You've now rated yourself on the 18 total leadership skills. You can also do this online. At this site it's free. What you'll find when you do that, you can offer this to your friends. Anyone can do it. What you'll find when you take that for a minute, self-assessment online, is that you will get a result that gives you a score up to 90. You could probably tally up your score right now and how you rated yourself on those 18 skills. If you scored 85 or above, then maybe you don't need this course, because you've got it down, and you're good at all of these skills. Now, maybe you inflated your ratings, I don't know, or maybe other people would rate you differently than you're rating yourself. But if you're scoring really high, like over 85, then the value in the rest of this course for you would be to see how these skills play out in the lives of these six remarkable people that I'm now about to introduce you to. Because what I'm going to be doing for the rest of this course is telling you a bit about these people. Share with you some episodes from their life histories that illustrate each of these skills. So for each of these six people, I'm going to describe, and illustrate three of the skills so that by the time we're done in module 4, you will have learned about these six people's lives, and careers, and how each one of them illustrates three of our skills. Along the way, I'm going to teach you an exercise that you can try to build the skill further in your own repertoire of leadership. Those are the tools that you're going to pick up that can help you to take yourself further. I hope you'll stay no matter what your score was on that assessment, which you may then want to look at some time down the road to see how you are improving. Or perhaps to ask other people to rate you as well to get their perspective. Let me tell you about these six people. Tom Tierney, Sheryl Sandberg, Eric Greitens, Michelle Obama, Julie Foudy, and Bruce Springsteen. Now if you take the assessment online, what you'll see at the end is one of these six people will pop up. Because what you'll see there is which of these six exemplary leaders has skills that are strengths similar to the ones that you rate yourself as having strengths. Are your strengths more like Tom Tierney's or Sheryl Sandberg's or Bruce Springsteen's or Michelle Obama's? To find out, do the self-assessment online. These are the six people whose stories I'm going to tell you, and they're real people. None of them started out with a lot of money. I don't think any one of them went to private school here in the United States. They're all Americans. But their stories I think are quite universal. They've all had failure in their lives. I'll talk a little bit about that. They've all grown to become the leaders that they are. Now you might not think of all these people as leaders. Part of my job here is to help you to see how indeed these people are, people of not just great significance in our society, in our world, but people who are leading the lives that they truly want. Even if it wasn't always that way, and they have had to learn through trial, and error along the way. Let me briefly introduce you to the six people. Over the weeks ahead, we're going to be digging into their stories, and seeing how they illustrate three of our 18 skills. Tom Tierney was the CEO of the consulting company, Bain & Company. When at 45 years old, he quit. Top of a global powerhouse consulting company, he decided to resign, and to start with a couple of other people, a not-for-profit called Bridgespan, which is dedicated to taking the intellectual capital of Bain, and applying it to the social sector. Thereby fulfilling his long-held dream of creating an organization that was going to really make a difference for society. Tom's story illustrates of the skills of envisioning your legacy. Weaving the disparate strands, and seeing new ways of doing things. Sheryl Sandberg, now known around the world are there when I first started writing about her and including her in my book about these six people. She wasn't a household name, but she has since become a household name because of her ascendance as one of the great business leaders in the world today as the Chief Operating Officer of Facebook, but also perhaps even more importantly, as the author of the book Lean In, which is about women's advancement in business and society. Sheryl Sandberg's remarkable biography illustrates the skills of conveying values with stories which she is so good at. Building networks of support, bringing people together to enrich her social capital and there's and resolving conflicts among the different domains, which she did famously well with her, now departed her late husband, Dave Goldberg, who was the CEO of Survey Monkey, until he tragically died just about a year-and-a-half ago from the time of this filming. We move from the business world to the world of public service with Eric Greitens. Eric was a Rhodes scholar who was doing work in war torn areas around the world providing humanitarian aid, when one of the people he was working with said to him words to this effect, "It's great that you're bringing this shelter and aid to us. But what we really need are people to protect us from those who are trying to destroy us." He became a warrior, he became a Navy Seal. He then fought in the global war on terror. When he returned, having won medals for his service there, he founded an organization called The Mission Continues, which enabled wounded veterans to create value in society despite their disability by serving in other ways here at home. The Mission Continues, grew to become one of the great veterans organizations here in the United States. Most recently, here's an update. Eric Greitens ran for governor of the State of Missouri and won. He's now the governor of the State of Missouri. Eric Greitens' story illustrates the total leadership skills of holding yourself accountable. It's hard to think of a better example of someone who decided to become a warrior, holding himself accountable to his belief that he was here to serve after being a humanitarian. Applying all your resources, you'll see in his story how he took what he learned early in his life and applied it to the building of the mission continues and focusing on results, which is something that he particularly exemplified as a commander in the Navy Seals, had a focus on results and be flexible about how to pursue them. The second person in the public service realm is Michelle Obama, who was First Lady of the United States and left that role as one of the most popular of all time. As someone who is held in high regard by men and women throughout the world and seen as a role model, although sometimes controversial figure. It's clear that her popularity is the result of her dignity and grace and compassion and leadership in pursuing initiatives like Reach Higher, which was her signature initiative in the last couple of years in the White House, encouraging people to pursue higher education, but also her work on fighting obesity had huge impact. Michelle Obama, a great leader in her own right, illustrates the skills of aligning your actions with your values of managing boundaries intelligently. In the story of how she managed the boundaries between family and work at the White House is one that many people tell and admire as a modern dual career couple under the white-hot spotlight of the