This content was created by Mark Murphy. This content was uploaded by Mark Murphy. This is a YouTube keynote/talk titled "Mark Murphy, Keynote Speaker" (posted 2025-02-28). The excerpt is a solo presentation by Mark Murphy in which he describes his focus on the science of leadership and practical, research-driven techniques for leaders. Topics covered include setting direction and managing change, clear information flow, the danger of CEOs not being first to hear bad news, reliance on high performers and their burdens, monthly self-improvement reflection, executives spending time on non-value-added work, the contrast between SMART goals and CEOs' BHAGs, and hiring for cultural fit. Metadata: content_type=YOUTUBE, thumbnail provided.
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My name's Mark Murphy, and what I focus on is the science of leadership. I've written 8 books, including a New York Times bestselling book, 100 Percenters. I'm a senior contributor of Forbes. My research has appeared the world over. I don't want to give fluff. I don't want to give all the warmed-over clichés that people have heard for 20 years. I want to give them practical, actionable, science-driven techniques that are going to advance their careers. Does it wash with you? Not entirely. There is certainly the two big things a leader has to focus on is the direction for where we're going, and that ties into the change effort. But then you've got to have the clear lines of information. And I will say that one of the worst signs for a CEO is whenever you're not the first person to get the bad news That, in our studies, that usually spells the ouster of that particular CEO. Pull an all-nighter, work all weekend. Who are you going to have work with you? High performer or low performer? Say it with me. High performer. When it happens again the week after that, who is it working with you? High performer or low performer? High performer. Who has the worst job in your organization? High performer. This is the problem. Every month while you're sitting down and setting these goals, Ask yourself this question: What's something I'm better at now than I was last month? It is critically important not that you grow and develop, 'cause I know you're growing and developing. It's that you acknowledge your own growth and development. We ask executives in our research, about 70% of them say that far too much of my time is spent on non-value-added kinds of work— bureaucracy, miscommunications, dealing with handoffs and trying to babysit people— rather than being able to do the thing that I was really hired to do, to bring my insight, to bring my strategy. Ironically and conversely, when you go to CEOs' goals, CEOs don't set SMART goals. CEOs set set BHAGs, which stands for Big Hairy Audacious Goals. It's— they're big and they're messy. And you can walk into any CEO's office and go, what's your BHAG? They're gonna go, yeah, let me tell you what my BHAG is. It's, yeah, we're going to achieve 80% market share. Great, where are you at right now? 2%. But I feel it coming. Your culture is not something you can wish into existence. It just is. There are exceptional people who are just terrible fits with your corporate culture. And it's not that they're bad, and it's not that you're bad. It's— you're just— it's like the old dating cliché, you know? It's not you, it's me. Well, yeah, it's okay. We're both fine. We're both good. We just are horrible together. And that's kind of what hiring for culture really means.
