You the Changemaker: Mattering as Only You Can

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W FOURCY Radio. What's Working on
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this world we all want Working on
Purpose. Now, here's your host,

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Doctor Relise Cortes. Welcome back to
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tuning in again this week. Great
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meet are number one. I'm your
host, Doctor Relies Cortes. If we

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have not met before and you don't
know me, I'm an organizational psychologist and

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local therapist, speaker and author.
My team and I at Gusto Now help

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companies to enliven and fortify their operations
by building a culture and leadership activated by

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meaning and purpose. Our mission is
to help our clients create a destination workplace

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where people flock to join, are
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You can learn more abou us and
now we can work together at Gusto dashnow

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dot com or my personal site at
least quotes dot com. Now getting into

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today's program we have with us today. Alex budak He is a UC Berkeley

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faculty member, social entrepreneur, author
and speaker at UC Berkeley. He teaches

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His wildly popular course called Becoming a
Change Maker, directs the Berkeley host Global

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Access Program and teaches in Berkeley executive
education programs. He co founded Starts Some

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Good, which has helped over twelve
hundred change makers in over fifty countries raise

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millions of dollars to launch and scale
new change initiatives. He's slightly up to

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something. He is the author of
Becoming a Change Maker and Actionable Inclusive Guide

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to Deleting Positive Change at Any Level, which we're talking about on today's program.

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He joins today from Berkeley, California. Alex A hearty welcome to Working

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on Purpose. Please, thanks for
having me. Happy to be here,

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so great to have you. And
as I mentioned, I was in your

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neck of the woods when I was
reading this. I was right in Berkeley

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reading your book. As I said
to you, waiting for you to come

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into that cafe and sit down with
me and talk about your book. Well,

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we have to do it here anyway. So how's that perfect? I'll

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take it. Okay, Well,
let's crack into this. So you know

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you are clearly, you know,
riveted on this idea of making change.

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So where did the fascination come from? Well, like so many things.

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It's sort of like the Steve Jobs
commencement address, where it only makes sense

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looking backwards. I guess I've always
sort of found myself in areas of change.

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I grew up in the Silicon Valley
Bay area, so I've always kind

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of been around innovation and entrepreneurship.
But for better or works, it was

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just never driven to create something just
for the sake of money. That's fine

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if you are just that wasn't me. And so for me, it happened

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while I was living and working in
India that I first got introduced to the

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concept of social entrepreneurship. And that's
really what you do at least, and

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it's blending the idea of purpose off
it together. And so that so I

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kind of catalyzed my journey as a
social entrepreneur. My social ventures starts some

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good. I really aim to help
change makers make a difference in their community.

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But as I did that work,
I realized that, you know,

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some many my friends were social entrepreneurs
that loved being around social entrepreneurs. But

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I also recognize that we're a weird
bunch, We're not the typical people,

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and that not everyone can or should
be a social entrepreneur. It's one amazing

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way to make change, but far
from the only. And so as I

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reflect on that, started thinking,
what's a more inclusive way we can think

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about meeting change. How do we
think about empowering everyone to be an agent

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of change, not just the people
with a fancy title or that start their

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own organization. And so that's where
sort of building on my previous experience,

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my lived experience and sort all came
together and said, Yeah, change making,

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that's that's where I want to That's
where I want to be, and

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that's what I've dedicated the last fifteen
years or so of my life. I

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think it's fantastic. And I one
of my things that really causes me to,

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you know, really get the kogibis, if that is an actual word,

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is when I go into organizations and
I hear, well, that's just

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how we do things around here.
Oh my gosh, please don't say anything

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like that. So for you,
you've got a very unique perspective on change.

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Why do you think change making is
so important in the world. Well,

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there's both the macro reason and then
the micron reason. And so the

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macro reason and if you just look
at all the trends shaping our world today,

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from COVID which appeared on the scene
a few years ago, to climate

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to inequality. And you could say, like, hey, I just want

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to keep things the way that they
are, and I guess that that's comfortable.

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But as COVID showed us, if
we just try to stay the same,

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we might not exist for much longer. And so I think there's an

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imperative at just the macro scale that
the world is changing faster and faster than

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ever before, and it will also
never change this slowly ever again. So

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we've got to get comfortable with the
changes around us. You know, you

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could hope that things will slow down, you could wish things would change less,

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but that's not going to happen.
So that's the macro reason. Why.

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Then on the micro reason is I
believe it everyone can have a sense

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of meaning, a fulfillment of purpose, of belonging. And it's sad to

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me. It's understandable sometimes, but
it's sad to me when people just feel

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so beaten down by systems. And
again, there are really unfair, unjust

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systems, and there's plenty bureaucracies that
try to take that life out of us.

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But there's also that opportunity to sort
of turn on your own switch and

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say, look, change can be
a huge threat, and it's scary,

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but there's also opportunity in the threat. I love the word of the singer

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songwriter John Bias. She says action
is the antidote to despair. It's fair

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to say, look, don't feel
any despair, don't feel frustration, don't

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feel like things shouldn't changed. Feel
that, but then find a bias towards

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action, and then that action you
often find your meaning. Oh, Alex,

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I love that you know. In
the world of psychology, we have

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a fun word to describe what you're
talking about that and that is human agency.

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So when we can activate our own
sense of agency, yes, and

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it's incredibly energizing and fulfilling. So
yes, I am. It's one of

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the reasons I wanted to have you
in my program. I want more of

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these change makers that can actually exercise
that agency. So all right, So

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now we have to go next to
this wonderful part that I loved so much

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in your book about learning. How
it is that you know this now famous

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change making course that you teach at
UC Berkeley. But the way that it

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really began is fantastic. You were
really quite precocious. And how that came

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to be, I know the story
about our listeners and viewers don't. So

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if you could tell the story you
know of that, how it came to

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be, that you proposed that offered
it, and then how you actually created

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it, that'd be great. Yeah. I mean the story of life is

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so often there's a lot of luck, and there's also the people that are

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looking out for you. And I
think I had kind of a perfect storm

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there. Combined with what you said, you know, that idea of human

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agency, I think that's the underpinning. But I'd been in UC Berkeley's host

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School of Business for about a year
or so, and I found out that

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my role was getting changed, and
so I went into one of my mentor's

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offices. He happened to be the
person that oversaw all the faculty and all

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the curriculum at Berkeley HAAS, and
so we're kind of talking about my transition,

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what was my next step going to
be. But I think he could

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kind of tell that my heart wasn't
in it. He knew me to be

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very passionate, but I think he
saw that I wasn't really in it.

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And then he said to me,
just very directly, he had what do

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you really want to do? And
you know, in that moment, I

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just became super clear to me.
I said, well, I want to

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teach. And again, keep in
mind that I don't have a PhD.

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I'm not a traditional faculty member and
had never taught even at high school before.

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But to my surprise, instead of
shutting me down or telling me all

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of the dozens of reasons is not
a good idea, he said, okay,

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we want to teach. And again
it was very clear to me.

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I said, I want to teach
a class called becoming a change Maker.

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And I pretty much expected him to
say, like, okay, that's nice,

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but you know we're a business school, we're not going to teach that

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here. But again to my surprise, he said, okay, put together

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a syllabus, show it to me, and we'll go from there. And

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so I shook his hand, leaping
out of my seat, left his office,

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closed the door, and then literally
immediately googled how to create a syllabus.

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Because I didn't know what ey what
I was doing. I'd be too

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good an opportunity to fly by.
And so that was the beginning of it

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was someone that gave me a chance
and this clear sense of purpose of wanting

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to say, how can we create
a class help more people become change makers?

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Well, and then you go on, I love that story. Listeners

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and viewers just listen to that,
right, take some inspiration from that.

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If there's something you want to do, just be bold, be preroocious.

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You know my daughter, when she
was like five, she said, she

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came back from this summer camp.
She goes, Mom, I learned something

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today. You don't ask, you
don't get And I said, boy,

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you just remember that throughout your whole
life and you'll be just fine. But

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then it gets better because then you
actually create the course, and then the

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day comes when you're going to open
the doors for the first set of students

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and you're hoping there's going to be
a couple of people in there, and

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the thing is overflowing with students everywhere. So great, Alex. It brought

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me to tears, honestly, because
it's very meaningful to put your own self

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into the world in this way.
You do this with your books, you're

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speaking, That's what it's something about. You know, if I were teaching

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accounting class every school has an accounting
class, and that's important. That's not

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sort of deeply who I am.
This class was deeply who I am.

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My value is, my philosophy is
my belief in people that could be leaders.

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And so yeah, I opened up
that door and found that not only

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was every seatful, that there were
students sitting on the stairs, sitting on

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the windowsills, like people just wanted
to be part of this. And it

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wasn't me. It was just I
was tapping into something, this idea that

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these students were hungry for someone greater
than themselves. They had maybe this energy

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and enthusiasm, but they wanted a
sense of how do I turn that into

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real purpose? And that really crystallized
for me that this was a meaningful thing

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I was about to start, and
gave me so much meaning going forward to

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say, yeah, I'm serving these
students. Yeah, I really understand that

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when you create something of your own
and you present it and people really respond

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to it, there's nothing better than
that feeling. But that's exactly why.

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So you know what I got from
your share and what you said in the

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book is this is an indication of
how much people really want to matter.

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People don't want to go through life
hoping that they squeak under the radar screen

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and nobody notices they want to matter, which is why I put that into

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this episode title by the way.
So yeah, I think you were tapping

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into this craving that we all have
to matter, and of the work that

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I'm doing in the world too is
let's help more people do that by the

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way that we create our organizations and
our cultures and lead people. So,

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yes, brilliant alex, I want
to take yes to mattering and yes to

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feeling like they're connecting into something greater
than themselves. Yeah, you can have

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to make that in folks. Yeah. So then I just I like to

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what I do in this program is
I like to do a little bit of

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teaching. Of course, there's always
an inspirational component here, but there's a

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few things in your book that is
kind of wanted to pepper and bring forth.

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Obviously, we can't discuss everything in
your book because there's just so much

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in it, but I did want
you to cover off on the three fundamental

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building blocks that you talk about in
change making that I just think is really

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useful. Can we start there,
Yeah, absolutely, So. I mean

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we talked about having a change maker
of mindset. You know, we first

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start by recognizing that really change happens
at the edges of things. I'm in

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a university, and universities love this
idea of what's your major, what's your

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discipline? As you get a higher
pirap as professor, it's not just that

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you are, I don't know,
a psychology professor. You're an expert in

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the social psychology of small groups.
Like you get so hyper focused. But

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the truth is that any of the
meaningful problems we're going to solve won't be

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solved by anyone discipline, anyone approach, or anyone person. And so change

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makers learn to innovate at the edges, to find ways where one discipline starts

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the other begins, and that sort
of magic point in between. It's messy

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and it's not clear, but that's
where a lot of the magic happens.

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Then the second thing is learned hopefulness. I think in some of our circles

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we run the risk of something called
toxic positivity. That's the idea that you

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sort of like ignore all the problems, go, oh, don't worry,

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abo, Everyone's gonna be fine,
Like, don't worry. And that's not

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what I'm saying here. What I'm
saying is this idea of you've learned helplessness,

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kind of like you talked about with
someone that says, ah, that's

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just the way things are. But
learn hopefulness is the idea that, yeah,

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things are tough, but things can
be better. We can do something

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about it. You Recasula says that
hope isn't just something that you clutch,

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it's an ax used to break down
doors with. It's gonna be better and

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you can actually do something with it. And so that's how we can kind

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of start conceptualizing the change maker mindset
of how we in the world and how

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we see change around us. Yeah, and did you always already? Did

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I miss it? The first one
that had to is there's always another way?

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Did you already talk about that one? No, that's right. I

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can speak to that as well.
I love that, you know. That

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also speaks to how we open the
show. There's always another way to do

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something. Yeah, what we might
call it a possibility intelligence that it's so

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tempting to just go like, okay, it's either A or B. And

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once you get comfortable recognizing that the
world is complex, you actually see that

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it's not just CD. It's almost
infinite that there's always other ways. And

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I learned a lot of this from
one of my mentors. He's an entrepreneur,

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and he was so good at not
just taking the first offer that even

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when an offer was good, he'd
always explore, like he wouldn't just feel

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tempting to go what else can we
do there? What else is possible?

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I think this is actually being really
empathetic and listening to the other person.

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We think about, for instanceotiation,
we sometimes think the point of a negotiation

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is to win. I'm going to
beat that other person. I'm going to

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get as much as I can and
as little as they can. But actually

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the best negotiations are where you care
a lot about your own needs and about

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the other person's needs. And when
you do that, you find that it's

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not just a versus b that all
these new possibilities come out as a result

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the creative friction from new ideas coming
together. It's holding that space. It

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might take a little bit longer,
it might take a little more values work,

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might take a little focus on process, But once you start realizing that

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the world isn't as black and white, then you see it's not just sort

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of shades it great. It's actually
multi colored, like there's wonderful possibilities that

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are there if you're just willing to
see them. I love that, Alex,

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you know I love that. Now
for this next thing I wanted to

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have you speak to which really speaks
to this notion of how much change making

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is available to anyone and actually really
facilitates us. I love how you talk

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about there being three ways to rapidly
accelerate your career and your impact. Most

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everybody has a career, and most
everybody wants to make impacts. So let's

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just quickly talk about those three ways. It's a step point become a change

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maker. Yeah, absolutely, so
that's sort of the table stakes. Then

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the next one is can you surround
yourself with other people who are change makers?

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I say, like kind of all
things equal, If you think about

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a new job, can you join
a team that's filled with change makers?

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Can you find a manager who's a
change maker, someone who will champion you,

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who will get we'll see those possibilities
for you and you could be the

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most outstanding change maker. But I
see unfortunately a lot of folks that have

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that energy when they first enter the
workforce, get the kind of beaten out

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to them because they don't find the
community of change makers. So one become

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a change maker to surround yourself with
change makers. And the third and most

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powerful is help other people become change
makers. There's a saying I love,

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which is that when you teach,
one person teaches and two people learn,

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and so you're always learning. There's
no better way to learn than by teaching

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yourself. But also can you create
and catalyze those moments where other people become

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change makers too. An example here
I think about is Mohammed Unis. He's

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the Nobel Prize winner. He's often
thought of as the godfather, the founding

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father of microfinance, getting small loans
to people, especially women, especially in

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the Global South, that then allow
them to start businesses for their family with

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incredible repayment rates. So this was
thanks to COVID and again sort of that

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idea of seemore possibilities. He's an
idol of mine. I reached out to

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him and figured out, well,
at worst he'll say no, I can't

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come speak to your class. But
at best, hey, it's COVID.

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Maybe he'll just say yes, I'll
join virtually whatever. And he said yes,

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and as he spoke to my class, was we thought about his career.

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He often gets a lot of credit
for this sort of visionary idea,

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the way he revolutionized finance, but
actually what he did was empowered hundreds of

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thousands, maybe millions of people to
see themselves change makers, to give him

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that capital that they need. And
that's what those real ripples have. Change

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can happen, and that's so inspiring, the very stuff that we talk about

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in the show, Alex, thanks
for that beautiful example. Just before we

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go and break, let people think
about that. I am your host,

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doctor Release Cortes Vandier and talking with
Alex Budak. He is a UC Berkeley

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faculty member, social entrepreneur, author
and speaker. We've been talking a bit

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about where this idea, this fascination
with change making came from, and kind

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of getting into some of the crucial
elements of it. After the break,

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when you start talking about a few
of the concepts and tools you can start

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to fold into yourself to become your
own change maker. We'll be right back.

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Doctor Elise Cortez is a management consultant
specializing in meaning and purpose, an

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inspirational speaker and author. She helps
companies visioneer for a greater purpose among stakeholders

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and develop purpose inspired leadership and meaning
infused cultures that elevate fulfillment, performance,

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and commitment within the workforce. To
learn more or to invite at Lease to

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speak to your organization, please visit
her at Eliscortes dot com. Let's talk

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about how to get your employees working
on purpose. This is working on Purpose

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with doctor Elise Cortes. To reach
our program today or to open a conversation

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with Elise, send an email to
a lease a Lise at eliscortes dot com.

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Now back to working on purpose.
Thanks for saying with us, and

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welcome back to working on purpose.
And I'm your host, doctor Elise Cortes,

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as I too, am dedicated to
helping create a world where people realize

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their potential. At work, they
are realizing how they can matter. They're

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led by inspirational leaders that help them
find and contribute their greatness. And we

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do business at Betters in the world. I keep researching and writing my books,

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so my last one came out in
March of twenty twenty three. It's

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called The Great Revitalization. How activating
meaning and purpose can radically enliven your business,

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and I wrote it to help readers
understand the change lay of today's workforce,

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what do they want and need to
stay with you, and then it

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offers twenty two best projects is to
help you fold into your culture to actually

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make that. So you can find
more about it at at leastcore test dot

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com or on Amazon if you are
just joining us now. My guest is

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Alex Buddak. He is the author
of Becoming a Change Maker, an actionable,

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inclusive guide to leading positive change at
any level. Okay, so Alex,

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let's get into some of the nuts
and Bulturo again. One of the

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things I love about your book is
that you're teaching us some things, but

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then you give us these tools and
concepts that we can really start to work

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for ourselves. So the first one
that I wanted to talk about here and

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I love this. I think this
is so so important again going back to

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the beginning of the show, is
talking about the idea of questioning the status

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quo. It's one of the values
of Berkeley Haas. It's literally written into

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the cement in front of our buildings. And so when I found myself there,

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I thought, this is this is
a place that I want to be.

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And as we think about the world
today, there's a lot of status

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quoes that need to be disrupted.
When you step into your workforce, there's

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a lot of status quothes, a
lot of things that are done. And

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you know, like you said,
someone asks you, why do we do

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things? Oh, it's the way
it's done. It's the way it's always

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been until we need books that are
willing to sort of shake up the status

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quo and to have the courage to
question it. Now, as we think

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about it, I think there's first
a framework that comes from social psychology that's

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helpful. It's called idiosyncrasy credits.
This is the work of Edward Hollander,

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kind of a classic social psychologist,
And what I often hear from students and

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executives is they want to question the
status quo, but they think they won't

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be well received. So Hollander tells
us that you can earn these idiosyncrasy credits.

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These are little credits you can use
to diverge from group norms. Everyone's

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going one way, you can go
the other. How do you earn these?

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You earn these through two ways.
One is through competence, by doing

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good work. You know, if
you trove on their first day of work

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and you try to question everything,
people go, who is this person?

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Why should we trust them? So
you've got to first do competent good work.

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The second one is that you go
along with the flow on some things.

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Think of this as sort of picking
your battle. If there's some questions

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of status quot on literally everything,
people won't know if you're actually serious about

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it, if you're just a contrarian. So instead the idea is, maybe

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there's ten things you want to change, there's two you really care about,

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Well, let those other it go, you know, let them be,

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and then focus your energy on the
two. So that's a helpful framing perhaps

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to know like how and when you
decide to go about questioning the status quo.

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Then the other tool I'll suggest is
a mental framework of zigging when others

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zag. So oftentimes when you see
everyone going in one direction, with one

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trend, one approach, there's often
opportunity going the opposite way. If everyone

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in your industry is going low price, cheap margins, shaving out every penny

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that they can, well maybe there's
an opportunity to stand out in another way.

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If every company is going, let's
cut our customer support and just go

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all AI. Well, maybe there's
an opportunity to really go deep and human,

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so really invest in your indo street
what makes sense. But change makers

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are comfortable with seeing, Okay,
everyone's going one way, and sometimes we

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feel pressure go oh, if everyone's
going that way, it must be the

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right way. Maybe, but often
there's big opportunity if you can zig when

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others that. I love that.
I just think there's so much utility in

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that, especially as a change maker. So I love that tool. That's

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interesting. Now, the next one
that I thought was I thought was to

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be quite interesting and compelling, and
I don't know why I was so surprising

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to see it there. But the
concept that you talk about over the tool

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is confidence without attitude. I'm a
deep believer in humility. I lived in

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Stockholm, Sweden for three years,
and Scanning even culturally values humility, and

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I've always been someone who values humility. You can imagine being in Silicon Valley

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that's maybe not the most humble of
places, right, a lot of place,

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but in Scannavia I saw well,
no, actually, humility can be

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a strength. And I think that
a lot of Americans really get this wrong.

