In this speaker show‑reel, Paul Sloane (introduced by a co‑speaker) delivers a concise, high‑energy keynote on the nature of true leadership. He argues that leadership is fundamentally about moving an organization from one state to another through ideas and innovation, whereas management merely keeps things running. To be a leader one must challenge the status quo, take calculated risks, and enable teams to generate and implement great ideas. Sloane uses a tennis analogy—Roger Federer’s willingness to serve double faults—to illustrate that an optimal amount of failure is necessary for bold performance, and he cites Mark Twain to warn against the danger of over‑confidence in what we think we know. He closes with a metaphor about hand positioning, contrasting imaginative, lateral thinkers with realist, “hard‑bitten” lawyers. The overall message is that innovation, risk‑taking, and a willingness to question certainty are the hallmarks of effective leadership.
Leadership is about changing the organisation. It's about taking it from one place to another. And to do that, you have to have ideas.
Paul Sloane is an expert in innovation, lateral thinking, and leadership, and has a wealth of business experience behind him.
If you want to be a leader, you've got to start challenging and you've got to start taking some risks. The definition of a leader, by the way, is a leader is someone who has followers.
To be a successful leader, you need to be an innovator.
It doesn't mean you have to come up with lots of great ideas. You have to be able to lead a team to come up with and implement great ideas. Because a leader always changes an organization. A manager simply makes it run. But a leader always takes it from one place to another. That involves innovation.
Leadership and innovation live in the same house.
Why does Roger Federer serve double faults? He doesn't need to. But if you watch Roger Federer or Novak Djokovic in a, in a 3, 4, 5 set match, they'll typically serve 5, 6 double faults, at least. Why do they do it? Every fault, every time they serve a double fault, they're giving a precious point away to their opponent. And they could easily avoid it by doing a second serve like mine, patting it in. The point is that that champion, Roger Federer, has determined that it's worth serving some double faults, because he wants to push his second serve as far and as fast as he can, so as to not make it easy for his opponent. Why? And he's prepared to accept a certain number of double faults. There's an optimum number of double faults that should be served in a professional tennis match, and it is not zero. And there's an optimum number of mistakes and failures you should be making every month, and it's not zero. If you never make a mistake, you're not trying new things. If everything you try works, you're not being bold enough. And we do it all the time. We go in to see a new client in a new situation, we assume that it's like something else we've seen before. Mark Twain said this. He said, it's not what we don't know that gets us into trouble. It's what we think we know for sure. The things we think— but the things we're certain of are the most dangerous things. The things we don't know, we can ask about. The things we're sure of, we don't ask about, because we're certain of them. And sometimes they're just downright wrong. Thank you. Now, if your hands are separated like yours, you have a powerful imagination. All right? If your hands are still together like yours, then you're more of a realist. You're a bit of a hard-bitten lawyer, aren't you? Thank you.
