The rarest commodity is leadership without ego | Bob Davids | TEDxESCP
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0:20 - 0:21Hello,
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0:22 - 0:23my name is Bob.
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0:23 - 0:25I am a designer
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0:25 - 0:28and an entrepreneurial businessman,
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0:28 - 0:32and today I want to talk
about management and leadership. -
0:33 - 0:38The reason I'm here today
is because I met Bob Townsend in 1980. -
0:39 - 0:41Some of you may
have heard of Bob Townsend; -
0:41 - 0:43most of you probably haven't.
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0:43 - 0:47He was the CEO that built Avis Rent a Car,
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0:48 - 0:51and he wrote a breakthrough book
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0:51 - 0:52in the 1960s,
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0:52 - 0:54called "Up the Organization."
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0:55 - 0:59"Up the Organization"
is still the number one book -
0:59 - 1:02at the Wharton Business School
on the must-read list. -
1:02 - 1:05That's 50 years of being number one,
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1:05 - 1:07so I suggest you take a look at it.
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1:09 - 1:15It's really a book about leadership,
culture building, without ego. -
1:18 - 1:23Bob Townsend
walked into my office in 1980, -
1:24 - 1:26and he asked me if I had 15 minutes.
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1:27 - 1:28I said, "Of course."
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1:28 - 1:31He said, "I'm interviewing
the management team -
1:31 - 1:34because I'm going to join
the Board of Directors at this company -
1:34 - 1:37and I always want to speak
with the management before I do." -
1:37 - 1:38"Oh, please come in and sit."
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1:39 - 1:42I looked at my watch:
15 minutes, not a problem. -
1:43 - 1:45Five hours later, he left my office.
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1:45 - 1:46(Laughter)
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1:46 - 1:48I was stunned.
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1:48 - 1:53I had never been in the presence
of that much energy. -
1:54 - 1:57He told me about his book
"Up the Organization"; -
1:57 - 1:58I hadn't heard of it.
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1:59 - 2:02At five o'clock that night,
I ran out to the nearest bookstore -
2:03 - 2:04and I got it.
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2:05 - 2:08I read it from cover to cover that night;
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2:08 - 2:09it changed my life.
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2:11 - 2:14I had always had the same ideologies,
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2:14 - 2:17the same thoughts about leading people.
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2:18 - 2:21But his book gave me
a structure, a framework, -
2:21 - 2:22that I could hang it on,
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2:22 - 2:25and I used it as a guideline
for the rest of my life, -
2:25 - 2:27and I'm still using it.
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2:29 - 2:31The same year,
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2:32 - 2:36I was overlooked for a promotion
to be the CEO of the company. -
2:37 - 2:38I was in my 30s.
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2:38 - 2:39I thought I was ready;
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2:39 - 2:40the company didn't.
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2:43 - 2:46Bob Townsend suggested
that I further my education; -
2:46 - 2:48that was a good idea.
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2:49 - 2:51I says, "Well, maybe I'll go do an MBA."
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2:51 - 2:53He says, "No, never do an MBA.
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2:53 - 2:55(Laughter)
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2:55 - 2:57There's too many managers already.
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2:58 - 3:01The world is short of leaders;
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3:01 - 3:03we don't need any more managers."
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3:04 - 3:07Managers, leadership -
I thought they were the same. -
3:08 - 3:10I would hear people say,
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3:11 - 3:13"I manage six people,"
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3:13 - 3:15"I lead a team of six people" -
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3:15 - 3:17must be the same.
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3:18 - 3:1932 years later,
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3:19 - 3:22I'm here tonight to tell you
it's not the same. -
3:24 - 3:27Management is control;
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3:29 - 3:32in business, we call it
the "triple constraint of management." -
3:32 - 3:33There's three things
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3:33 - 3:35and only three things
that you could control. -
3:37 - 3:38You can control quality,
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3:39 - 3:42time and money.
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3:42 - 3:46Whichever one of those three
takes precedence, -
3:46 - 3:48the other two will suffer.
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3:49 - 3:54If quality drives your organization
or your product or your service, -
3:55 - 3:57the other two will suffer.
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3:58 - 4:01It takes more time and more money
to create the quality. -
4:02 - 4:06If price determines
your product or service, -
4:06 - 4:09then you will have
to give up the quality -
4:09 - 4:10and do it much cheaper.
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4:11 - 4:14If time - you have to do it in time -
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4:15 - 4:18to do it quickly,
it will cost you more money, -
4:18 - 4:21and the faster you go,
the less quality you will have. -
4:21 - 4:27So control is the management,
the interplay, of time, quality and money. -
4:30 - 4:32So where are people?
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4:34 - 4:36Well, people come under leadership.
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4:38 - 4:40There's a big difference.
