Want to Be an Effective Leader? Learn to Say "No" | Nancy Koehn | Big Think
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- čas přidán 21. 11. 2017
- Want to Be an Effective Leader? Learn to Say "No"
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"Real power for leaders lies in giving away the unimportant stuff." So says author and leadership researcher Nancy Koehn, who in looking at history's most accomplished individuals, has found that perfection and success don't necessarily go hand in hand. Leaders must focus their energies on just a few core goals, says Koehn. To make her point, she takes lessons from the lives of President Abraham Lincoln, environmentalist Rachel Carson, abolitionist Frederick Douglas, pastor and would-be Hitler assassin Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and explorer Ernest Shackleton. Nancy Koehn is the author of Forged in Crisis: The Power of Courageous Leadership in Turbulent Times .
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NANCY KOEHN:
Nancy Koehn is a historian at the Harvard Business School where she holds the James E. Robison chair of Business Administration. Koehn's research focuses on how leaders, past and present, craft lives of purpose, worth, and impact.
Her new book, Forged in Crisis: The Power of Courageous Leadership in Turbulent Times is an enthralling historical narrative filled with critical leadership insights that will be of interest to a wide range of readers-including those in government, business, education, and the arts-Forged in Crisis spotlights five masters of crisis: polar explorer Ernest Shackleton; President Abraham Lincoln; legendary abolitionist Frederick Douglass; Nazi-resisting clergyman Dietrich Bonhoeffer; and environmental crusader Rachel Carson.
Koehn is the author of numerous books, articles, and Harvard Business School cases. She writes frequently for the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Harvard Business Review Online. She is also a weekly commentator on National Public Radio and has appeared on many national television programs. She has spoken at the World Economic Forum in Davos, the Aspen Ideas Festival, and in many other venues.
A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Stanford University, Koehn earned a Master of Public Policy from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government before taking her MA and PhD in History from Harvard. She lives outside Boston and is a dedicated equestrian.
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TRANSCRIPT:
NANCY KOEHN: One of the really interesting corollaries that’s part of many of these stories, the corollaries of focus-and these are the stories of Ernest Shackleton the explorer, the U.S. president Abraham Lincoln, the famous African-American abolitionist Frederick Douglass, a very important resistor to Hitler in Nazi Germany Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and the environmental activist Rachel Carson-is that each of them discover that focus is not only a way of bringing out their best possibilities, their greatest power as leaders, it’s also a way of conceding what isn’t important and giving away all of that stuff.
So let me give you a really interesting example.
In the early 1850s, Lincoln gives a law lecture to a bunch of aspiring lawyers. And he says, 'Look, I learned the hard way that if I could swing a jury to my side on the one or two or three critical issues that really matter to the case, I could simply give away everything else to my opponent. I could give away this point, then I could give away this point, then I could give away this point, and then I could give away this point, because I only needed to hold on to those one, two, or three issues. And by doing so I could (1) disarm the opposition, (2) keep the jury very focused on where they needed to be focused, and (3) claim all that I needed and nothing more for a judicial victory.”
And I think that is just a great lesson writ large for our moment.
We have so many leaders right now, and so many of us want at some emotional level to have all the victories, to get all the goodies, to be perfect on every front.
And each of these people learn that real power for leaders lies in giving away the unimportant stuff, in recognizing what’s a small or unimportant victory and joyfully handing it to someone else-including one’s opponent.
And that in the doing of that, not only does one hold on to what really matters, one masters oneself enough not to need to have victory on every single front all the time.
And there is great power and great self-knowledge in the doing of that that create on the outside a kind of confidence that people are very much attracted to and motivated by.
Read the full transcript at bigthink.com/videos/nancy-koe...
It is not about learning to say "No" but more learning how to prioritize our work for effective results.
I am currently in a situation where I have a problem with saying No to please the people around me, especially my girlfriend. This distracts me from working on my non-profit project and possible future career.
Krunk Classic As much as you want what you think is best for her or for yourself, your only option is to communicate with her and ask her if she were in your shoes what would she do. Leveling the field of understanding is your only guarantee that you are not being selfish. Where both of you can compromise together is your safe bet. Your work is always in your head, will probably never leave you.. but your relationship once broken may never be mended. What choice you value most is always in your hands.
Omegalvyz1: Well said. She is not very understanding of my work or what i'm trying to achieve. I am surrounded by people who just wants to live their life with the status quo and enjoying their normal life with the norm of having a work day from 8-16:00 each day, buy a house, get married, get kids and then go on pension at age 60 or so. I just have this inner craving of wanting to achieve something more in life while doing something for others. I can't stop thinking about it, but I feel like my environment is holding me back. Probably because it's not in their interest or they think that making a change is so far fetched that you might aswell give up.
