159. Earn Your Audience: You Can’t Lead If No One’s Listening

What it takes to develop as a leader.

Great leaders and great communicators aren't born, they're made. That's why John Hennessy and Tina Seelig, directors of Stanford University’s Knight-Hennessy Scholars, are working to create the great storytellers of tomorrow, today.

"We decided that there was a leadership void, and that was a driving motivation to do this," says Hennessy, former Stanford president and current Alphabet chairman. The program, which he co-founded in 2016 with Stanford alum and Nike co-founder Phil Knight, equips scholars with essential leadership skills through hands-on experience and collaborative problem-solving.

Seelig, executive director of the program, emphasizes that great leadership centers on effective storytelling. "No matter how compelling your invention, your idea, the thing you want to do in the world, if you can't communicate it in [an] effective way, nobody's going to listen," she says.

In this episode of Think Fast, Talk Smart, Hennessy, Seelig, and host Matt Abrahams explore what it takes to develop as a leader, discussing the role of communication, the power of empathy, and the centrality of storytelling.

Episode Reference Links:

• John L Hennessy
• Tina Seelig
• Knight-Hennessy Scholars
• Leading Matters Podcast
• Ep.155 Can We Be Candid? How to Communicate Clearly and Directly
• Ep.35 Leading From the Hot Seat: Hot to Communicate Under Pressure

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• Matt Abrahams >>> LinkedIn

Chapters:

• (00:00) - Introduction
• (03:14) - The Core of Knight-Hennessy Scholars
• (04:02) - Knight-Hennessy Scholars Leadership Model
• (05:41) - Empathy and Humility in Leadership
• (08:07) - Storytelling in Leadership
• (09:29) - Challenges in Storytelling
• (11:03) - Diversity in Leadership
• (13:27) - Feedback in Leadership Development
• (14:37) - Aspiring to Big Ideas in Leadership
• (15:23) - The Leading Matters Podcast
• (17:17) - The Final Three Questions
• (22:05) - Conclusion

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