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4:41 - 4:44In World War II, Dwight Eisenhower
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4:45 - 4:48was the Allied supreme commander
of all the forces. -
4:50 - 4:52He would train his generals.
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4:53 - 4:55He would take a chain
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4:58 - 5:00and stack it up on the table.
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5:02 - 5:04And then he would ask the generals,
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5:05 - 5:06"If I push that chain,
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5:07 - 5:09which way will it go?"
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5:11 - 5:13And he would hear a lot of answers.
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5:14 - 5:18The correct answer
is you really don't know. -
5:19 - 5:22But he said that if I took the chain
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5:23 - 5:25and I picked it up by the end,
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5:25 - 5:27and I pull the chain,
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5:28 - 5:29which way will it go?
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5:31 - 5:34The answer is it will follow you.
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5:37 - 5:39And there is the essence of leadership:
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5:41 - 5:43if you push the people,
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5:43 - 5:44down deep inside,
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5:44 - 5:48you really do not know
which way they will go -
5:48 - 5:50or what they're really thinking.
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5:51 - 5:54But if you can lead them
and get them to follow you, -
5:55 - 5:59then you have the skill
that everybody should have - -
5:59 - 6:00is to be a leader.
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6:03 - 6:05I went to China, lived there for 13 years.
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6:05 - 6:07I built a company,
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6:07 - 6:11started with a handful of people,
and we ended up with 8,000 people. -
6:12 - 6:15We had to build a factory
to house 8,000 people. -
6:17 - 6:20On occasion, I would go to Guangzhou
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6:20 - 6:23and walk around and inspect the site.
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6:23 - 6:24I have a technical background,
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6:24 - 6:29so I felt I had a little bit
of expertise in construction. -
6:30 - 6:35And one monsoon-rainy afternoon
we're walking along by the foundation -
6:35 - 6:38and I look down in the ditch
and I see five or six men working -
6:38 - 6:40and they're installing a sewer pipe.
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6:41 - 6:43And they had a level,
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6:44 - 6:45and I'm looking down,
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6:45 - 6:47and I see that they're making
the pipes level. -
6:48 - 6:50Well, I have enough technical background
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6:50 - 6:52to know that a level pipe
is not going to flow -
6:52 - 6:55and it's going to get buried
under the foundation, -
6:57 - 6:59so we're going to have lifetime problems
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6:59 - 7:02because we'll never get to this to fix it.
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7:02 - 7:04So I thought about
telling them how to fix it, -
7:04 - 7:06and then I realized
I didn't speak Chinese. -
7:08 - 7:10So I took off my shoes,
and I jumped in the trench. -
7:11 - 7:14I know that a one-inch pebble
underneath one end of the level -
7:14 - 7:16will be just about 2% grade -
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7:16 - 7:17that's what we needed.
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7:17 - 7:19So without saying a word,
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7:19 - 7:21I grabbed the level,
I took a rock and I held it. -
7:21 - 7:23I went back two pipes, and I raised it up.
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7:23 - 7:26I signaled for them
to put some sand under the pipe, -
7:26 - 7:27and we got it just right.
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7:27 - 7:29And I went to the next pipe,
then I did it again. -
7:29 - 7:32And on the third pipe,
I hand it to the men in the trench, -
7:32 - 7:35and I had them hold the pebble
under the level until I got it just right. -
7:35 - 7:38Then I asked them
to do one more, and they did. -
7:38 - 7:41And then I got out of the trench,
took my shoes and went back to the hotel. -
7:43 - 7:46That incident became viral in the company.
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7:46 - 7:49I had no idea what was going to happen.
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7:49 - 7:51But inside, I was realizing
what Bob Townsend had told me. -
7:51 - 7:53If I had pushed them
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7:53 - 7:55and I had yelled at them
and told them what to do, -
7:55 - 7:58I probably wouldn't know
where they would go. -
7:59 - 8:01But by grabbing the level
and pulling them, -
8:01 - 8:02showing them exactly what to do
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8:02 - 8:06without saying a single word,
in a totally different culture, -
8:06 - 8:08they listened.
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8:08 - 8:10That incident went
through the whole company, -
8:10 - 8:13and they realized that it was –
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8:13 - 8:16it's a symbol that I would jump
in the trenches with them: -
8:16 - 8:21the big boss would jump in the trench
in the mud and pull them. -
8:21 - 8:24I had no idea it was going
to be so powerful. -
8:24 - 8:25But it really paid off.
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8:25 - 8:29There are some great leaders
that have pulled a lot of people. -
8:29 - 8:32My favorite is Mahatma Gandhi.
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8:33 - 8:36Gandhi united two religions,
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8:38 - 8:42ended a more than 100-year colonial empire
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8:42 - 8:45by motivating the British to leave.
