I have been in
recent years become very curious about
how people start to understand what
leadership is now I should give you a
context first context is everything
as Robert F Kennedy once said his views
on birth control were distorted by the
fact that he was the seventh of nine
children and my distortion is that I
have been teaching leadership to NYU
students for more than 15 years and
almost every year questions come up like
why are some people so skilled at
leadership why and how and when did they
learn it so I think it might be useful
to pursue these questions and find
answers because there is such a crying
need today for more and better leaders
to me encounters through a leadership
lens happens to us in different phases
of our life which I divided up into
three growth change and legacy the
growth phase
okay the growth phase is when you really
don’t have very much control yeah you
don’t control when you’re born where
you’re born what your family’s like what
your neighborhoods like or what school
you go to
but you receive thousands of inputs from
family friends teachers from social and
other media from technologies and from
all sorts of other externalities
sometimes during this early phase of
your life you develop some strong
interests sometimes even deep passions
but others must just just drift through
without that clarity and we are
remaining open to all possibilities and
have very few filters but we do start to
think at that early phase about what
leaders do there are examples we see
from different settings for example
there’s always the kid on the playground
to whom all other children naturally
gravitate and automatically trust there
are captain’s over the football teams
there are people who are student council
presidents or they are the leaders who
win all the prizes and awards we may
wonder how they do it we may sometimes
question their choices but we do notice
a few things about them they have more
responsibilities and generally more
respect than others they may work a
little harder than others and they
sometimes get blamed when things don’t
go well now my first encounter with a
leader was my own father Paul and you he
married my mother they were both doctors
here at Shanghai and they went to
America for a different than better life
they hoped this is their what I could
get there it’s their wedding picture a
little bit faint but they were married
here in China and they decided to
emigrate because they were both trained
in Western medicine and thought they
could practice a little bit more
actively in the US my father had an
impeccable reputation he was of high
character and integrity and he taught me
a lot including ethics and morals and
how to deal with bias and Prejudice
because they were immigrants to the
United States and he despite his in my
mom’s education and medical training had
to experience the humiliation of going
around the neighborhood in which they
hope to live and ask for permission to
move in because it was a restricted
they weren’t white they persevered they
managed to build their home raise their
family my father persisted in his career
as a cardiologist and rose to the top he
became the first foreign-born for an
educated president of the American Heart
Association this is him with President
Nixon he was just an extraordinary
person as I said in every way and after
he passed away he became the his name is
now on the University of Rochester
Medical Center’s Heart Center there’s a
picture of us cutting the ribbon an
amazing role model but my mother was no
slouch either
she was a clinical pediatrician raising
four daughters in upstate New York in
the 1960s and 70s which was almost
unheard of I have to confess I know
embarrassed to say this but I wasn’t
always supportive of her career choice
because I wanted her sometimes to be
home baking cookies like my other
friend’s mother’s were at the time so I
wasn’t exactly a feminist in my early
days but from her I’ve learned about
stamina time management about
determination and not sitting still just
because we were short asian women she
was very determined and she often gave
very very crisp advice for example to my
husband and me she often said don’t buy
dinner buy stock she was a very big
person in terms of the investment she
liked to do that and on real estate she
gave us advice always by the corner
house you get more light or if we were a
nun partment building go for the top
floor you get the best view she was
always strategic and that was some part
of her pioneering spirit that she passed
on to me now I followed their
inspirational examples and chose student
council as my first leadership activity
back in junior high I loved the
collective action I loved working
together with people to get things done
and I understood that actually was the
essence of leadership getting things
done some of my friends chose other
routes like athletic
music art drama community service as
their a form of leadership and still
others were terribly interested at the
time but all told the whole experience
of being in high school and having these
kinds of adventures and encounters maybe
understand that leadership was something
critical and I’m so happy that I
personally got an early start in it
because I learned a lot of lessons that
have carried me well throughout so oops
sorry this is my mother I don’t know if
you can guess how old she was at the
time but this is a kind of energy that I
got from my parents she’s 95 in this
picture so that’s the growth phase very
early on the next phase I’d like to talk
about is change change this is the time
usually you’re a young adult I hope
you’re a young adult at the time you
decide you want to take more charge of
your life you can make your own
decisions you want to be independent you
want freedom to operate and in this
phase you discover many of your game
aims and goals in life you can’t do on
your own you need help and if you’re
smart and you’re fortunate you’ll find
mentors and guides and champions for you
they will give you advice they’ll guide
you and most importantly they’ll
critique you they’ll give you feedback I
am forever indebted to some of my
Oberlin College professors who gave me
advice after I graduated a year or two
and I came back and I asked them what
should I do with my life I really didn’t
have a good idea in four of them wrote
back and said Diane you should go to law
school you do well there and I never met
a lawyer but what sealed the deal was I
found out there’s no math on the Law
School Admission Test I thought okay I
have a chance so I went to law school
Berkley fell in love with California I
had started my law practice and the best
thing ever
