The following are some of the Best Interviews from the Leadership Essentials Series that ULI produced from 2000 to 2007. These interviews offer many lessons that are still very relevant today. Please take the time to listen to them and offer your own insight into how these lessons are applicable to your business and life.
Kris Cole
Author & Communication Specialist
- 70% of workplace mistakes are due to poor communication
- People are not born great communicators, we all need to learn how
- “We can’t influence people if they don’t like us or respect us”
- 93% of what we say comes from our body language, only 7% comes from our words
Listen to Kris Cole
Peter Sheldrake
- Director of Urban Forum, Adjunct Professor of Business Entrepreneurship at RMIT in Melbourne, Australia
- If you are only in business to make money, you most likely will not succeed
- A company makes a profit to continues its business – to move forward
- Complex Successful Model – companies that are invested in financial, social, and environmental issues
- Move conversation from improving Leaders within an organization to improving Leadership within the entire organization
Listen to Peter Sheldrake
Roger Herman
Strategic Business Futurist
- Understanding your organization’s mission is vital to differentiating your organization from others
- Money is not the main motivator it used to be
- New generations want meaningful, rewarding work
- New generations want “life/work balance” – where life is more important than work
Listen to Roger Herman
Robert Cooper
Author of The Other 90%
- Everyone is different – discover which foods & activities help you stay energized and focused
- Good posture, exposure to bright light, drinking a sip of water – all are proven to improve concentration
- Employers need to loosen job descriptions – no human being is good at every aspect of a job description
Listen to Robert Cooper
John McGrath
Successful Australian Real Estate Tycoon
- Businesses can control their clarity, passion, product knowledge, quality of staff & business presentations
- Success is a state of mind
- The power to say “no” is often not used enough, say no to business that you know is not good business
- Look at your business goals twice a day to always keep them in mind
Listen to John McGrath
Dr. John Lang
Author of Re-Life, Runs a successful Health Management Clinic
- Often people will not follow through with their goals because their motivation wavers
- We need to manage/rationalize our perceptions better
- 5 Point Plan: Eat well, Keep fit, Manage stress, Don’t smoke, Get adequate sleep
Listen to Dr. John Lang
David Allen
Author of “Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity”
- Time management is about management actions, not priorities
- Define your focused work list so you know how to handle ad-hoc work
- If you have only 5 minutes, do the most productive activity you can get done within those 5 minutes
Listen to David Allen
Richard Florida
Professor & Head of the Martin Prosperity Institute at the Roman School of Management, University of Toronto
- Creative Job Sector will continue to grow
- Government has to get out of the city’s way & creative movement has to come from bottom-up
- Key driver of city’s economic growth = Quality of Human Capital
- Need Technology, Talent, and Tolerance to have a successful city
Listen to Richard Florida
Joan Magretta
Author, Former Senior Editor of Harvard Business Review
- All basic management principles are about getting organization to perform
- Managers need to focus on creating long-term value
- Always look at your organization from the customer’s perspective
- Everything depends on creating value for the customer
Listen to Joan Magretta
George Norris
Business Coach
- Failure to delegate is a failure to motivate or inspire, learn to delegate
- 7 most costly words in business = “but we’ve always done it this way”
- Keys to Success: education, communication, motivation, evaluation, celebration
- 5 levels of human need: 1. Physiology 2. Security 3. Social recognition 4. Self-esteem 5. Self-actuation
Listen to George Norris
Malcolm Gladwell
Author of Blink & The Tipping Point
- 2 types of Thinking: conscious (rational) & unconscious (instinctual)
- Instinctual decision making is often excellent, trust it
- Business tends to add more information to a situation, but can make the situation more complex & harder to use instinctual decision making
Listen to Malcolm Gladwell
Nancy Kazdan
Strategy & Training Consultant
- Active listeners look forward & make eye contact with whomever is speaking
- “True interest means promoting understanding … means trust”