Krunk Classic what you are is everything you see and experience. Your discomfort is your Selfishness to accept who you are and who you want to become. It is not a diminishing factor but a growing unconscious desire of being unconstraint to mere mundane trivialities of our physical world. You may choose your way of dealing with it and reject everyone else's or you may want to make it more interestingly.. challenging and accept those differences of others and be more complacent to their funny yet futile attempts at slowing your understanding of any given or unexpected circumstances.
Here, it starts to be more playful and you may be tempted to laugh but you mustn't as you do not want be sarcastic. (I can relate to that). Since it like a dance, you should only move as they move and never outside of that rhythm. By now, you know the level of mental fortitude needed to tolerate the emotional waves of others and certainly more of yourself, that this quest is universally bestowed on any conscious entity enjoying his or her or its freedom of existence but rarely appreciated.
Our escapism is our own salvation so often said. Now if she is exactly that and you don't acknowledge her. It would be conducive to conclude she was never of any interest to you and this whole idea of not being understood is your way of communicating your insecurity. Which is equally fair but morally lacking of you. But who am I to judge you as to give you advice. And yet here we are.
I love playing games. Though was always conflicted to the reality of why would game developers add levels of difficulty. I did always play on the maximum difficulty which would condition the player to have limits on everything from resources to life to time. I would die constantly but would never give up. My friends would tell they've finished the game and I would ask them if they enjoyed it. They'd answered hellyeah. I would the push myself to complete which would require a tremendous amount of focused attention to get everything right from the start to the end. A marathon of abysmal will. And we would get together, I would let them win simply since they are my friends. But if I really wanted, I could take it all for myself and such is my resolve but would cost me everything.
Now what is it you bring to me that I have not already taken?
My experience with INeffective leaders was all that they could say was 'no'.
I want to thank you for the very inspiring book you wrote "Forged in Crisis". Edward Bevilacqua with The Larson Training Centers gave me the book and I haven't been able to put it down. I can't wait to see what's next. Thank you
More like being an effective person in general. Control the controllables and know what matters most.
Yes
3:09
lollllllll
"Want to be an effective leader?"
No.
DrunkenRampage this is very clever and funny 😂😂
needed this!
This video is great till the point I realized I am watching it while studying 😂
wow jsut what I have been needing someone to tell me, BigThink comes with a notification on my phone about this video
Very nice video!
I don't know where I am!
#No always saves you from extra unrequited effort but just use your critical thinking
Cool jacket.
:O Cool avatar.
Great talk from Steven Tyler
Holy shit hhahahhahaha
Hahahahahaha damn..
What is wrong with you man?!
I spit my drink out
Mohammed it was a joke, dude. Chill
The Lincoln thing was only about debates, not politics. Yes, I want everything in politics to be percect, THAT'S THE ENTIRE POINT OF HAVING A COUNTRY.
Cheydinal In politics, the "yes" can mean the compromises. As in the "no"s are the core beliefs of the politician or person.
You should say no because otherwise people will take advantage and will do nothing....not everyone is like that but a lot are.
No.
You’re hired.
Don't know why, but I felt really uncomfortable while watching this
Just realised what you mean Haha
hello
Bernie Sanders comes to mind
Nancy, Nancy... everything you said is appropriate but for me and any real thinking person, all of these are just common sense. One does not need to go back to an 1800's leader to know that you need to give up or in some "points" to win the most important ones. 2,500 years ago a Chinese sage used to say... "if you want to get, you should give first".
Also to really focused on 1 or 2 things at a time while keeping others "at bay", as another ancient Chinese wizard used to say "know how to wait for the proper time or timing", is just obvious for a life-understanding thinking mind. It is impossible to do things well (good) if one is dispersed like a spiraling wind.
We are supposed to have evolved from Apes from over 200,000 years but it is clearly noticeable that many people today think like our ancestors 10,000 years ago.... before they used to envy the other's horse, today they envy the other's car. Most things are done by emotional impulse and done by influence from others (herd mentality), not thinking by themselves though they think they are doing so. Like Edward Bernays and Joseph Goebbels realized, and applied effectively, that one of the best ways to manipulate people, the masses, is to infuse/ infiltrate something into their minds in the way that the believe they make their decisions and actions thinking that the idea or decision is their own.... It is a shame that humans developed enormously technologically or outwards, but very little inwards (in the mind). To borrow another thought from an Asian sage...."turn the light around to inside yourself".
Lao Mark lol
these is the best advice I;VE EVER GOT
eastermars this
Would you like to be President?
No.
i disagree
Want to Be an Effective Leader? Learn to Say "Yes"...
George Washington, Winston Churchill, Bill Gates, and Henry Ford would have been better examples of effective leaders.
Whenever I say "no" or express my discontent, people tell me I'm whining and annoying.
Brian Kim Be brief with your statement and don't make it a question? :-)