I met my wonderful husband Michael who’s
here today and he’s we’ve been married
for 24 years
he loves to tease me especially in a
climate like this that he’s very
visionary because predicted China’s
great rise to power in the world and he
thought it would be smart
to be married to someone who have
changed assent so thank you Mike
but you know I don’t look like central
castings idea of an attorney so I did
encounter some racial and gender
discrimination in my life but I
remembered my mother’s determination and
my father’s advice which was basically
to overcome bias work hard and be
competent and then those even prejudiced
against you might be won over so I
persevered
I became California’s first
asian-americans Superior Court
commissioner and the first woman and
first person of color to be the general
counsel for the State Bar of California
where I had 160,000 students start
clients all lawyers oh so that was fun I
had a great time thank you
I also took advantage of an amazing
opportunity to become a White House
Fellow the White House fellowship is I
think America’s best leadership program
it was founded by John W Gardner a great
leader himself he was the Secretary of
Health Education and Welfare under
President Lyndon Johnson and his idea
was to bring people from different
sectors different fields and professions
to Washington DC for one year to work
for a cabinet official or ahead of a
White House office I worked for the US
Trade Representative’s office and it was
a fantastic experience to go around and
watch trade negotiators and participate
in negotiating sessions it was exciting
but the even more exciting thing was we
met my class this was my class
unfortunately I’m way out on the edge
but you can see a very short person
that’s like that’s me anyway something
like I cut on the picture
anyway our class were friends for life
believe me we’ve made great great
friends friendships out of this we had
to hear over a hundred incredible
leaders throughout this two to three a
week it was extraordinary
people who were opera singers CEOs
Supreme Court just
this is the president of the United
States members of Congress we met people
in four different cities around the
United States Boston New York Colorado
and five different yes la in San
Francisco it was amazing and we were
supposed to bring back what we learned
to our communities the insights and
perspectives and experiences that
experience has changed me in so many
ways and as you’ll see inform some of
the things I did later in the 1990s as I
said I met my husband but another very
momentous person I met some of you know
John Sexton he was then the Dean of the
New York University School of Law and I
was very active in the American Bar
Association including the section on
legal education and admissions to the
bar John and I became very good friends
we served on a couple committees
together and the ABA and so years after
we first met we bumped into each other
in 2001 at a hotel in San Francisco for
a bar convention and he said let’s have
a cup of coffee I want to tell you
something and he sat me down and then he
regaled me as only John Ken in the story
of how the NYU Board of Trustees had
approached him about becoming the 15th
president of the University he was
mulling it over he was weighing the pros
and cons he loved being the law school
dean but he could see this could be an
exciting prospect and after he finished
telling me these wonderful stories and
his weighing of pros and cons he sort of
bang the table he said so how about it I
said how about what he said how about
joining my team I said wait a minute
your team what team they haven’t picked
you yet have they
he said no is it imminent is gonna
happen tomorrow no I said well you’re
getting a little head of yourself aren’t
you he said well I was just thinking if
I could get some interesting people to
work with me it would be even more fun
so I said well alright we’ll go along
with this what would I do
I don’t know he said well would I be
general counsel the top lawyer I know
how to do that no I think you should do
something different where would I work I
don’t know
I said all right just for laughs how
much money would I make he said oh I
don’t know but a lot less than you’re
making as a lawyer I said John it was
the worst recruiting pitch I have heard
so I dismissed it I didn’t think he was
serious I didn’t think so
it turns out several months later he
actually did get appointed the 15th
president of NYU and he came back to me
he said okay Diane now it’s official
I do want you to join my core team my
cabinet and if you don’t like any of the
jobs that exist you can design your own
job Wow for that I took the risk I took
the leap I said okay I’m coming to New
York and I joined his administration as
his chief of staff and deputy the very
first position like that for any major
research university in the United States
as a matter of fact I later became
deputy president and I loved every
minute it was just an extraordinary time
to be at NYU and to work with a great
leader like John and the other members
of the team but the bonus was he said
you know Diane you should teach I said I
can I could teach just in my spare time
of course I said well that’s wonderful
and I decided I’d wanted to teach
leadership I worked through the deans of
the various undergraduate schools we
created a course for undergraduates from
our 9 different undergraduate colleges
and it’s been a joy of my life
and I patterned it after my beloved
White House Fellows Program so they
students in addition to normal academic
studies get to meet interesting
fascinating distinguished leaders for
example some classes have met Supreme
Court Associate Justice Elena Kagan and
heard her story from academia to
Solicitor General to the United States
Supreme Court another class heard
Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor and
her compelling personal story about how
she landed in the US Supreme Court some
have had a chance to question actress
Anna deavere Smith or Maria Bartiromo a
noted business journalist and
anchorwoman
from Danny Meyer the famed restaurateur
who developed Shake Shack and Union
Square cafe and
they’re terrific establishments they
learned one great piece of leadership
advice always take care of your people
first because without them there is
nothing that’s going to get done
including your vision from evan chess
ler he’s the head of Cravath Swaine &
Moore big law firm in New York they
learned many pieces of advice including
this one which is always treat people
with respect especially on your way up
because you might see them again on your
way down at the US Military Academy
the students were amazed to discover
