This content was created by GHION.AI . This content was uploaded by GHION.AI . This is a YouTube talk titled "John Hennessy: 'The Accidental Entrepreneur'" (recorded 2016-02-08). The excerpt is a monologue by John Hennessy focused on leadership—arguing that leadership is broken in politics and corporations, emphasizing the importance of honest, empathetic communication and clear commitments (saying yes, no, or maybe with intended meaning).
Chapters
I think leadership's broken around the world. I think right now leadership is broken. It's broken in our political system. It's broken in many corporations. If you look at what's happened, the set of things that have played out in corporations in the last few years, you think where the CEO knew about what was going on, It's broken. It's broken, I think. Partly it's broken because people don't like to tell the truth when the truth is difficult. They don't like to tell the truth when the truth is difficult. It's easy to tell the truth when it's easy and it's not hard and you don't have to contend. It's harder when it's a difficult situation. And I think we have to learn how to how to do that in a way that is empathetic, still very human, but also tells the true story. And this is something I had to learn along the way. When you get asked a question as president, and often that question involves, can you do something for me, Kevin, give me resources, I only say yes when I mean absolutely yes. And I say no when I mean no. And if I say maybe, it means I'll do my best, but there's no guarantee. I never say maybe when I really mean no and there's no chance it's going to happen. But I'll tell you that a lot of people who mean no say maybe, and a lot of people who mean maybe say yes. And I don't think that does any organization a lot of good.
