Leadership

Empathy, compassion, Sam Harris, a former neo-nazi, and leadership

Sam Harris and Christian Picciolini

Audio / Leadership

Empathy, compassion, Sam Harris, a former neo-nazi, and leadership

People seem unable to understand groups they disagree with these days. If you disagree with someone enough to argue with them, you probably want to influence them to stop acting in ways you disagree with---that is, you want to lead them. To lead someone you don't have authority over, you have to understand them and, ideally, make them feel understood. If you behave and communicate in ways that people feel misunderstood, you can say goodbye to influencing them because you led them to keep their defenses up. What works against you To pick one dimension of polarization, in politics, Hilary Clinton and her supporters showed no attempt to make people they disagreed with feel understood. If you want more votes, one of the main ways…

April 28, 2018

Looking to scientists and engineers for leadership distracts from getting things done

'We're doomed': Mayer Hillman on the climate reality no one else will dare mention

Leadership / Nature

Looking to scientists and engineers for leadership distracts from getting things done

"We're doomed': Mayer Hillman on the climate reality no one else will dare mention" threatens the headline of an article about a social scientist. There are plenty of similar articles about plenty of similar people. The article recounts Hillman predicting many problems and suggesting solutions, but not getting them implemented. If we want to solve environmental problems we have to separate science and engineering from leadership. Scientists' and engineers' training and skills make them effective at collecting data, analyzing it, and making predictions. You'll find no greater supporter of science and engineering than me. They rarely have training to influence people, especially billions of people. JFK's speech advanced us more to the moon than the work of any single scientist or engineer. Hillman recognizes that…

April 26, 2018

Cold showers aren’t hard showers. They’re easy workouts.

Fitness / Habits / Inc.com / Leadership / SIDCHAs / Tips

Cold showers aren’t hard showers. They’re easy workouts.

Cold Showers Aren't Hard Showers. They're Easy Workouts. Confusion about their purpose scare people from realizing their value as one of the easiest, cheapest, and effective improvement practices. I've written here many times on the benefits of cold showers. I've blogged more about them. You wouldn't have clicked on the headline if you weren't curious about them or already doing them. Inc. is a community of achievers and has covered cold showers many times. Many talk about science behind their benefit, but since double-blind controlled experiments are hard--how do you create a plausible placebo?--I find credence in their effect I see from them for myself. Having taken hundreds of cold showers (credit to Joel Runyon for starting my habit), I've found that they create Resilience…

April 22, 2018

The Growth to Freedom podcast: “Discover Leadership That Works”

Audio / Leadership

The Growth to Freedom podcast: “Discover Leadership That Works”

Dan Kuschell and I met last year and became friends over our similar passions for leadership---servant leadership in particular. Read his bio and watch his videos below to see his story. Scheduling appearing on his podcast took forever, but it finally happened. Today I bring you our conversation on his show, Growth to Freedom. Knowing someone so long makes the conversation more friendly, open, and vulnerable. We approached common issues from new perspectives. I liked that. Listen to the conversation. Here are the show notes: Discover Leadership that Works, Lessons Learned from Failure, and the Necessity of Listening with Joshua Spodek [PODCAST 159] How do you lead and Â inspire? How do you go out and truly impact and contribute to others? Today's conversation is with…

April 19, 2018

In “Leadership and the Environment,” which matters more: leadership or environment?

In “Leadership and the Environment,” which matters more: leadership or environment?

A friend sent a link to an article about how we can save the environment. People consistently suggest potential guests for my podcast who do environmental things. I'm glad that they're thinking about the environment. but they don't get what I'm doing. There are already plenty of people working on spreading environmental facts, knowledge, tips, analysis, and telling people what to do. It got us far, but I think they're missing what will get people acting, which is leadership---creating meaning, purpose, joy, and other rewarding emotions, plus teamwork, community, and so on. People hear "Leadership and the Environment," fix on the environment part, and miss the leadership part. For context, I'll share what an architect friend once told me. She asked, "In the term 'affordable…

April 14, 2018

Op-ed Fridays: which is easier, freeing slaves or not using disposable cups and bottles?