that military leaders spent a lot of
time honing their communication and
persuasive skills because that class of
command control model doesn’t work even
in the military and from john sexton
himself they heard about his adored
teacher charlie about playing another
octave on the piano reaching stretching
and living a useful life so all of these
experiences have made me feel very
something very special about them and it
led to a quite unexpected opportunity in
2007 nyu
entered into an agreement with the
government of bubble Dhabi to create NYU
Abu Dhabi a world-class teaching and
research institution higher learning it
is an extraordinary place I recommend
you all go it really is amazing and as
part of that initiative I was asked to
do some startups that I actually hadn’t
done any starts not very many anyway a
few but this was something different I
had never been to the Gulf region I
hadn’t met anybody from there and I had
five months to create the Sheikh
Mohammed bin Zayed Scholars Program
because John Sexton told me that he was
starting to teach on September 14th of
2008 and it was April 10th of 2008 he
said make the program happen so somehow
we did I ended up teaching in that
program as well I teach the leadership
class there it’s now in its tenth year
we bring in students from the three
federal universities who are not NYU Abu
Dhabi students but we expose them to
what the campus has to offer in terms of
academics leadership and cross-cultural
experiences a couple years later I was
asked to create a high school college
prep
Academy for aspiring LW high school
students who wanted to go to English
language universities throughout the
world I didn’t know anything about high
schools either but I learned and we’ve
now are in our seventh year of the
Summer Academy
it’s an 18-month program and we’ve
gotten students into NYU NYU all both a
B+ Yale Penn Michigan Berkeley
Georgetown Boston University st. Andrews
a lot of wonderful places and it’s just
been a life altering experience for me
to be part of these community programs
in which I lead and also teach now the
next phase I want to talk about is
legacy I’ve talked about growth talked
about change legacy is the period in
your life when you discover whatever
leader you want to be you can create it
regardless of your natural talents or
your past experience if you want to
improve your emotional intelligence your
delegation skills your communication
skills your cognitive abilities or your
expertise you have the power to do it
you can also develop a lifelong passion
for learning and self-improvement and if
you do you’ll be able to take
responsibility and accountability for
your actions you’ll appreciate the
benefits of having compassion and
empathy be part of your portfolio and if
you do all these things you will be
ready and prepared for a truly unique
contribution that you can make to the
world
whatever legacy I leave is gonna be
bound up in students I know this my UAE
students I don’t know they they don’t
break my they build my heart every time
I see them even those who come from
educational systems that valued
memorization and regurgitation when they
come to our participation rich programs
when they come to our mixed-gender
programs which is a first for them they
thrive English is their second or third
language and yet within a few weeks in
our programs they can read complicated
texts some of them can dissect and
analyze US Supreme Court decisions they
can participate in competitive debates
and they can give dazzling
speeches it is extraordinary and at the
same time they value and treasure the
religious and cultural heritage so they
are both preserving tradition and
acknowledging they need certain skills
to survive in the modern world these
students and the ones that I teach I
love the ones I teach here at Shanghai
as well and New York are willing to make
the transformational leap from follower
to leader they’re willing to do the hard
work that that entails they are not
afraid they work hard they struggle they
succeed they fail and then they get up
and they try again they want to be path
breakers for their country and for their
generation and it is an extraordinary
thing and in response to the questions I
posed at the very beginning let’s talk
about leadership and what it is and how
and when people learn it they’ve learned
it fluctuates it changes it depends on
the circumstances on who else is there
what the challenge is you can be a
leader one day and a follower the next
you may be an early leader or you may be
one who comes in late and you may find
it’s not linear whether you’re gonna be
a leader or not it may be more circular
or rotational or a zigzag they know that
change is the mantra and as one Sheikh
Mohammed bin Zayed scholar told me she
said lead a scholar in the context of
this program let’s take Mohammed bin
Zayed Scholars Program is a leader with
a passion for change I hope we never
stop learning because I think that’s
what education is all about
finding the answers to questions and
questioning the answers the beauty of
this program is that we don’t all have
to think the same but we can come
together learn together and share our
knowledge I couldn’t say it better no I
don’t know the future but I do know that
even if part of your life is dedicated
to service to others you will find that
the highest level of encounter I
certainly have there are a lot of things
I haven’t accomplished in my life that I
set out to do
but the interactions and encounters I’ve
had with my students fill me with joy
they are an inspiration not just for me
but for everyone who comes in contact
with them and my wish for all of you is
that you will be able to put together
your growth and your change periods and
create a legacy of which you will be
proud I’ll borrow some terms that were
made famous by the motivational speaker
Zig Ziglar way back when but I’ll
reconfigure them so I’ll say first I
recommend you consider cultivating your
aptitude your brains your intellect your
talents then nurture your attitude your
heart your feelings your generosity
towards others and finally aim for
altitude a meaningful life something
that is going to take you up and higher
than you ever could before if you
combine aptitude attitude and altitude
these three components they will inform
all of your future encounters and I hope
for all of you that you will be blessed
with encounters that are full of love
beauty and enlightenment and I know for
these students that they will have those
kinds of encounters because they are the
best evidence that the best leaders are
still to come thank you very very much
[Applause]
Please follow and like us: