Great leadership comes down to only two rules | Peter Anderton | TEDxDerby
Summary
TLDRThe speaker explores the concept of leadership through the metaphor of chocolate hobnobs, emphasizing that leadership is not about position but character. They critique the modern complexity of leadership theories and advocate for simplicity, highlighting two fundamental rules: leadership is about serving others ('It's not about you') and creating change begins with oneself ('It's only about you'). Drawing on historical and philosophical insights, the talk encourages embracing simplicity and authenticity in leadership.
Takeaways
- 🍫 **Chocolate Hobnobs as a Metaphor**: The speaker uses chocolate hobnobs to illustrate leadership lessons, emphasizing that leadership isn't about position but about who you are.
- 🔍 **Leadership Misconceptions**: The script points out that the modern perception of leadership has become muddled with too many models and theories, making it hard to find the essence of leadership.
- 📚 **Overwhelming Information**: The speaker mentions the vast amount of information available on leadership, making it challenging to discern the fundamental principles.
- 🧩 **Simplicity in Leadership**: Leadership is described as simple, not easy, and based on two powerful rules that can inspire others if followed.
- 🔑 **The Search for Silver Bullets**: The script criticizes the tendency to seek a single solution or 'silver bullet' in leadership, rather than understanding and applying fundamental principles.
- 🕰️ **Historical Leadership Insights**: The speaker references historical figures and their views on leadership, emphasizing service over dominion.
- 🔄 **Leadership Evolution**: The script traces the evolution of leadership theories from ancient times to the modern era, highlighting shifts in focus from service to self-interest.
- 🙅♂️ **Leadership Rule #1**: The first rule of leadership is that it's not about the leader but about the people, emphasizing the importance of inspiring confidence in others.
- 🌟 **Authentic Leadership**: Authentic leadership is presented as being true to oneself and transparent, which is a deeper level of commitment from followers.
- 🌱 **Leadership Rule #2**: The second rule is about personal change, stating that to create change in others, one must start with oneself.
- 🔍 **Self-Reflection**: The speaker encourages self-reflection as a means to identify and address the problems within oneself rather than blaming others.
- 📖 **Ancient Wisdom**: The script suggests that the principles of effective leadership have been known for millennia and that we should listen to and learn from these ancient teachings.
Q & A
What is the main theme of the video script discussing leadership?
-The main theme of the video script is the simplification of leadership principles, emphasizing that leadership is not about position but about who you are, and it revolves around two simple but powerful rules.
What does the speaker suggest is the problem with the current understanding of leadership?
-The speaker suggests that the current understanding of leadership is overcomplicated and obscured by an explosion of theories and models, which has buried the true essence of leadership deep under layers of complexity.
What is the first rule of leadership according to the script?
-The first rule of leadership, as per the script, is that leadership is not about the individual but about serving others, inspiring confidence in them, and enabling them to lead as well.
What historical figures and their philosophies are mentioned in the script, and how do they relate to leadership?
-The script mentions Sun Tzu, Cicero, Jesus, and Machiavelli, each contributing different perspectives on leadership. Sun Tzu emphasized leading by example, Cicero focused on leading through others, Jesus advocated servant leadership, while Machiavelli introduced the idea of power maintenance at any cost.
What is the second rule of leadership presented in the script?
-The second rule of leadership is that in order to create change around you, it must start with who you are and how you behave, highlighting the importance of personal responsibility in leadership.
Why does the speaker use the metaphor of a 'key goblin' in the script?
-The 'key goblin' metaphor is used to illustrate the idea that sometimes the solution or answer we seek is right in front of us, but we fail to recognize it because we are too busy looking elsewhere or not listening carefully enough.
What is the speaker's profession, and how does it relate to his perspective on leadership?
-The speaker is an engineer with a passion for leadership simplicity and alignment. His engineering background likely informs his approach to leadership as something that can be systematically understood and simplified.
How does the speaker describe the shift in leadership understanding from the 19th to the 20th century?
-The speaker describes a shift from the belief that leaders were born with inherent qualities (19th century) to the idea that leadership could be systematized and optimized through scientific management (20th century), which ultimately led to a disconnect between managers and workers.
What is the significance of the chocolate hobnob factory story in the script?
-The chocolate hobnob factory story serves as a personal anecdote from the speaker's life, illustrating the failure to understand and apply the first rule of leadership, which led to problems in his leadership role.
How does the speaker suggest we should approach leadership in today's complex world?