Choosing/Decision-Making / Leadership

Op-ed Fridays: which is easier, freeing slaves or not using disposable cups and bottles?

This morning's New York Times posted a story, Holocaust Is Fading From Memory, Survey Finds, reporting a survey with results such as Thirty-one percent of Americans, and 41 percent of millennials, believe that two million or fewer Jews were killed in the Holocaust; the actual number is around six million. Forty-one percent of Americans, and 66 percent of millennials, cannot say what Auschwitz was. My last name, Spodek, is Jewish-Polish, though my father clarified that though our ancestors came from within Polish boundaries, they weren't considered Polish because they were Jewish. His parents and grandparents came to the United States about a century ago. We don't know how many relatives still in Europe died in the Holocaust. Some of the closest family friends were a…

April 13, 2018

RJ’s TEDx talk that began as homework from my course

Education / Entrepreneurship / Leadership

RJ’s TEDx talk that began as homework from my course

RJ Khalaf took my course at NYU, Fundamentals of Social Entrepreneurship, a few years ago. His class project evolved into LEAD Palestine, which led the Dalai Lama to name him a Dalai Lama fellow. He also appeared on the Leadership and the Environment podcast and was a panelist on our expert panel last week. Saturday he gave his first TEDx talk at TEDx NYU. All credit goes to him for his accomplishments, but I felt great pride seeing something that emerged from my course reach international acclaim and to see his skill in representing the project. https://youtu.be/Ig1W6M_-ka8 The beginning This is the beginning of what we'll hear from RJ and his project. Expect a lot.

April 9, 2018

Leonard Kim’s Grow Your Influence Tree on Voice of America: “How to Lead People Without Relying on Authority”

Leonard Kim Voice of America

Audio / Leadership / Nonjudgment

Leonard Kim’s Grow Your Influence Tree on Voice of America: “How to Lead People Without Relying on Authority”

I've wanted to meet top influencer Leonard Kim for years, having seen his online presence everywhere. I appeared on his Voice of America show today, speaking on leading people without relying on authority. He led the interview to get to the heart of my practice. I enjoyed the conversation and got to share what counts. Listen to the conversation. Listen to the conversation.

April 5, 2018

Success! A first Expert Panel from the Leadership and the Environment podcast

Leadership / Nature / Podcast

Success! A first Expert Panel from the Leadership and the Environment podcast

Yesterday was the Leadership and the Environment podcast's first Expert Panel, on a path to turn the podcast into a movement of people enjoying acting on their environmental values. Expert panelists Vincent Stanley, Robin Nagle, and RJ Khalaf topped the reasons making yesterday so successful. They openly shared their struggles and triumphs in vivid, colorful stories. Each time I looked at the audience, everyone seemed engaged and enraptured. We started early at 6pm. By the intended end of the panel at 7:30pm, a sizable number of attendees seemed as engaged as ever. Many stayed until at least 8:30pm with many conversations. We spoke on Patagonia and maintaining integrity amid business growth. We spoke of New York sanitation and the amount of garbage cities produce and…

April 4, 2018

A Lesson in Authentic Leadership With Super Bowl Champion Bryan Braman

#50 Bryan Braman about to block a punt

Audio / Inc.com / Leadership

A Lesson in Authentic Leadership With Super Bowl Champion Bryan Braman

A Lesson in Authentic Leadership With Super Bowl Champion Bryan Braman Think NFL players only care about the game? This Philadelphia Eagle showed the leadership skills that make champions, on the field and in life. When a friend offered to connectÂ me to Super Bowl champion Philadelphia EagleÂ Bryan Braman, my first thought--as a native Philadelphian raised on cheese steaks and soft pretzels--wasÂ of course I want to talk to a guy who brought theÂ Vince LombardiÂ trophy home! My next thought was: "MyÂ columnÂ andÂ podcastÂ are on leadership. If he's a 'bad boy' player out for fun for himself, the conversation won't go well." Mea culpa at my preconceived notions. Don't get me wrong. He lives and loves the game. Look at this head-first tackle after losing his helmet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNU1QzlVPxY That's giving…