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The sounds. We think that humility
is a weakness. It means people

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will walk all over us. But
I think at its core, I think

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of it the way that Clayton Christians
and the classic professor from Harvard thought about

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it, which is that to truly
be humble you see the very best in

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others. You can only do that
if you feel good about yourself. So

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I see confidence in humility actually going
hand in hand. I teach at business

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school, and not everyone, of
course, is humble. We see a

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lot of people that have that sort
of allse bravado. You're the ones that

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always want to hear their voice.
The people that raise their hand start speaking,

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They don't know what they're going to
say, and they just figure I'll

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figure it out as I go.
And sometimes my more humble students are intimidated

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by that. But a lot of
times when people are like that, they're

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sort of overly boisterous. It actually
belies a lack of self confidence. That's

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right, Yes, the true confidence
comes from knowing yourself, knowing your values,

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knowing who you are, knowing that
it's okay to be quiet sometimes if

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it's in service of something else.
The way I think about confidence without attitude

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is a both and that in order
to be an effective leader, you have

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to have the confidence. You've got
to be confident enough to stand up and

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say, look, I want to
fight for this change. I believe in

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this. Here's my vision. Come
along with me. That takes a lot

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of confidence, but it also requires
humility to have other people listen to you,

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to listen to them, to be
open to their ideas. There's an

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idea I just recently read about which
I love. This comes from the work

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of Bob Sutton and Huggy Row at
Stanford University and they talk about this idea

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of flexing the hierarchy. We often
think that it's either or right again,

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change me here seeing possibilities, so
that either we have a very strict hierarchy

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it's the CEO, the senior vice
president, the vice president all the way

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down, or we have this completely
flat egalitarian organization. And the truth is

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neither of those work. You don't
want one that's either or what you want

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as a leader that can flex the
hierarchy. So an example you might think

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about is maybe it's the Navy seals
and they're due to military exercise. Well,

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in the middle of the exercise,
you need to be pretty top down.

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You need to have the person who's
in charge giving commands, tell people

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where to go, having the plan. But then once you get into let's

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say the post mortem, where you're
wrapping up and say what worked, what

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didn't work, But then you can
be totally flat. Then you want everyone's

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voices. And so I think leaders
often feel pressure to either the top down

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leader or that everyone's equal leader.
But I think actually you want to flex

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the hierarchy, and you do so
having confidence without attitude, the confidence to

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stand up. But it's the humility
to listen and be up to others.

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I think that is a beautifully render
at Alex. In fact, when I

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was reading that section of your book, I texted a friend of mine and

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I told him about the humility aspect
of this, and I said, this

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is you, this is how you
lead. And he is a very very

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high level executive and organization has a
lot of authority, and he brings that

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beautiful humility. He's radically altered the
course of the organization just because of his

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presence. So thank you, profound, because I think often it's the humble

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00:25:59.640 --> 00:26:02.920
leaders, some of the quieter leaders
that maybe you don't get that craz that

409
00:26:02.960 --> 00:26:07.839
they are leaders. But we tend
to overvalue what we traditionally think of as

410
00:26:07.839 --> 00:26:10.720
a leader. And I've seen so
many folks in my work, especially with

411
00:26:10.799 --> 00:26:14.759
teams and organizations, where there are
these amazing leaders, people who get things

412
00:26:14.839 --> 00:26:17.160
done, but you ask them,
are you a leader? And they don't.

413
00:26:17.200 --> 00:26:18.720
Oh, no, I mean I'm
not. But the truth is that

414
00:26:18.759 --> 00:26:22.319
they actually are. And so the
need to raise up those folks who are

415
00:26:22.400 --> 00:26:26.319
humble. I think that's a wonderful
thing. It really is, and it's

416
00:26:26.319 --> 00:26:30.119
so refreshing, and you know,
there's increasingly you know, you can't really

417
00:26:30.160 --> 00:26:34.359
read anything about leadership today without seeing
something about emotional intelligence or empathy, which

418
00:26:34.400 --> 00:26:37.200
is where I want to go next. And so you know, I am.

419
00:26:37.279 --> 00:26:41.079
That's one of the things that I'm
doing Alex with with my consultancy is

420
00:26:41.119 --> 00:26:45.119
we are doubling down on humanity.
We are we are teaching organizations and their

421
00:26:45.160 --> 00:26:49.880
people how to access their greater humanity, their greater emotional spectrum, their greater

422
00:26:51.359 --> 00:26:56.119
spiritual relational spectrum, you know,
across their lives. So where I wanted

423
00:26:56.160 --> 00:26:57.319
to go next, And by the
way, I had so many people when

424
00:26:57.319 --> 00:27:00.359
I was in California helped me so
much. My foot and I've been hobbling

425
00:27:00.359 --> 00:27:04.559
around. As I mentioned, talk
about empathy, people really reaching out to

426
00:27:04.559 --> 00:27:08.799
be empathetic with me. So I
was really intrigued, especially as I was

427
00:27:08.920 --> 00:27:11.640
experiencing all that as I was reading
your book while I was in California,

428
00:27:11.920 --> 00:27:15.519
when I read about this empathy exercise
that you have your students do. Let's

429
00:27:15.599 --> 00:27:19.559
talk about that. Tell us how
you set this up and what it is

430
00:27:19.680 --> 00:27:23.480
you are wanting the students to get
out of it. It's fascinating. Thanks.

431
00:27:23.559 --> 00:27:26.039
Ye. First, it might be
helpful just to identify there's actually three

432
00:27:26.039 --> 00:27:30.880
parts of empathy. We started to
think about empathy as one concept, actually

433
00:27:30.880 --> 00:27:34.720
three things. So the first is
being able to recognize expressions and emotions in

434
00:27:34.759 --> 00:27:38.519
others, right like meeting another person. Yeah. The second one is being

435
00:27:38.519 --> 00:27:42.480
able to share emotional states. So
if you maybe go to counseling, your

436
00:27:42.519 --> 00:27:45.079
therapist is probably very good at that's
right. They can kind of see where

437
00:27:45.079 --> 00:27:48.480
you're feeling, feel those those emotions. Great managers can do this. And

438
00:27:48.480 --> 00:27:52.200
then the third is really being able
to put yourself in someone else's shoes see

439
00:27:52.240 --> 00:27:56.599
things from their perspective. And I
want to again just make very clear that

440
00:27:56.640 --> 00:28:00.240
empathy is not the same as sympathy
with them. It just means you're able

441
00:28:00.279 --> 00:28:03.759
to see things from where they are. And so I really want my students

442
00:28:03.759 --> 00:28:07.559
focus on this third one, this
idea of seeing things from another perspective.