-The speaker suggests that we should return to the simplicity of the two fundamental leadership rules, focusing on who we are and how we behave, rather than seeking new and complex theories or models.
What is the final message the speaker wants to convey about leadership?
-The final message is to listen to the wisdom and principles of leadership that have been known for millennia, rather than constantly seeking new theories, and to apply these principles in a straightforward and genuine manner.
Outlines
🍫 The Essence of Leadership Through Chocolate Hobnobs
The speaker begins by introducing the concept of leadership, using chocolate hobnobs as a metaphor. They emphasize that leadership is not about position but about who you are as a person. The speaker critiques the modern complexity of leadership theories, which they argue has obscured the simplicity of true leadership. They propose that all one needs to know about leadership can be distilled into two fundamental rules. The speaker also shares their own experience as an engineer and leader, highlighting their ultimate failure in managing a chocolate hobnob factory, which serves as a personal anecdote to illustrate the principles of leadership they will discuss.
📚 Historical Perspectives on Leadership and the Shift in Focus
This paragraph delves into the evolution of leadership theories from ancient times to the modern era. It starts with Sun Tzu and his belief in leading by example, followed by Cicero's understanding of leading through others. The paragraph then contrasts these views with Machiavelli's power-focused approach in 'The Prince'. The speaker also touches on the 19th-century belief in innate leadership qualities, Frederick Taylor's scientific management, and the 20th-century focus on leadership behaviors, culminating in the celebrity CEO culture. The paragraph concludes by stating that despite the myriad of theories, the core principles of leadership have been lost, buried under layers of complexity.
🔑 The Two Fundamental Rules of Leadership
The speaker introduces the two key rules of leadership. Rule number one is that leadership is not about the leader but about serving others, a principle that has been understood for centuries but often overlooked in modern times. The speaker uses the concept of servant leadership and authentic leadership to illustrate this point. Rule number two, which will be discussed in the next paragraph, is hinted at through the idea that change begins with the individual. The speaker emphasizes that great leaders inspire confidence in others, not just in themselves, and that leadership is about creating more leaders, not just followers.
🌟 Personal Reflections and the Power of Self-Leadership
In this paragraph, the speaker reflects on their personal experience in the chocolate hobnob factory, realizing that they were the problem, not the solution. They discuss the importance of recognizing that the environment one creates is a reflection of oneself. The speaker quotes various historical figures to emphasize the idea that change must start with the individual. They conclude that leadership is about mastering oneself, not just leading others, and that the principles of effective leadership have been known for a long time, suggesting that perhaps we should return to these ancient wisdoms rather than seeking new, complex theories.
🎁 Unwrapping the True Gifts of Leadership
The final paragraph brings the discussion to a close by emphasizing the simplicity of leadership principles that have been overlooked in favor of complexity. The speaker uses the metaphor of a 'key goblin' to illustrate the idea of searching for something new when the answers have always been there. They suggest that instead of looking for the latest leadership fad, we should listen to the timeless wisdom that has been passed down through the ages. The speaker ends with a call to action to embrace the simplicity of the two fundamental rules of leadership and to apply them in our own lives.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Leadership
💡Chocolate Hobnobs
💡Silver Bullet
💡Servant Leadership
💡Authentic Leadership
💡Rule Number One
💡Rule Number Two
💡Complexity
💡Search for the Keys
💡Key Goblin
Highlights
Chocolate hobnobs serve as a metaphor for leadership lessons.
Leadership is not about position but about who you are as a person.
The essence of leadership has been obscured by an overload of information.
Leadership is simpler than the multitude of models and theories suggest.
Two fundamental rules encapsulate the core of leadership.
The pursuit of a 'silver bullet' in leadership leads to more complexity, not simplicity.
Ancient wisdom and modern leadership principles share common ground.
Leadership is about service, not dominion, according to historical figures like Jesus and Cicero.
Machiavelli's 'The Prince' introduced a power-focused view of leadership that contrasts with service-oriented approaches.
The 19th-century belief that leaders are born, not made, is critiqued.
Frederick Taylor's scientific management principles are criticized for dehumanizing workers.
The search for leadership traits has often led to superficial conclusions.
Behavioral models and celebrity CEOs have created a culture of emulation that often fails.
Rule number one of leadership: It's not about you, it's about the people.
Eleanor Roosevelt's quote emphasizes inspiring confidence in others as the mark of great leadership.
Authentic leadership is about being true to oneself rather than imitating others.