March 29, 2018

038: RJ Khalaf, conversation 2: Making productive leaders from hopeless martyrs

Entrepreneurship / Freedom / Leadership / Podcast

038: RJ Khalaf, conversation 2: Making productive leaders from hopeless martyrs

RJ and I talk about the early success of LEAD Palestine, the organization he began to teach leadership to youths that most of the world abandoned in Palestine. Where their environment made it natural to respond with hopelessness and what comes from it---desperation to the point of aspiring to blow oneself up---RJ is bringing social and emotional development to create hope themselves. They happen to have been born into a world where leadership meant in politics authoritarianism and militarism, which bled into personal relationships. Nobody taught alternatives and those who acted on those models succeeded, however much at others' costs. RJ is teaching an effective style of leadership built on personal skill. I can't help but imagine a lot of it came from my class,…

March 28, 2018

Our first Leadership and the Environment Panel of Experts: April 3 at NYU

Audio / Events / Leadership / Nature / Podcast

Our first Leadership and the Environment Panel of Experts: April 3 at NYU

EDIT: We recorded the panel, which you can listen to: Here's the original announcement: Do you care about the environment? Do you care about leading? The Leadership and the Environment podcast NYU's School of Liberal Studies invite you to improve both at a Panel of Leadership and Environment Experts Tuesday, April 3, 6pm — 8pm NYU Silver Building, 100 Washington Sq E (at Washington Sq N), room 405 Free, register here Featuring Â Vincent Stanley Vincent, co-author with Yvon Chouinard of The Responsible Company, has been with Patagonia since its beginning in 1973, including executive roles as head of sales or marketing. Informally, he is Patagonia's chief storyteller. He helped develop the Footprint Chronicles, the company's interactive website that outlines the social and environmental impact of…

March 27, 2018

TOMORROW: My webinar with LEADx, “Lead without authority”

Lead without authority, LEADx's webinar with Joshua Spodek

Audio / Education / Events / Leadership

TOMORROW: My webinar with LEADx, “Lead without authority”

TOMORROW NOON eastern (9am pacific) see me live on the LEADx webinar, "Lead without authority." LEADx told me that over 100 people have registered so far. It's free, but you have to register. LEADx is important. They created Inc.'s annual influential list of 100 top public speakers (16 of whom have been on my podcast or I've been on theirs). We'll cover a set of skills that will get you far in life, and whose lack can lead to stagnation. You'll learn How to lead people you don't have authority over, such as your boss, clients, the CEO, family, friends How to create meaningful connections with anyone Why most connections are meaningless and hold you back from leading others Here's a screen shot of their…

March 26, 2018

Chasing Coral and Personal Responsibility

Chasing Coral and Leadership

Inc.com / Leadership / Nature

Chasing Coral and Personal Responsibility

Chasing Coral and Personal Responsibility A brilliant, important documentary on the environment viewed from a leadership and the environment perspective. The documentaryÂ Chasing Coral is emotionally evocative and hauntingly, tragically beautiful. I can see why it got its stellar reviews. I recommendÂ it. While I support their goals, IÂ hope it's the last "Do as I say, not as I do" documentary. TheyÂ undermineÂ efforts to change people's behavior to pollute less. Here's the trailer: Leadership and the Environment From a leadership perspective,Â it didn't motivate action. It raised awareness, but the environment, coral included, doesn't react to awareness. It reacts toÂ behavior. A touching scene occurs when theÂ movie makers show the extent of the tragic global coral bleaching they documented. The images ofÂ scientists crying broke my heart less for their sadness…

March 21, 2018

Roger Bannister, the 4-Minute Mile, and Leadership

Roger Bannister, the 4-Minute Mile, and Leadership

Inc.com / Leadership

Roger Bannister, the 4-Minute Mile, and Leadership

Roger Bannister, the 4-Minute Mile, and Leadership We who strive for more can learn from the great athlete, no matter our field. The greatest lessonÂ we canÂ learnÂ fromÂ theÂ achievementÂ of Roger Bannister, who broke the 4-minute mile in 1954 and whoÂ died at 88 yesterday, arises fromÂ someone else breaking his record only seven weeks later. And then many times since. Why? Because as great as his physical feat, it shows that his mental feat was as great. Seven weeks isn't enough time for others to change training, strategy, diet, and so on. They already had the physical ability to break four minutes. Once he showed them they could, they did. That's leadership: to show people what they can do and enable them to do it. What we can learn from…

