Acting Like a Leader — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:04You don't need to have a position of
2. 0:08authority to be [clears throat] a
3. 0:09leader.
4. 0:11You can act like an owner. You can solve
5. 0:13problems. You can engage in
6. 0:16conversations. You see a problem, you
7. 0:19solve it. You need to be a follower. You
8. 0:22become a follower in a role of a leader.
9. 0:26So, leadership is all around us and it's
10. 0:28about not only our personal growth, but
11. 0:30it sets us up for actual leadership
12. 0:33positions.
13. 0:34>> Well, okay. Hang on a second. You said
14. 0:36something profound. You said like you
15. 0:37don't need formal authority to be a
16. 0:40leader. Can we just double click on that
17. 0:41because I think when I was married a
18. 0:44long time ago,
19. 0:46I thought like leader with the capital
20. 0:47L, like you had to have a leader or
21. 0:50executive, blah blah blah in your title
22. 0:53or like stand on a big mountain and be
23. 0:55the leader. Like tell tell me about this
24. 0:57view because that's new to me.
25. 1:00>> There's an L in each and every one of
26. 1:03us. There's an L in each and every one
27. 1:06of us. And the way in which this L comes
28. 1:08alive before we have these positions of
29. 1:11authority is by acting like owners. It's
30. 1:14by feeling a sense of obligation and
31. 1:17person
32. 1:18responsibility. So, if there's a
33. 1:19problem, you solve it as opposed to
34. 1:22being a bystander. If there's um
35. 1:26a moment when we need to speak up, we
36. 1:28need to speak up. And we too can do this
37. 1:31in our families. We can do this in our
38. 1:33communities. We can do this in our
39. 1:35schools. And this is where it begins.
40. 1:38That L in us can grow into that position
41. 1:41of authority, but it's an attitude. It's
42. 1:44a behavior. It's a definition that
43. 1:46starts out early. So, my big advice for
44. 1:49everyone starting from the age of 18 and
45. 1:52on is to begin to act like an owner on
46. 1:57route to becoming a true leader with
47. 1:59authority.
48. 2:01>> So, what else? What else
49. 2:02Why else should we care about
50. 2:04about leadership?
51. 2:06>> Listen, leadership is really
52. 2:07interesting. It's actually a social
53. 2:09science. And it starts out, like I said,
54. 2:13with ourselves, that L in all of us, and
55. 2:16acting like an owner. And eventually, we
56. 2:19begin to lead others. And most often,
57. 2:22where we see this early on is in teams.
58. 2:26>> Mhm.
59. 2:26>> Mhm.
60. 2:27>> Leading teams. And leading teams Teams
61. 2:29are defined
62. 2:31as three people or more.
63. 2:33>> Yeah.
64. 2:33>> So, if you have three people or or more,
65. 2:35and you take on a leadership role,
66. 2:37whether it's at school or otherwise,
67. 2:40it's really important because
68. 2:43Kareem,
69. 2:44if you can lead a group of three people,
70. 2:47>> Yes.
71. 2:48>> or 10, or 15,
72. 2:50>> Yes.
73. 2:50>> you can actually lead an organization of
74. 2:5315,000 people.
75. 2:55>> Oh, it scales.
76. 2:56>> It scales completely. It's the same
77. 2:58[clears throat] set of behaviors
78. 2:59>> Mhm.
79. 2:59>> that scales because if you can lead
80. 3:02those 10 people or 15 people, it is
81. 3:04through them that you lead wide
82. 3:06organizations. It's through them that
83. 3:08you lead communities.
84. 3:09>> Yeah.
85. 3:10>> It's through your team that you lead
86. 3:13even countries.
87. 3:14>> Wow. And I guess I guess the the thing
88. 3:16about why you need to think about teams
89. 3:18is because to solve important problems,
90. 3:21right, you need a team. You'll need more
91. 3:23than yourself. If it was a problem that
92. 3:25you could solve yourself, that takes you
93. 3:27so far. But problems that are big, that
94. 3:29are naughty, that need
95. 3:32leaders like you to be engaged, you need
96. 3:35to be thinking about teams.
97. 3:36>> Absolutely. In fact, teams are critical
98. 3:40to leverage yourself, to scale. Teams
99. 3:42are critical for the division of labor.
100. 3:44Teams are critical in order to achieve
101. 3:48much more than what an individual can
102. 3:51do. And so, how to structure a team, how
103. 3:54to motivate a team, how to create the
104. 3:56processes by which a team operates is a
105. 3:59very crucial function of leaders. So,
106. 4:02once you establish that you can act like
107. 4:04an owner and be an owner, and then
108. 4:07first thing to do is to find ways to
109. 4:10lead a very small team. And once you
110. 4:12figure that out, you can lead entire
111. 4:14organizations.