443
00:28:07.680 --> 00:28:12.440
I recognize that in leading change,
there's inevitably going to be conflict. It's

444
00:28:12.480 --> 00:28:15.559
going to happen if you're questioning the
status quo. There will be people who

445
00:28:15.680 --> 00:28:19.319
just prefer the status quo. So
conflict is inevitable, and so I want

446
00:28:19.359 --> 00:28:26.759
to prepare my students for thinking how
do they approach that conflict in thoughtful and

447
00:28:26.759 --> 00:28:30.920
effective ways. And so we do
this experiment, and I actually think it

448
00:28:30.920 --> 00:28:33.680
works better to write it down rather
than just think in your head. So

449
00:28:33.720 --> 00:28:37.599
we begin by asking students to just
come up with a recent frustrating experience.

450
00:28:37.960 --> 00:28:40.359
It could be small. It could
be as small as I know someone cuts

451
00:28:40.400 --> 00:28:44.119
you off while driving. Could be
something that's a more stemic issue. Maybe

452
00:28:44.160 --> 00:28:48.079
your boss always interrupts you at work
when you're talking, and once you just

453
00:28:48.119 --> 00:28:49.920
like really sit with that kind of
feel those emotions. I get them to

454
00:28:51.000 --> 00:28:55.400
feel that frustration, that sadness,
that anger. Then the part that's maybe

455
00:28:55.400 --> 00:28:59.079
the most fun is I go,
okay, let your most judgmental self out

456
00:28:59.680 --> 00:29:02.599
nil with your judgments. You know, make all the worst judgments you can

457
00:29:02.720 --> 00:29:07.400
about someone. If someone cuts you
off driving, well, they're just titled

458
00:29:07.400 --> 00:29:10.079
and obnoxious and rich, and you
know whatever it is that you want to

459
00:29:10.119 --> 00:29:14.680
say. And soon as obviously like
that part. Then I asked the question,

460
00:29:14.960 --> 00:29:17.359
and I go, okay, so
you've made these assumptions out someone,

461
00:29:18.240 --> 00:29:22.839
Is it true? And there's sort
of a moment of silence. Then I

462
00:29:22.920 --> 00:29:26.480
go, okay, ask yourself this
question. Is it one hundred percent absolutely

463
00:29:26.480 --> 00:29:30.400
true? There's no possibility that you
are wrong, that your judgments of them

464
00:29:30.440 --> 00:29:33.920
are exactly one hundred percent correct,
And I go, if you are,

465
00:29:34.119 --> 00:29:37.279
well, cool, then you're done
with the exercise. You've done it.

466
00:29:37.759 --> 00:29:41.400
But if there's even point oh one
percent chance that you're wrong, well then

467
00:29:41.440 --> 00:29:45.680
let's continue on. And now that
we've made the worst assumptions about someone,

468
00:29:45.079 --> 00:29:48.440
now we put ourselves in their shoes
and say, you know, where might

469
00:29:48.599 --> 00:29:52.720
they be coming from? And you're
not saying that you know for sure,

470
00:29:52.799 --> 00:29:56.960
you just imagine what the scenario could
be. Then you still with that for

471
00:29:56.960 --> 00:30:00.400
a little longer. I try to
help them elevate to understand like where that

472
00:30:00.480 --> 00:30:03.960
person's coming from. But then think
in terms of values. So once we

473
00:30:04.000 --> 00:30:08.359
give to a values level, values
are neutral. It's not good or bad.

474
00:30:08.359 --> 00:30:12.240
It's how we operationalize the values.
I think all of us, to

475
00:30:12.279 --> 00:30:17.799
some extent value security or efficiency.
They most show up in different ways we

476
00:30:17.839 --> 00:30:21.400
don't like, but we all like
those things. And so we think about

477
00:30:21.440 --> 00:30:23.440
someone who's I don't know, cutting
you off at work, not when you

478
00:30:23.480 --> 00:30:27.000
speak, Well, maybe they're valuing
efficiency. Maybe it's not a good way

479
00:30:27.000 --> 00:30:30.480
of putting that into practice, but
that's what they're valuing. Once we move

480
00:30:30.519 --> 00:30:33.480
to this sort of values level,
it allows you to speak to them at

481
00:30:33.480 --> 00:30:38.319
a more human level. Again,
sympathy not empathy not the same thing.

482
00:30:38.400 --> 00:30:41.519
Doesn't mean you have to agree with
them. You're just being able to see

483
00:30:41.559 --> 00:30:44.720
things from where they are, and
you can still totally disagree with them.

484
00:30:44.759 --> 00:30:48.519
You can still think that their behavior
is reprehensible. We can at least understand

485
00:30:48.559 --> 00:30:52.359
where they're coming from and then asking
the question, Okay, now that you've

486
00:30:52.400 --> 00:30:55.680
identify this, what make you do
differently? And we found that he is

487
00:30:55.720 --> 00:31:00.839
doing this slow experiment which takes five
seven minutes. It's one thing to go,

488
00:31:00.920 --> 00:31:04.319
oh yeah, I'm an empathetic person. When you deeply empathize with someone

489
00:31:04.359 --> 00:31:08.400
who really annoys you, it forces
you to actually sit with the complexity of

490
00:31:08.400 --> 00:31:15.200
the human experience and then to go
forward with new perspectives. I just think

491
00:31:15.200 --> 00:31:18.640
that's incredibly powerful. And then you've
said that you've seen students just on a

492
00:31:18.720 --> 00:31:22.079
verge of tears as they realize that
what it seemed like an intradubal problem,

493
00:31:22.119 --> 00:31:26.240
including a room matus or whatever it
was, suddenly they start to see that

494
00:31:26.319 --> 00:31:30.359
there's something else happening here. It
opens something talk about that possibilities might set

495
00:31:30.400 --> 00:31:33.400
you were mentioning before. So that's
incredibly powerful that you have your students do

496
00:31:33.480 --> 00:31:37.039
that. So oh, I couldn't. I couldn't let you go without us

497
00:31:37.039 --> 00:31:41.200
talking about that. All right,
let's grab our next break. I am

498
00:31:41.240 --> 00:31:44.720
Alice Cortez. We've been on the
air with Alex Budek. He is a

499
00:31:44.799 --> 00:31:48.279
UC Berkeley faculty member, social entrepreneur, author and speaker. We've been talking

500
00:31:48.279 --> 00:31:53.160
about some of the crucial concepts and
tools in his book to help you become

501
00:31:53.160 --> 00:31:56.319
a change maker. After the break, we're going to get into the idea

502
00:31:56.359 --> 00:32:15.839
that he has reinventing leadership. Will
be right back, Doctor Elise Cortes is

503
00:32:15.839 --> 00:32:21.759
a management consultant specializing in meaning and
purpose. An inspirational speaker and author,

504
00:32:22.039 --> 00:32:27.559
she helps companies visioneer for greater purpose
among stakeholders and develop purpose inspired leadership and

505
00:32:27.680 --> 00:32:31.519
meaning infused cultures that elevate fulfillment,
performance, and commitment within the workforce.