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8:48 - 8:51He did so in a peaceful manner,
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8:51 - 8:54and basically, he just stopped eating.
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8:54 - 8:56That's powerful!
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8:57 - 9:01Power comes when the people
that you are leading -
9:01 - 9:03give you their support.
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9:03 - 9:05When that support comes to you,
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9:05 - 9:07I call that like power.
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9:08 - 9:10They offer you the power,
and then they watch you. -
9:12 - 9:15If you take that power
and you deflect all of it back to them, -
9:15 - 9:17then they give you more.
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9:17 - 9:19And then if you give more
back to them, the second wave, -
9:19 - 9:21they give you even more.
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9:21 - 9:24But if you start to take
some of that power, -
9:24 - 9:26they start giving you less.
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9:27 - 9:31And those leaders that accept the power
make a critical mistake -
9:32 - 9:34because now the power that's going to come
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9:34 - 9:37and give them more
and more and more power -
9:37 - 9:39falters and goes away.
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9:40 - 9:43I can point out many leaders
around the world, even today, -
9:43 - 9:46that are falling
because they took the power. -
9:46 - 9:49They didn't give it back
to the people they were leading. -
9:53 - 9:55Leadership is a gift.
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9:57 - 9:59You can't buy it, you can't sell it,
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9:59 - 10:01can't trade it.
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10:02 - 10:04You either have it or you don't.
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10:06 - 10:08I went to a design school,
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10:08 - 10:10and they said, "You were accepted here
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10:11 - 10:13because you have shown
a lot of creativity. -
10:14 - 10:16We can't teach you creativity.
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10:16 - 10:18That sounds like leadership.
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10:18 - 10:22But if you have that skill set
and you have that talent, -
10:22 - 10:25what we're going to do
is we're going to hone it, -
10:25 - 10:26we're going to polish it.
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10:26 - 10:28We're going to give you discipline
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10:28 - 10:30so that you can apply your skill,"
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10:31 - 10:32and they did.
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10:37 - 10:44Leadership is the most valuable
commodity on the planet, -
10:45 - 10:48and it is the rarest commodity we have.
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10:49 - 10:51It's not food, the lack of food;
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10:51 - 10:53it's not the lack of water;
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10:53 - 10:56it's not oil or minerals;
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10:56 - 10:58it's leadership.
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10:58 - 11:00But it's not any form of leadership.
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11:01 - 11:05It's the Townsonian model
of doing it without ego. -
11:06 - 11:12If you can follow the footsteps
of Mahatma Gandhi, Ronald Reagan - -
11:12 - 11:15Ronald Reagan used to send
his staff home at Christmas time -
11:15 - 11:17so they could be with their families.
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11:17 - 11:19He says, "You don't worry about me.
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11:19 - 11:21You guys go home,
take care of yourself." -
11:21 - 11:24He's putting everything back.
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11:24 - 11:25You take a look
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11:25 - 11:29at the Czechoslovakian leader
that just died, Václav Havel. -
11:29 - 11:32A simple man, drove his same car,
became the leader of the country. -
11:32 - 11:35He took nothing, and he gave it back,
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11:35 - 11:40and his country made a peaceful conversion
to democracy and freedom. -
11:40 - 11:42That's leadership.
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11:47 - 11:52Herb Kelleher was the CEO founder
of Southwest Airlines. -
11:53 - 11:56He would go out
and work one day a month -
11:56 - 11:59handling baggage in the company.
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11:59 - 12:04Bob Townsend used to spend one day a week
renting out cars at the counter. -
12:05 - 12:09You need to be in touch
with the people you lead, -
12:09 - 12:11and you need to be in their shoes.
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12:14 - 12:17So I just want to leave you
with one thought - -
12:17 - 12:22all of you here that are studying
and going on to be managers and leaders, -
12:24 - 12:25remember,
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12:25 - 12:29if you have that skill set,
to hone it and discipline it -
12:29 - 12:33because it is the rarest commodity
in the planet, and the world needs you. -
12:34 - 12:35Thank you so much.
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12:35 - 12:37(Applause)
- Title:
- The rarest commodity is leadership without ego | Bob Davids | TEDxESCP
- Description:
-
Management is control. As a manager, you can control quality, time and money. But whichever one of those three takes precedence, the other two will suffer. Leadership is different; leadership is about leading people. Keep in touch with the people you lead and be in their shoes. The people you are leading will give you their support.
Bob Davids started his first business at the age of 12. At 20, he entered the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. Bob has headed six successful companies and is now building a high-end resort in Indonesia. He is co-author of "Leadership without Ego: How to Stop Managing and Start Leading."
This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDxTalks
- Duration:
- 12:51
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