John Maxwell's five levels of leadership illustrate the progression from obligation to genuine commitment.
Rule number two of leadership: Change starts with you.
Nelson Mandela and ancient wisdom emphasize the power of self-change in leading others.
Leaders create environments that reflect their behaviors and attitudes.
The complexity of modern leadership calls for a return to simplicity and the core principles.
The 'key goblin' anecdote illustrates the importance of listening and learning from what's already known.
Transcripts
[Music]
what i want to talk to you about today
is chocolate knobs
what can chocolate hobnobs teach us
about leadership well a lot more than
you might think i've got three messages
that will apply to each one of us today
whatever you think of chocolate hobnobs
and whether you see yourself as a leader
or not
because you don't actually have to be a
politician
or a four-star general or some sort of
chief executive to be a leader actually
every single one of us can make a
difference every single one of us is a
leader in some way or another because
leadership isn't actually about position
leadership is about who you are
but the real message of leadership has
been buried deep over the years the last
time i googled leadership i got 760
million results
in half a second
it's impossible to find what we really
want in all that information
i don't if you know but the average
person in the uk spends up to six months
of their life searching for everyday
things like keys
and mobile phones
six months and of course the more stuff
we have the harder we have to search for
the things that we're looking for
imagine searching through 760 million
things to find your case
and that's the problem that we see today
because thousands of different
leadership models and concepts have all
come together to form this complex
tapestry like some sort of remarkable
chemical formula that we assume any
university professors can understand
well i'm here to tell you today that
leadership is actually very simple
it's not easy
but it is simple
and everything you ever need to know
about leadership comes down to one of
two simple but very powerful rules
and if you grasp these rules and put
them into practice you cannot fail to
inspire others be they teams
organizations or communities
so why this explosion in leadership
theories that causes so much confusion
well i think the problem is this too
many of us have stopped searching for
the keys of leadership
and we've started looking for the silver
bullet instead
constantly on the lookout for something
new this wonderful thing that once i
understand this everything will change
and fall into place
if i can just take my shiny new silver
bullet and load it into my barrel and
fire all will be well
and yet rather than producing simplicity
it should produce more and more
complexity more and more models have
buried the true message of leadership
deeper and deeper and deeper and these
two rules are lost
somewhere underneath all the stuff
i'm going to let you into a secret
people have been practicing leadership
for a very long time
and the essence of leadership goes back
for centuries millennia even
now i'm not actually a head of state
i'm not a professor i'm not einstein i'm
an engineer with a passion for
leadership simplicity and alignment
and i've seen leadership from all sorts
of angles
i've seen great successes and i've seen
some monumental failures and because
i've learned more from my failures than
from my successes i'm going to share
with you my ultimate failure today
because i used to be the man who made
chocolate hobnobs
it was the problem child of a factory
not so far from here
and i was brought in as the young
hotshot who would be able to save the
day irrespective of what the line had
done to my two predecessors
how little we knew
now before we join my worst ever shift
we're going to go on a journey and the
journey we're going to go on is the
journey of leadership
and it's a journey through time and
space we're going to head back to the
6th century bc
and we're going to join out soon
but on our way there let's just
recognize it in under 15 minutes
we're going to go through centuries of
leadership thinking so the one thing we
can be sure of is we're going to leave a
lot out
so like tsu believed that the leader was
best when people barely knew he existed
that when his job was done his aim
fulfilled the people would say we did it
ourselves
not so far away sun tzu was writing the
art of war a book that's on the
recommended reading list for a lot of
top executives today
and he believed that the general who
advances without coveting
and who retreats without fearing
disgrace whose only thought is to
protect his country and do good service
for his sovereign is the jewel of the
kingdom
the roman consul cicero in the first
century bc absolutely understood that
the leader could only deliver results
through other people
he had to focus his attention on others
if anything was going to happen if
anything was going to change
jesus in the first century taught if
anyone would be great amongst you
let him be your servant his disciples
liken the relationship between leaders
and followers
to the relationship between a shepherd
caring for their flock all of these
agreed that leadership wasn't actually
about dominion leadership was about
service
until we come to the 16th century and
our cunning italian nicolo machiavelli
wrote his famous book the prince he
believed it was all about the leader
the leader had to maintain power at all
costs the focus was entirely upon them
they would maintain power by force or by
deceit if necessary
and in fact it needs to appear to be one
thing whilst in reality being something
else altogether
and we're still clearing up his mess
today
because whilst he taught us some great