506
00:32:31.880 --> 00:32:36.480
To learn more or to invite a
lease to speak to your organization, please

507
00:32:36.599 --> 00:32:40.079
visit her at elisecortes dot com.
Let's talk about how to get your employees

508
00:32:40.160 --> 00:32:51.039
working on purpose. This is working
on Purpose with doctor Elise Cortes. To

509
00:32:51.119 --> 00:32:54.119
reach our program today or to open
a conversation with Elise, send an email

510
00:32:54.200 --> 00:33:00.880
to a lease A l I s
at elisecortes dot com. Now back to

511
00:33:00.000 --> 00:33:08.119
working on purpose. Thanks for staying
with us, and welcome back to working

512
00:33:08.119 --> 00:33:12.079
on Purpose. I'm your host,
doctor Lei's Cortes. As I mentioned in

513
00:33:12.079 --> 00:33:15.200
the last break that my latest book
came out in March of twenty twenty three,

514
00:33:15.559 --> 00:33:17.640
called The Great Vitalization. What I
did for you, since that's a

515
00:33:17.680 --> 00:33:22.680
book about creating optimal culture is I
gave you on my website a three page

516
00:33:22.759 --> 00:33:25.759
assessment that you can download so it'll
be able to help you understand the extent

517
00:33:25.799 --> 00:33:30.680
to which your organization is meeting the
discerning standards of today's workforce. You can

518
00:33:30.680 --> 00:33:36.000
find it at gustodashnow dot com if
you are just now joining us. My

519
00:33:36.039 --> 00:33:38.160
guest is Alex Budek. He is
the author of Becoming a Change Maker,

520
00:33:38.359 --> 00:33:43.720
an actionable, inclusive guide to a
leading positive change at any level. So,

521
00:33:43.920 --> 00:33:46.720
I, as a person who helps
develop, especially inspirational leaders I was

522
00:33:46.759 --> 00:33:52.200
really intrigued at your idea of in
reinventing leadership. So let's go there next.

523
00:33:52.440 --> 00:33:54.160
If you want to first talk about
how you define leadership before you get

524
00:33:54.160 --> 00:33:59.240
there, Oh, sure, Samy. I define leadership just simply as making

525
00:33:59.400 --> 00:34:02.319
meaningful things happen through and with other
people. I love it. It's so

526
00:34:02.480 --> 00:34:07.880
christ Yeah. We often like to
think about well characteristics or personality types or

527
00:34:07.920 --> 00:34:10.159
things like that, but no,
I think it's actually about how do you

528
00:34:10.199 --> 00:34:14.280
do meaningful things through and with others. Let's keep it simple, let's keep

529
00:34:14.320 --> 00:34:16.000
it open, and then let's create
on top of that. Mm hm.

530
00:34:17.039 --> 00:34:22.519
So I love that. So then
you do talk about four different aspects that

531
00:34:22.559 --> 00:34:28.639
you believe we need in the twenty
first century leadership skills. So you know

532
00:34:28.679 --> 00:34:31.920
that's your idea of reinventing leadership.
Yes, that's right. I guess I

533
00:34:31.920 --> 00:34:36.280
could share where it comes from,
which is that when I first began my

534
00:34:37.079 --> 00:34:40.000
career in academia running a leadership center
for Berkeley Haas. And I love this

535
00:34:40.159 --> 00:34:45.159
because it gave me the wonderful excuse
to reach out to all these people,

536
00:34:45.239 --> 00:34:49.719
these leaders I admired, and people
who would honestly never take my call otherwise.

537
00:34:49.960 --> 00:34:52.599
But because I came from a center, they were willing to sit down

538
00:34:52.599 --> 00:34:55.320
with me, have coffee for lunch, and I got to just have conversations.

539
00:34:55.360 --> 00:34:57.880
You know, at least it's a
little bit like what you get to

540
00:34:57.920 --> 00:35:00.639
do, just talk with interesting people, and I got to ask some questions,

541
00:35:00.639 --> 00:35:04.599
you know, how did you develop
your own model of leadership? And

542
00:35:04.639 --> 00:35:07.920
what was so interesting to me was
that I found that the number one reason,

543
00:35:08.039 --> 00:35:13.840
by far is that they had experienced
bad leadership that experiences they're a boss,

544
00:35:13.880 --> 00:35:16.519
a leader who didn't make them feel
good, they weren't inclusive, or

545
00:35:16.679 --> 00:35:21.239
they did something that just wasn't right, and they made the conscious decision to

546
00:35:21.280 --> 00:35:23.719
do things differently. And I really
love that because again, it's about to

547
00:35:23.719 --> 00:35:28.639
finding that human agency that we find
in a lot of toxic cultures. This

548
00:35:28.800 --> 00:35:32.719
idea of a bad culture gets passed
from the vice president down to the manager.

549
00:35:32.800 --> 00:35:36.719
Then the manager becomes the vice president
and they go, well, that's

550
00:35:36.719 --> 00:35:39.360
how we do things here, and
so continue those toxic behaviors. There's an

551
00:35:39.360 --> 00:35:45.880
actually wonderful agency and freedom that comes
from saying, no, that's not how

552
00:35:45.880 --> 00:35:47.639
it should be, and I'm going
to choose my own model, and so

553
00:35:47.679 --> 00:35:53.119
I invite change maker leaders to actually
learn from those bad experiences and then choose

554
00:35:53.159 --> 00:35:57.960
new things differently. I love that
you brought that up, because when I

555
00:35:58.000 --> 00:36:00.159
was doing my research on meaning and
work and identity, which is part of

556
00:36:00.199 --> 00:36:04.480
the basis of these fifteen mods of
engagement, that I found people talked about

557
00:36:04.480 --> 00:36:07.679
that a lot. When I asked
them about their choices and such and what

558
00:36:07.719 --> 00:36:09.880
they found either meaningful or not.
They would talk about these people that were

559
00:36:09.920 --> 00:36:14.920
bad experiences, and I came to
describe those people because they had a role

560
00:36:14.960 --> 00:36:19.280
in their life. I call those
people the anti role models, and people

