David Gergen – Political Analyst for CNN and PBS, Former White House Adviser to Four Presidents
How actually does a leader get better at leading?
You have to learn to get better. Be a reflective practitioner.
Where you really learn leadership is out in the arena, but it’s not simply that.
- Continually read & learn. Education is key.
- Not every reader is a leader, but every leader is a reader.
- It’s easy as a leader to confuse motion as progress.
- When you’re done dancing on the dance floor, go to the balcony and observe.
- Our best leaders are the ones with enough self confidence to remove themselves from the “cockpit” for periods of times
Nixon was the best strategist I’ve ever met.
Someone who can see farther back can see farther ahead.
Ford was the most decent president I’ve ever worked for.
Clinton was the most resilient. He was always willing to get back up.
Reagan was the best leader in the White House since Roosevelt. He was a principled man and had a contagious optimism for life.
Nixon had these demons that he could not control.
Gerald Ford could be a little naïve and could be taken advantage of.
Reagan’s problem was his detachment. Reagan would sometimes let others take the wheel.
Clinton clearly had cracks in his character. He should have come clean and ask for forgiveness.
We all have flaws. We all have a light & dark side. The challenge is to integrate the two. You have to have your flaws under control enough that they don’t derail you.
Leaders with great teams get the best results. The days of the lone ranger leader are over.
If you want to go fast, go alone. But if you want to go far, go together.
Leadership is about trust & communications w/ the goal of persuading, not dictating to, people to meet goals.
Speeches take place w/in a context, never a vacuum. Who the speaker is speaks as loudly as what the speaker says.
Harvard research shows that if the speech goes longer than 30/35 minutes, 25% of people fight sleep & 50% of people engage in sexual fantasies.
Physical fitness often represents internal fitness. Flabby bodies, flabby minds. (IMO – often true but not a rule).
During a church service, Gergen hopes to find inner peace. Also hopes to learn something.
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