March 16, 2018

The Future of Environmental Leadership

The Future of Environmental Leadership

Inc.com / Leadership / Nature

The Future of Environmental Leadership

The Future of Environmental Leadership Want to lead? The opportunities to lead in the environment may be the best around. Hosting theÂ Leadership and the EnvironmentÂ podcast has led to a lot of conversations onÂ leadershipÂ and theÂ environment. As an entrepreneur andÂ adjunct professor of leadership, I talk to many who want to become leaders. Many shun working on the environment because they think it will distract from their career and leadership ambitions. They excuse themselves from acting on the environment with the complaint But acting on the environment will distract me from getting ahead. Are they crazy? There is national and global demand for environmental leadership.Â How do they miss theÂ opportunity to advance at any levelÂ if they act? I don't know. Fear? Anxiety? I only hearÂ a lack of imagination. Most…

March 14, 2018

Learn to lead without relying on authority: Two workshops this week. You’re invited.

Leadership and the Environment workshop

Education / Events / Leadership / Nature

Learn to lead without relying on authority: Two workshops this week. You’re invited.

The Leadership and the Environment podcast team is growing, which means expanding to new ways to Develop people's leadership and Act on the environment I've interviewed Ryan and Ben, the podcast's newest teammates so you'll get to meet them when their interviews get processed. In the meantime, we've organized two leadership development workshops THIS WEEK: Wednesday and Thursday, 6pm--8pm at NYU. Click these links to register and for the details, maps, etc. Wednesday, 6pm--8pm Thursday, 6pm--8pm The event descriptions Want to improve as a leader? Do you care about the environment enough to act on it? Do both! (while having fun and meeting people) Learn to lead without authority. It turns out that leading your boss works like leading people on the environment. Learning one…

March 12, 2018

Dov Baron brings the best out of you. See his interview of me.

Audio / Leadership

Dov Baron brings the best out of you. See his interview of me.

Dov Baron---bestselling author, leadership coach (and more), named by Inc. as one of the Top 100 Leadership Speakers and host of Full Monty Leadership---is probably the most dynamic, authentic, and colorful guest I've had on my podcast. To illustrate his authenticity, he took the greatest personal challenge to live by his environmental values---to consider getting rid of his car. Not just any car, but a Jaguar that he aspired to for most of his life. Listen to our conversation to hear the story, meet the man, and learn how to get more out of life than material objects can get you. As I'm typing these words, he's processing the idea, which he's publicly made himself accountable for. I didn't propose the idea to him. He…

March 11, 2018

What Does LeBron James Know About Leadership?

What Does LeBron James Know About Leadership?

Inc.com / Leadership

What Does LeBron James Know About Leadership?

What Does LeBron James Know About Leadership? Athletes learn and practice leadership. They get elected. We can learn from them. To tell anÂ athleteÂ to "shut up and dribble" shows profound misunderstanding of how muchÂ sports and athletics teachÂ leadership, all the more so amongÂ leaders of champion teams. If you read Inc. to improve your leadership, LeBronÂ James may have his flaws, as any leader does, but remains an exemplary role model. As a leadershipÂ professor, coach, andÂ author, I suggest looking more to learn from champion athletes than to demean them. Leaders and Sports Let's just consider United States presidents, representatives, and governors who were athletes: Dwight EisenhowerÂ was a linebacker at West Point Barack ObamaÂ played basketball throughout his presidency Ronald ReaganÂ played football and swam in college Abraham LincolnÂ wrestled (andÂ talked trash) Teddy…

March 8, 2018

“Why the Ivy League could end up like the big 3 carmakers: utterly disrupted” My story in Quartz

Education / Leadership

“Why the Ivy League could end up like the big 3 carmakers: utterly disrupted” My story in Quartz