561
00:36:19.280 --> 00:36:22.159
are like, yes, that's it, that's exactly what they were. Show

562
00:36:22.239 --> 00:36:25.320
me who I don't want to be. Yeah, that's right, And there's

563
00:36:25.519 --> 00:36:29.960
there's real power in that in choosing
your own path. There's a chapter of

564
00:36:30.000 --> 00:36:34.000
the book which is called Become the
leader you wish you had. Yes,

565
00:36:35.000 --> 00:36:37.760
yeah, there's power in that.
And by the way, that's a nice

566
00:36:37.760 --> 00:36:40.480
little framework for doing a lot of
things. You know. It's become the

567
00:36:40.559 --> 00:36:44.599
parent you wish you had, it's
becoming the friend you wish you had,

568
00:36:44.719 --> 00:36:47.559
Become the coworker you wish you had. You can't take with the bad things

569
00:36:47.599 --> 00:36:51.000
that happened to you, You do
have a choice in terms of what you

570
00:36:51.039 --> 00:36:53.800
do going forward, and can often
inform how you want to show up.

571
00:36:55.519 --> 00:36:59.679
Indeed, And so you know,
what I think is interesting is I think

572
00:36:59.679 --> 00:37:02.760
sometimes people, well, one thing, people conflate leadership and management. And

573
00:37:02.800 --> 00:37:07.639
we're talking about leadership here, and
I appreciate that you outline four steps to

574
00:37:07.840 --> 00:37:12.039
reinventing leadership. So let's let's talk
about those. They're very I think they're

575
00:37:12.119 --> 00:37:15.960
very simple and incredibly actionable, but
they're still there are a lot of meat

576
00:37:16.000 --> 00:37:20.320
in them too. You get throw
each to be one at a time,

577
00:37:20.360 --> 00:37:22.800
and then I can yeah, okay, So the first one that I want

578
00:37:22.840 --> 00:37:24.360
you to talk about, if you
would, is just stop waiting for permission.

579
00:37:24.360 --> 00:37:29.480
Don't wait for somebody to hire you
as a leader or to give you

580
00:37:29.519 --> 00:37:31.960
the role as a leader. Just
stop waiting for permission. Yeah, if

581
00:37:31.960 --> 00:37:37.639
we keep waiting for that magical moment, we're finally a leader where someone tapsus

582
00:37:37.679 --> 00:37:39.559
on the shoulder and goes, okay, you and toiling away really hard for

583
00:37:39.599 --> 00:37:44.760
twenty five years ago, your leadership
here, then them will never happen.

584
00:37:44.840 --> 00:37:45.760
Sorry, it's not going to happen. So then you need to be waiting

585
00:37:45.800 --> 00:37:50.599
and waiting and waiting, and instead
you can actually find give yourself that permission

586
00:37:50.679 --> 00:37:52.719
to step up. Now, of
course, that doesn't mean that you're going

587
00:37:52.800 --> 00:37:54.320
to walk into the CEO's office and
go, here's all the things you're doing

588
00:37:54.320 --> 00:37:59.000
wrong. Let me tell you.
The point is that you find that permission

589
00:37:59.079 --> 00:38:01.239
to sort of step up, to
go beyond things. And maybe it's that

590
00:38:01.320 --> 00:38:04.719
your manager gives you a task and
goes, hey, I want you to

591
00:38:04.760 --> 00:38:06.679
do it this way, and okay, yeah, I'll do it that way.

592
00:38:06.679 --> 00:38:07.719
But also by the way, I
did what you asked. And here's

593
00:38:07.719 --> 00:38:10.320
the other thing that I did which
I thought would be helpful, or here's

594
00:38:10.320 --> 00:38:13.199
someone else. The things we should
talk to are but compiled a list of

595
00:38:13.199 --> 00:38:16.440
ten folks we should give this presentation
to. Those are things that very rarely

596
00:38:16.559 --> 00:38:20.480
will a manager tell you, oh, you went too far. If you

597
00:38:20.519 --> 00:38:22.239
did, fine, scale back a
little bit. But giving yourself that permission

598
00:38:22.239 --> 00:38:27.360
instead of waiting for it change the
whole identity. When you start seeing yourself

599
00:38:27.400 --> 00:38:29.639
as a leader. You know,
I say that the leadership is not a

600
00:38:29.719 --> 00:38:32.599
title, leadership is an act,
and so give yourself that permission to actually

601
00:38:32.599 --> 00:38:37.480
step up and serve. And there's
so much value add in that too,

602
00:38:37.559 --> 00:38:40.679
So we had to start there.
Now. The second one that I think

603
00:38:40.760 --> 00:38:45.880
is really incredibly powerful and I think
horribly underutilized, is you talk about the

604
00:38:45.920 --> 00:38:50.519
leadership skill of leveraging the power of
networks. Yeah, we often as leaders

605
00:38:50.559 --> 00:38:54.239
want to make everything about us.
Julius Ze wrote a great article in Stanford's

606
00:38:54.239 --> 00:39:00.119
Social Innovation Review talking about the most
impactful leaders we've never heard of. The

607
00:39:00.199 --> 00:39:02.599
concepts is that you want to be
a node, not a hub. In

608
00:39:02.679 --> 00:39:06.760
other words, a hub is where
all the energy is swirling around you.

609
00:39:06.639 --> 00:39:09.760
You are central to everything. But
instead be a node. Be helpful.

610
00:39:10.079 --> 00:39:14.559
You plug into things where you can
be of service to others where you can.

611
00:39:15.039 --> 00:39:17.800
This is the lesson I learned the
hardway myself as an entrepreneur in the

612
00:39:17.840 --> 00:39:22.679
early days of start some good.
I would judge myself based on how often

613
00:39:22.760 --> 00:39:28.440
did my team come to me for
advice for making a decision for them,

614
00:39:28.679 --> 00:39:30.960
And on that measure, I was
doing really well because they were constantly coming

615
00:39:31.000 --> 00:39:36.880
to me. But what I realized
is that I'd become a huge bottleneck to

616
00:39:36.960 --> 00:39:39.199
our team. That they're asking me
everything to like what do you think about

617
00:39:39.199 --> 00:39:42.800
this tweet we're about to send?
And I thought I was doing great,

618
00:39:42.840 --> 00:39:45.320
but actually I was slowing our team
down. I realized that our team had

619
00:39:45.360 --> 00:39:50.639
become like a merry garound, that
I was the poll firmly in the center,

620
00:39:50.880 --> 00:39:53.480
and there's all these activities swirling around
me, but we weren't going anywhere.

