David Burkus
David Burkus is a best-selling author, a sought after speaker, and business school professor. In 2017, he was named as one of the world’s top business thought leaders by Thinkers50
His forthcoming book, Friend of a Friend, offers readers a new perspective on how to grow their networks and build key connections—one based on the science of human behavior, not rote networking advice. He is also the author of Under New Management and The Myths of Creativity. David is a regular contributor to Harvard Business Review and his work has been featured in Fast Company, the Financial Times, Inc magazine, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, and CBS This Morning.
David’s innovative views on leadership have earned him invitations to speak to leaders from a variety of organizations. He’s delivered keynote speeches and workshops for Fortune 500 companies such as Microsoft, Google, and Stryker and governmental and military leaders at the U.S. Naval Academy and Naval Postgraduate School. His TED talk has been viewed over 1.8 million times.
When he’s not speaking or writing, David is in the classroom. He is associate professor of leadership and innovation at Oral Roberts University where he was recently named one of the nation’s “Top 40 Under 40 Professors Who Inspire.”
You can connect with David here or learn more about how to bring him your event or company as a keynote speaker.
053: David Burkus, part 2: Leadership without judgement
David Burkus returns to share his cold shower challenge.
He’s a leadership expert and shares great insight, especially about networking and tolerance. There’s a lot to learn from him.
To be candid, in contrast to my usual enthusiasm at a guest’s actions, you’ll hear a failure of leadership on my part. I believe effective leadership is based on learning the motivations and cares of the other person and connecting them to the task, which imbues the task with meaning for them. I don’t think I did that with David. It sounds to me like he did something out of motivation for me as a friend since he heard me respond positively to cold showers. The result, to my ears, is that he sounds more like he’s complying than acting on his values.
The result as I see it in this case is compliance without passion or desire to do more.
I would say that my interaction with David shows how you can get close to effective leadership and show many signs of it without achieving it. I didn’t pick up on it while talking with him, only after. I think there’s as much leadership to learn from this interaction as any other.
I spoke to David about it. He disagrees, pointing out:
Effective leadership can not only be about acting on values you’ve already internalized. I believe pro social motivations are more powerful than purely internal drives…and ultimately they give me more hope.
So maybe I’m working from too narrow a view of leadership or being overly dramatic. I’m here in part to learn and grow myself.
041: David Burkus, Conversation 1: Flipping the mental model
David has helped me many times. I felt honored to host him and, I hope, help start his environmental legacy.
We covered two main things.
First, his new book, Friend of a Friend, on networking. His background as a professor and practitioner means he approaches networking systematically and practically, so beyond learning to network more effectively, you understand networking as a process.
Second, his environmental commitment. I loved his choice for reasons you’ll hear when you listen. I believe it will improve his life beyond just living by his environmental values.
David is direct, knowledgeable, experienced, and plain-spoken. Enjoy!