entire world press, how they did that and how she led that and finally to embrace change courageously. Someone who is a naturally conservative person with respect to trying new things. She overcame that and how she did that is part of her story. Two business leaders, two people from the world of public service, and then we get to the world of sports and entertainment. Julie Foudy was a national soccer champion. She was on the women's team that won the World Cup over 25 years ago and then won medals in the Olympics but it's not her excellent world-class performance on the soccer pitch that brings her into this course and into our study, it's what she did to create positive change for women and girls through the work that she did in sport and as a representative of sports apparel companies. She challenged the status quo that was one of the skills that you'll see illustrated in her story as she stood up for gender parity in amateur sports and in professional sports. But she's also an exemplar of what it means to know what matters and the third skill that she illustrates, the be whole skill of helping others. You can see how in her initiatives especially beyond soccer her work has been all about helping others and why that's been a good thing for her and of course for the people that she's helped. Finally, the oldest of the lot is Bruce Springsteen. Now you might think Bruce Springsteen, a great leader? Yes, they call him the boss and it's for good reason. Here's someone who's now well into his 60s and who has global market share bigger than he's ever had with his band. The E street band but he's also seen as someone who stands for what he believes in and has had a positive impact, recently won the Presidential Medal of freedom and is widely regarded as someone who got strong political views and gives off his time and attention to many different causes and has inspired many millions of people around the world with his art and his creation of community. He illustrates the skills of embodying values consistently. Wherever he is he's pretty much the same person in terms of the values that he represents. He's also very good at the second skill that he illustrates his clarify expectations. He listens to his audiences, to his people, his band, his family and he changes as a result and he lets them know what's important to him too. He's very good at that skill and he's cultivated that over time, wasn't always very good at it. Finally creating cultures of innovation. Here's someone who is constantly innovating, stretching the boundaries of his art, and in doing so inspiring others to do the same. Especially the people in his band. When the E street band was awarded entry into the rock and roll hall of fame a couple of years ago. One of the members spoke directly to that issue of how Bruce served as an inspiration for them and constantly pushing them to be innovating themselves. Why did I choose these six people you might be thinking and you might also be thinking how am I going to be like them? They've got all the talent. good lucks, money, easy to be with, leading the life you want when you've got all that. Maybe you're thinking that or something like that. Let me tell you why I think these are useful people for us to learn more about. First of all, they provide evidence that you don't have to sacrifice your whole life to be successful in the public or professional realm. You'll see that these are people who have become really successful and have had significant impact on the world. Not by forsaking their families, their communities, their private selves but rather by embracing those parts of their lives. That's what gives them strength and persistence and support And that's something that all of us can learn from and benefit from. I also want you to choose not just three men, three women, and people on both sides of the political divide, as you'll see, they cover a wide range. People who are somewhat familiar, who you could look up to. Some of them you might feel more comfortable relating to than others. But all of them, each and every one of them, they learned over the course of time they failed and they grew. Just like you, just like me. They're conscious about the idea of trying to create a greater sense of harmony among the different parts of their lives. Again, some of these biographies might be more relatable. They might be more compelling to you than others. It's important to keep in mind though that they started regular people and they took themselves further. They discovered how to lead the lives they truly want. My hope is that you will learn from them, not copy them, but to see them as sources of inspiration and instruction. I'm going to provide bits of their stories and then teach you how each one of them illustrates three of the skills. There was some luck involved in what they have been able to achieve for sure, the gifts that they were born with, and the opportunities that they've had. But if you look at these six stories and others like them, and you probably know people who would fit this description as well. And indeed, I'm going to be asking you to tell us about the people that you know who also may not be world-famous, but who also illustrate the principles of being real, being whole, being innovative, and how they've pursued lines that have meaning and harmony. What you'll discover is that there are many people out there who succeed, not at the expense of the rest of the other parts of their lives, but because of their devotions to family, community and their private selves, their emotional health, physical health, spiritual growth. That is counter to the common wisdom that you often hear well, you have to sacrifice everything to be successful. What I'm here to tell you and help you to learn how to pursue in your own life, is that it doesn't have to be that way. Yes, of course, there is tragedy and disappointment and sorrow in all of our lives. I have experienced that, and I'm sure you have too. Each of these six people that I'm going to tell you about has as well. That said, it's also true that what they have discovered and what is possible for everyone is to move beyond balance, zero-sum thinking, to try on a new way of thinking about what's possible, and then to try some of these exercises that I'm going to teach you about that you can use to strengthen anyone or all of these 18 skills. So as we go through the stories which we're about to now do, I'd like you to think about questions that might arise as you're hearing. Again, just the some bits of each of their stories. How does Tom Tierney, what's his method for focusing on his legacy? How did Sheryl Sandberg commitment to creating connections between people, the Women of Silicon Valley, which I'll tell you about, how did that help her in the service of women's advancement at Facebook? When does Eric Greitens hold himself accountable for achieving meaningful results? And how does that help him to get other people to support him towards goals that matter to him? What did Michelle Obama do to manage the boundaries among her different roles and the boundary between work and family when they were living in the White House? Julie Foudy. How did she figure out what was important? And finally, what does Bruce Springsteen do to encourage innovation? These are questions and others that I'd like you to keep in mind as we go through their stories. So next up, we'll start with Tom Tierney.