insights in the perils of managing
change
what we also learned from machiavelli
was how to lock up rule number one of
leadership and throw away the
key then we come to the 19th century the
scott thomas carlisle believed that
leaders were born not made you either
had it or you didn't and if you had it
then you would make great things happen
if you didn't well tough
you were either a leader or a follower
you either a manager or a worker then
into the 20th century frederick taylor
comes along with scientific management
he says forget people becoming their
best just optimize the way their work is
done
the right way to do a job was defined
and workers no longer had any
responsibility for how they did their
work it was all decided for them
and whilst scientific management was
parked by the 1940s the impact of his
thinking still lingers on like a bad
smell today
with this massive gap between managers
and workers
all of this stuff unraveled
the ancient wisdom on leadership
all of it taking the principles the
fundamental principles
of rule number one of leadership turned
inside out and placed it on its head
so in that desperate attempt they find
themselves looking for the traits of
leaders the characteristics what if we
were to study the best leaders and
measure them and see what we can develop
ourselves
and then this study was put to one side
when they recognized that actually the
only statistically significant thing
that they could come up with was that
the best leaders were slightly taller
and slightly above average intelligence
and that was as good as it got
so then finally they moved to what
leaders did they said well let's look at
this behavioral model surely we can copy
the best leaders
and then become great ourselves and this
led to the birth of the celebrity chief
exec
this is where their books their
autobiographies were
written and read like leadership manuals
the whole thinking was if you need to be
brilliant you need to be like me you
need to walk like me you need to talk
like me you need to dress like me in
fact the only way you can actually be
brilliant is to have a frontal lobotomy
and that was essentially the thinking
that went forward
it led to what professor richard jolly
from the london business school called
the heathrow airport school of
leadership this is where your boss goes
on holiday and gets to the airport
realizing they've forgotten their book
so they head to the airport bookshop and
they end up in the business section
clutching the latest celebrity chief
exec autobiography and they go away and
they devour it and they come back trying
to be like them and of course it never
works
so the really enlightened employees
learn to save a lot of pain by buying
their boss a novel before they went away
on holiday
and all of this stuff just buries the
principles of leadership deeper and
deeper and deeper
and so we get to the point that rule
number one is buried and in amongst all
of the
stuff and yet rule number one is
incredibly simple
well number one is the starting point
everything that you need to know about
leadership starts from this one
principle
rule number one of leadership is that
it's not about you
or to misquote bill clinton it's about
the people stupid
everything starts here
eleanor roosevelt put it like this she
said a good leader can inspire people to
have confidence in the leader
a great leader inspires people to have
confidence in themselves
why because they get rule number one
and a leader of course is only a leader
when they've got followers so the
temptation is to create more followers
who need you for the answers that you
can actually then provide but of course
the best leaders don't create more
followers they create more leaders they
recognize that the idea of the hero
flying in to save the day solving all of
the problems answering everything just
doesn't make sense the world is too
complex for any one of us to have all of
the answers
and there i was
with our problem child
i was everywhere solving this problem
solving that problem coming up with
fabulous ideas working all hours
convinced that i could sort it all out
and terrified that i would let the side
down terrified that i'd be some sort of
failure
but i got it all wrong
because at the end of the day i didn't
understand rule number one so the whole
situation was unraveling around my ears
because right then i thought it was all
about me in my head it was my blood my
sweat
my tears and my
ego you see whenever we find ourselves
in a situation where we think everything
is dependent upon us
when we think we're the only one who
cares we're the only one who gets it
whether it's in our home whether it's in
school whether it's at work whether it's
in our community the secret is to get
back to rule number one
robert greenleaf in the 70s brought back
the key to leadership with his model of
servant leadership he brought back rule
number one loud and clear but it was
only part of the picture
the other key was still missing and that
key was rule number two
so just before we come to rule number
two we're going to check in with
authentic leadership
it's not the only leadership theory
during the rounds at the moment but it's
the one that brings us to rule number
two because authentic leadership isn't
about a great man it's not about a fixed
set of characteristics it's about
turning up at the top end of who we
really are it's less about trying to be
somebody else and it's more about trying
to be ourself
brilliantly because any one of us can be
a leader it starts with having a clear
understanding of who we are
of what we stand for of what our
strengths and weaknesses are
and then behaving in a transparent way
that draws all of these things together
john maxwell talks about five levels of
leadership he says people follow first