Joshua Spodek Uneducated at Any GPA Is the Ivy League Today Big 3 Auto of the 1960s? America's top universities today are like America's Big 3 car manufacturers of the 60s: hugely profitable, projecting growth for decades, the envy of the world, dominating their markets, dictating terms to customers and employees, and accelerating to bankruptcy. Cars aren't diplomas, but besides the obvious differences between the fields, systemic similarities suggest a need to act for leadership asleep at the wheel. Missed Opportunities I participated in an NYU committee to promote entrepreneurship. Nobody seemed to notice the irony in the following two items in one meeting's agenda. A goal to attract large companies for student internships (leaving aside that corporate internships are not particularly entrepreneurial). Delays building…

March 2, 2018

Entrepreneur Magazine features me and Leadership Step by Step

Entrepreneur Magazine covers Joshua Spodek

Entrepreneurship / Leadership

Entrepreneur Magazine features me and Leadership Step by Step

Entrepreneur Magazine covered me for the first time, with a video no less, in Are People Born Leaders? The story begins Joshua Spodek, author ofÂ Leadership Step by Step: Becoming the Person Others Follow, talks about how people aren't born leaders but instead develop leadership skills throughout life as a result of the obstacles life throws at them. He states that every great leader has learned leadership, but "no one's born leading." Spodek also says he treats leadership as a performance-based field and that people have to practice being good, effective leaders -- much like one has to practice playing the piano or sports in order to get better. As an adjunct professor at New York University, Spodek says that academia teaches people about leadership, but…

February 16, 2018

Next Year Now and cracking the leadership code

Joshua Spodek on Tom Heffner's Next Year Now podcast

Audio / Education / Leadership

Next Year Now and cracking the leadership code

Tom Heffner, host of the Next Year Now podcast, just posted his interview of me. Tom and I got to be friends following up this podcast, based on our mutual passion for learning and practicing leadership skills, education, values, and many of the things you read about here, so you'll hear the chemistry. Plus, he came to these areas from a science and aerospace background, as I did. As Tom wrote: Today might be our most important episode ever. That's because we're going to talk about leadership. Â Few things are as impactful in our life as good leadership — be it at work, in our personal lives, on the sports field — whatever the domain is. Good leadership has the potential to produce so much…

February 14, 2018

Bold TV on Leadership and the Environment

BOLD TV featuring Joshua Spodek on Leadership Step by Step

Bold TV on Leadership and the Environment

I'm pleased to have appeared this morning on Bold TV with GenFKD. Here are links to watch: Facebook:Â https://www.facebook.com/BoldTV/videos/560713460953279 Periscope:Â https://www.pscp.tv/BoldGlobalMedia/1yNGakoNlnrxj I appear at 3:45 for about seven minutes. Here are highlights BoldTV made: https://youtu.be/Mx2s9sgr35I

February 13, 2018

Beliefs and the environment

Andrea Wulf's the Invention of Nature

Leadership / Models

Beliefs and the environment

I wanted to share some thoughts on reading The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt's New World by Andrea Wulf, one of the New York Times' 10 best books of 2017. Who is Alexander von Humboldt? The New York Times review of the book explains: Alexander von Humboldt was the pre-eminent scientist of his time. Contemporaries spoke of him as second in fame only to Napoleon. All over the Americas and the English-speaking world, towns and rivers are still named after him, along with mountain ranges, bays, waterfalls, 300 plants and more than 100 animals. There is a Humboldt glacier, a Humboldt asteroid, a Humboldt hog-nosed skunk. Off the coast of Peru and Chile, the giant Humboldt squid swims in the Humboldt Current, and even…

February 12, 2018

Social and emotional challenges are different

Education / Leadership

Social and emotional challenges are different

Leadership, entrepreneurship, and other performance-based professional practices are fundamentally social and emotional. Traditional academics teaches you to comply, not to lead or take initiative. It teaches intellectual skills, which are perfect for the knowledge worker of the mid-twentieth century. Those days are gone. Today's challenges are social and emotional—how to create relationships and learn people's problems so you can solve them. Learning to lead, innovate, create, and solve people's problems requires self-awareness, teamwork, empathy, and other social and emotional skills. Most graduates of traditional education learned to analyze, recall facts, and other intellectual skills, which, today, keep you from promotion. Few people know you can learn social and emotional skills, it seems. You can. It requires facing and overcoming social and emotional challenges. Most people…

February 10, 2018

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