This is a motivational talk by Robin Sharma emphasizing leadership as character shown when no one is watching, using adversity as opportunity, and the importance of building other leaders. Sharma stresses reclaiming childhood curiosity, imagination, and audacity to innovate rather than merely conforming to business norms.
Chapters
Leadership is really about what you do when no one is watching.
That's the true measure of your leadership. Are you excellent, passionate, ethical, loving, imaginative, when no one's watching, or are you working for applause?
I propose to you that when you get to the end of your life or the end of your career, only two things are going to have mattered. Number one, who did you become as a leader? Who did you become as a leader? Did you use this opportunity right now to build a digitally relevant enterprise? And the challenges you're facing? Who did you become? Did you use what you're dealing with to become stronger? You've heard this a million times, but really you can choose to see it as adversity and disruption, or you can choose to see it as opportunity. Victims see problems as problems. Leaders are constantly exploiting challenges as opportunities. So I propose to you, number one, at the end of your life, what will have mattered? Well, who did you become as a leader?
Did you use your work here at this organization to become more excellent, braver, more imaginative and more loving?
That's what leadership is. It's about using opportunities every single day to express more of the gifts and talents that you were born into. And number two, how many people did you help? How many leaders did you build? If you're not building leaders around you every day, then you're not leading. You are following. It's very easy to fall in love with the sound of your own voice. It's very easy to fall in love with the truths that you believe to be true. What innovation is all about is having the courage to challenge the things that you believe to be true. That's what innovation is all about. When we were little kids, we were curious. When we were little kids, we had awe and wonder. When we were little kids, we had imagination. When we were little kids, we had a fire in the belly. Here's what happens as we leave the perfection of childhood. People.
Scare the awe and wonder out of us. School makes us fit in. Our parents tell us, don't dream, don't be yourself, don't laugh too loud, don't have a vision, don't stand for this. Then we go and the media starts influencing us and our peers start influencing us. And then we're 35, 45, 55, 65 years old, and we're talking like business people are supposed to to talk. And we've lost our glory. We've lost our intimacy and fluency with who we truly are. And we've become business people.