- 4 Types of Listeners: 1. Non-listener: focused on another task while attempting to listen 2. Marginal listener: distracted by their own thinking 3. Evaluative listener: still not completely engaged, fact-based listener 4. Active listener: patience, waiting for the talker to speak fully
Listen to Nancy Kazdan
Albert Ratner
Co-Chairman Emeritus of Forest City Enterprises
- Successful organizations need leaders for vision
- Ask yourself if you really want to be a leader
- “Figure out who you are and live your life accordingly”
Listen to Albert Ratner
Henry Cisneros
Former Secretary for Housing & Urban Development under President ClintonOptimistic about American cities
- We now have “city friendly economy”
- “The suburbs are full” - people do not want any longer commutes
- “Cities are where nations progress”
Listen to Henry Cisneros
Chris Helder
Sales trainer, Author of Stop Selling: The Art of Reading the Client & Winning the Business
- “Best form of selling is to stop selling”
- 4 Ingredients of effective selling: connection, gain information, presentation & realizing the sell
- 3 Qualities: matching body language, energy, voice tone & personality drives
- 4 Personality Types: 1. Power personality: results & control driven 2. Party personality: live in the moment, impulse buyers 3. Peace personality: non-confrontational 4. Perfectionist personality: processes, structure driven
Listen to Chris Helder
Daniel Pink
Author of Free Agent Nation & A Whole New Mind
- Left brain activities used to dominate job market skill set
- Now, right brain activities are becoming increasingly important
- 6 important right brain abilities: 1. Design: ability to create a product/service where customer has an emotional response 2. Story: ability to create a narrative 3. Symphony: ability to connect the dots & see the bigger picture 4. Empathy: understand someone’s else perspective 5. Play: ability to use games & humor 6. Meaning: search for meaning in the world
Listen to Daniel Pink
J. Walker Smith
Executive Chairman of the Futures Company, President of Yankelovich, Inc.
- Hiving: people returning home to reconnect with others
- “Community is about living in the company of strangers” - not like-minded individuals
- Self-fulfillment replaced self-sacrifice in the market place with the Baby Boomers
- 3 Things we need to create a community: 1. Public spaces 2. Public psychology 3. Public myths
Listen to J. Walker Smith
Carl Honore
Author of In Praise of Slowness
- Slow has a negative connotation in our society
- Objective should be to choose the right speed to do each of our activities
- Ways to improve our use of time: 1. Make a weekly priority list, eliminate those items at the bottom 2. Find times to unplug to rest & recharge 3. Find an activity everyday that requires you to slow down
Listen to Carl Honore
Ira Koretsky
President & Chief Storyteller of Koretsky Communications Group
- Don’t ask someone what it is they do, ask them something related to the context in which you are meeting
- People are typically not comfortable giving their elevator speech
- Elevator speech: explaining yourself in 80 words or less
- 3 Must Do’s: 1. Remove jargon from your speech 2. Put passion into it 3. Speak to your audience
Listen to Ira Koretsky
Verne Harnish
Author of Mastering the Rockeller Habits: What You Must Do to Increase the Value of your Fast Growth Firm
- Cash flow is the most important thing to your business, it can make or break you
- Keep 10 to 30 year goals for your business
- Take one customer and one employee out to lunch a week to stay in touch with your business
Listen to Verne Harnish
Jim Collins
Author of Good to Great
- Lack of discipline & chronic inconsistency are what separates great organizations from good organizations
- Willingness to change is not what separates organizations, a common misconception
- Your core values do not change, but your practices are open to change
- Hedgehog concept: penetrating understanding of 3 issues: 1. Passion: understand what you are passionate about 2. Best at: if you can’t be the best in the world at it, leave it someone else 3. Economics: understand what drives your economic engine
Listen to Jim Collins
Dan Gilbert
Professor of Psychology at Harvard University, Author of Stumbling on Happiness
- Wisdom is knowing when and when not to be swayed
- Times when a lot of people think you are wrong are times when you should reconsider your position
- Navigation tools that we can use are: rationality, math, & science
- 2 Things to do to make better decisions: 1. If I do this what will happen? (Understand your odds) 2. And if it does happen, how am I going to feel about it? (How much do I value the potential payoff?)
Listen to Dan Gilbert
