Description: Integrity, candor and an understanding of the greater implications of ones work.

Transcript:

A great leader I think is defined by several factors. One, integrity and candor. If you’re not able to be candid; if you’re not able to demonstrate integrity, at one point or another you will not be able to command the loyalty of the American people or any group of people for that matter. In a company or a country, in a city or a state, you have to exude integrity. You have to exude candor. The people who do that are the great leaders. Those who don’t will never qualify as a great leader. Second, you need to have a sense of vision. What are the implications of what I’m recommending, of what I’m doing for the next 20 or 30 years? History will regard those people as great leaders. People who look for the short term good at the expense of the long term good will never be considered great leaders of companies, or of countries, or of anything else. And the third is the ability to respect the views of others. Without an ability to respect the views and the opinions of others, and to try and understand them, you’re not going to be a great leader. You can have the smartest person around. If they can’t work with other people; if they can’t demonstrate a respect for where other people are coming from – their concerns, their passions, their apprehensions – it’s awfully hard to be a really great reader. And fourth, you have to go to meet problems. You can’t let problems come to you. One of the great stories about Abraham Lincoln is that during the Civil War, large numbers of union soldiers came back wounded. And there were these caravans and wagons bringing them back. Lincoln didn’t sit in the White House saying, “Isn’t that a shame.” He would go out in his carriage or on horseback and meet these caravans of troops and talk to them. He never shied away from this. He didn’t try to sort of put it out of his (31:09) mind and say, “Well we’re not going to acknowledge that all these people are wounded.” He went out to meet the problem head on. And the great leaders don’t wait for a problem to come to them. They go to meet the problem. And they don’t give up when there’s a moment of adversity. They don’t give up and say, “Oh well I tried.” They say, “How can I do better? What’s the next step?” They’re determined and committed to dealing with problems. Lincoln, if he’d taken a poll during the Civil War, most Americans would have said, “Let the south go. Divide the country up. Too much bloodshed.” Lincoln had the view that you gotta keep the country together. If Roosevelt had taken a poll during World War II, parts of World War II where there was a lot of carnage, some people might have said, “Well that’s enough. Come home.” And during the Cold War the same thing. A lot of people really didn’t want to play an active role; and yet a number of people, particularly Eisenhower and Truman at the beginning of the Cold War, understood that this was a battle for world freedom. And I think you get this in other countries. Somebody like Nelson Mandela, who is another inspirational figure. He wasn’t just attempting to end Apartheid for its own sake, as important as that was. He was trying to build a new society, a multiracial society. He could have come out of Robben Island bitter and embittered. We’re going take on the white community, and take on the Indian community, and we’re going to . . . we’re going to really show them who’s boss. He as well as Martin Luther King and Gandhi understood that if you really want to be a leader, you have to pull people together. You have to integrate people and get them to think along the lines you’re thinking, not try to pound things into them or dominate their thinking. You have to lead by example with good values and integrity. I think those are the kinds of people who inspire me, and the kind of people who are able to change society in a positive way.

Description: Bring the future into the present and motivate.

Transcript: An insight on where to go; bring the future into the present; and then an ability to motivate people to really get it; and a real appreciation of symbols, and that is a tremendous gift. If I could just tell you one story. When I think of Nelson Mandela, there is about 20 episodes in his mind and life that I really . . . I think about. But the one that really got me was when Mandela was first in office, or just released . . . I don’t even know if he was president. I think he was president then. But at any rate, the Afrikaanas . . . Africans who really did resist very much . . . and it was F.W. de Clerk who really inspired them and moved them along; but they were still not comfortable with a black leader of South Africa, which I never thought would happen. Anyway, they were the worst of the Apartheid supporters. They were all rugby players and rugby fans. And there was a rugby tournament that ended up in South Africa by chance ________ by chance, unless you believe in something ________. And so the stadium basically had 100,000 screaming Africans . . . Afrikaanas there going for, cheering for the South African rugby team. And they were playing Germany, or France, or somebody like that in Johannesburg. And I’m sure there wasn’t three blacks in the crowd of 100,000. And if so they were just selling concessions or something like that. Anyway Nelson Mandela shows up that day, goes into the locker room at half time, says, “Come on. I hope you win this” and everything. And he says, “Can I wear one of your uniforms?” He puts on the uniform of the . . . of the rugby team, goes out, screams his lungs out for that. He is asked afterward, you know “How could you . . .?”

“These are our boys. These are out brothers. These are our . . .” After that time, and he said that at the time . . . After that time, they won the match. The leading team . . . I’m sure they were all ________. I shouldn’t say that; but I mean they were certainly for the white regime there. They took Mandela, put him on their shoulders, took him around, and everybody was not only shouting for the rugby victory, but the whole stadium . . . 110,000 people shouting, “Mandela! Mandela!” This was the symbolic move that said, “We’re all South Africans. These are my boys, and I want my boys to win out there. That’s a beautiful story. That is an exceptional leader. You know, I’m sure that when Mandela says, “I’m gonna go see the rugby match today,” his whole staff said, “You don’t wanna see a rugby match. Those aren’t our people. ________”

Recorded on: 7/2/07

Description: Zakheim, on what makes a great president.

Transcript:  Leaders tend to be people who react to situations.  You can’t go around saying, “I’m a leader.”  Nobody would have thought Harry Truman was a leader.  In retrospect, we think he is.  In fact, at the time, we didn’t think he was.  Look how Dwight Eisenhower has been re-evaluated over the years as well. I think a leader, first of all, has to be well-grounded.  He has to have a since of him or herself; needs to want something more than, “I want to be a leader.  I want to be president.”  We’ve had presidents like that – presidents who wanted to be president.  Well it’s not good enough.  A leader also ought to be a little more than just superficial.  And mouthing slogans is great and might get you elected, but it won’t make you a leader.  And finally, a leader has to be prepared to make unpopular decisions, and then know when a decision has become so unpopular that he’s gotta reverse himself . . . or herself.  The sense of balance . . .  You know you can lead the country, but if you lead the country over a cliff and the country doesn’t wanna go over a cliff, then you’ve gotta think twice about going over the cliff yourself.

Recorded on: 7/2/07

Description: A leader knows how to unlock potential.

Transcript: I’m impressed by the Nobel laureate from Africa whose projects was planting trees and getting other women in the village to plant trees. That’s very powerful. It starts with a small act, but it starts with finding what strength you have and what you can do. So my highest values have to do with unlocking the potential in people. I know that sounds a little “new age-y”, but it’s still a good thing to do! And it could be, if we’re lucky, the 21st century mode. We’ve been through several decades of cynicism where hard numbers drove out other kinds of thinking . . . where we had a little bit of greed in the United States because, well, people could. There was money to be made. And I’m hoping that we’ll enter an era of hope.

Recorded on: 6/13/07