of all because they have to that's level
one leadership
if you're the boss they have to do as
adult
that's where in the biscuit factory
you've got a queue of people waiting at
five minutes before the end of the shift
all changed and ready to go just to
slide their card to the clock machine as
they head out the door they give you
their minimum never their best
level two is where they follow you
because of how they feel about you as an
individual
level three is where they follow you
because of what you've achieved
level four is where they follow you
because of what you have done for them
and level five is where they follow you
because of what you of who you are and
what you represent
you see each layer going deeper and
deeper
forms a deeper level of commitment and
as you move from each layer to the next
it's all about choice but not your
choice their choice
that's leadership rule number
one so the change apparently much
misquoted
be the change that you want to see in
the world brings us face-to-face with
rule number two
which is as simple and as powerful as
rule number one it's only about you
if ever you want to create change around
you it starts with who you are
and how you behave
a whole range of theories from evolios
to zeleznics takes us through to the
point that ultimately if we want to
inspire others it's about who we are
so wrenches brings us back to our
chocolate hobnob factory
because i thought everybody else needed
to change
i didn't think the problem was me i was
the only one who got it i was the only
one who understood the problem i was the
only one who cared they were the ones
who needed to change
but in reality what was going on around
me and my team and the piles of
chocolate hobnobs that we were crunching
through
they were just a reflection of me
because leadership and life is a bit
like that
things can go a bit pear-shaped from
time to time
and it's easy to find ourselves blaming
other people
and pointing the finger elsewhere but
the true leader looks themselves in the
mirror and says if i want anything to be
different
it starts with me
because the true leader recognizes
that's what's going on around them is a
reflection of who they are that's the
power of rule number two
we recognize there's no point waiting
for everybody else to get their act
together we need to start cleaning up
our own act
but if we want others to live up to our
expectations then it starts with who we
are and what we stand for and are we
standing up for what we believe
or are we just doing time
nelson mandela absolutely nailed rule
number two and he said
i couldn't change others until i changed
myself
and don't think for a minute this is
anything new
ancient wisdom had this long ago
lao tzu said mastering others is
strength
mastering yourself is true power
cicero said the enemy is within the
gates
it is with our own luxury our own folly
our own criminality that we must contend
jesus said as you want others to do
until you do so and to them
his principles have been around for a
very very long time because the rule
number two of leadership recognizes that
people around us don't come with remote
controls
they recognize that if we want to bring
about change in those around us it
starts with our behaviors it starts with
who we are
because the environment that we create
around us is simply a reflection of our
thinking and of our behavior
so it's time for us to ask the question
what environment are we creating
is it like this
or is it like this
because all of us are leaders
we all lead in one way or another we're
all creating an environment around us
so when it comes to leadership in
reality all that we're doing in today's
world
is repackaging and redistributing what
has been known for millennia
and yet too many of us are sitting on
the floor surrounded by wrapping paper
playing with the boxes
rather than focusing on the messages
that are right at the core
i'd love to say that the only mistakes i
ever made in leadership involve
chocolate hobnos but life's not quite
like that
life is a journey and sometimes we go
around in circles
and there's no such thing as the perfect
leader
but the next best thing is a leader who
really gets rule number one
and rule number two
we live in a really complex world
that is crying out for simplicity
so let's just take the lead on these two
simple rules because there isn't a
single element of leadership that
doesn't hinge on one of these two
principles
it's not about you
and it's only about you
so those are my first two messages i'm
going to close with the third
and i'm going to introduce you to my
little friend here the key goblin i
don't know if anybody else has key
goblins in their house but whenever i'm
about to head out the key goblin notices
that i'm trying to get out the door and
it takes my keys and it tucks them away
somewhere safe
you know sometimes it's hidden under a
pile of stuff sometimes it's in plain
view
and the really devious ones will hide my
mobile phone but only when it's on
silent
so there i am just picture the scene
wandering around frantically trying to
find my mobile phone until i recognize
that actually although it's on silent
it's set to vibrate
so i call the number
and i walk around
listening carefully trying to identify
and find what i think is lost
and there it is tucked in my shoe for
some unknown reason
all i had to do was listen
and that's really my final message today
we can find ourselves spinning around in
circles searching for the silver bullet
something new that will magically let
everything fall into place
and my suggestion is that maybe
everything that we need to know about
leadership
and life
was written down a long time ago
maybe it's simply time for us to start
listening
listening to what's already been said
thank you
you
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