621
00:39:54.159 --> 00:39:57.960
And so it wasn't until I stepped
back and gave my team power and

622
00:39:58.119 --> 00:40:00.599
realized that I want to judge myself
based on how many decisions do I not

623
00:40:00.800 --> 00:40:05.199
need to make? Can I set
the vision and the values so that they

624
00:40:05.280 --> 00:40:07.199
know the right decision to make?
The one we want to make is a

625
00:40:07.199 --> 00:40:10.159
team that's in line with where we
want to take this company, and they

626
00:40:10.159 --> 00:40:13.800
don't need me. And that's when
we started taking off. Was once I

627
00:40:13.880 --> 00:40:15.679
get myself out of the way.
So being a node not a hub.

628
00:40:16.239 --> 00:40:21.280
You were elevating everyone. That's fantastic. I love that. Okay, Then

629
00:40:21.159 --> 00:40:23.360
the third one is that you talk
about it is the three v's of leading

630
00:40:23.440 --> 00:40:28.400
with purpose, our vision, values, and victories. I love that.

631
00:40:28.400 --> 00:40:32.800
That's a fantastic combination, especially the
last one. Yeah, those change makers

632
00:40:32.840 --> 00:40:36.880
as leaders. One of the greatest
gifts we can give to those on our

633
00:40:36.880 --> 00:40:40.239
teams is giving them a sense of
purpose. I think people you've written about

634
00:40:40.239 --> 00:40:43.360
this, you talk about this.
I people are hungry for a sense of

635
00:40:43.360 --> 00:40:46.559
purpose, and one an amazing thing
you can give to have someone feel like

636
00:40:46.719 --> 00:40:52.599
their work matters, that their contributions
matter, and purpose unlocks that. But

637
00:40:52.639 --> 00:40:53.599
it's not as simple. It's just
sort of saying, oh, we're going

638
00:40:53.639 --> 00:40:57.360
to have a culture of purpose,
and so I really say, like to

639
00:40:57.519 --> 00:41:00.360
create that. There's three v's.
So the first it's I had to find

640
00:41:00.480 --> 00:41:06.199
vision is painting a picture of the
future that's so compelling that people can't help.

641
00:41:06.280 --> 00:41:08.519
But when we part it with you
and you know, there's a story

642
00:41:08.559 --> 00:41:12.880
which I think is apocryphal, but
I like it to exemplify this, which

643
00:41:13.360 --> 00:41:16.639
goes a journalist was walking through the
halls of NASA and she finds a janitor,

644
00:41:16.920 --> 00:41:20.960
and she asks the janitor what do
you do for a living? And

645
00:41:21.280 --> 00:41:25.400
just to be clear, janitors do
really important and totally underappreciated work, which

646
00:41:25.400 --> 00:41:28.199
she goes, you know, what
do you do for a living And he

647
00:41:28.320 --> 00:41:32.199
goes, I help latch rockets into
space. Is the guy that's so bought

648
00:41:32.199 --> 00:41:36.920
into the mission and vision of NASA
that he sees how his work, however

649
00:41:36.960 --> 00:41:40.480
removed, is connected in your own
work. If you're trying to influence someone

650
00:41:40.480 --> 00:41:45.000
to be part of your changes,
can you help an accountant see how them

651
00:41:45.079 --> 00:41:47.360
doing the numbers in the right way
will lead to the change you're creating.

652
00:41:47.360 --> 00:41:51.880
Can you also get a sense of
the vision where the marketers pull into it

653
00:41:51.920 --> 00:41:54.960
and then create something even better than
you could have some vision. Second is

654
00:41:55.079 --> 00:42:00.320
values giving people a way of working, and the data here are super clear.

655
00:42:00.639 --> 00:42:04.119
If you want to engage gen Z, you've got to be thoughtful about

656
00:42:04.159 --> 00:42:08.239
your values. According to seventy percent
of gen Z wants to work for organizations

657
00:42:08.239 --> 00:42:12.440
that match or reflect their values.
So it's no longer a nice to have,

658
00:42:12.559 --> 00:42:15.920
it's a must have. It's a
table stakes. Theres ways you can

659
00:42:15.920 --> 00:42:19.519
define yourself. So again I mentioned
that I love working at Berkeley Haas.

660
00:42:20.039 --> 00:42:22.519
And a big reason is because one
of our values is questioning the status quo.

661
00:42:23.280 --> 00:42:25.760
That felt comfortable to me. I'm
an atypical person to be at a

662
00:42:25.760 --> 00:42:28.880
business school, but when I saw, oh, this is a business school

663
00:42:28.880 --> 00:42:30.840
and it's to question the status quo, I said, Yeah, that's that's

664
00:42:30.840 --> 00:42:32.440
what I am. I want to
be part of that. So values can

665
00:42:32.480 --> 00:42:38.639
people a sense of working of purpose. And the third is victory is some

666
00:42:38.840 --> 00:42:44.079
people, maybe those that naturally find
themselves as change makers. We have this

667
00:42:44.199 --> 00:42:47.159
kind of long term perspective, or
at least you've written three books at least,

668
00:42:47.280 --> 00:42:50.880
and you know how hard it is
to write a book, and you're

669
00:42:50.920 --> 00:42:53.000
in it for long because you have
that vision. But not all of us

670
00:42:53.159 --> 00:42:57.480
do. Right. Sometimes it feels
really overwhelming or want to be part of

671
00:42:57.519 --> 00:43:00.519
a big change, but then also
feels all take forever. And this is

672
00:43:00.519 --> 00:43:05.639
a mistake that I honestly made myself
because I'm so bought into that large vision

673
00:43:05.639 --> 00:43:07.440
where I want to be in fifteen
years, twenty years, that I kind

674
00:43:07.440 --> 00:43:12.119
of forget to celebrate the milestones along
the way. Now, you or I

675
00:43:12.199 --> 00:43:15.159
might not rest until it reaches that
big systemic change. We've got to our

676
00:43:15.199 --> 00:43:20.519
teammates see how their contributions are leading
to that change. So stopping to celebrate

677
00:43:20.559 --> 00:43:23.599
those victories, the small things,
the small steps that bring us closer to

678
00:43:23.639 --> 00:43:29.960
that vision. So to lead with
purpose, focus on vision, on values,

679
00:43:30.039 --> 00:43:34.559
and on victories beautifully rendered, Alex
just and I'm you know, I'm

680
00:43:34.639 --> 00:43:37.960
like, I'm hanging on everywhere because
I totally align with everything that you said.

681
00:43:37.960 --> 00:43:40.159
Of course, because of the work
that I do too. I think

682
00:43:40.239 --> 00:43:45.480
that was everything. There's also leading
values means giving your team away, working

683
00:43:45.599 --> 00:43:49.559
as you cover that in small ways. Okay, so that's good. So

684
00:43:49.800 --> 00:43:53.159
that'll create these four steps to reinventing
leadership. For me, this this is

685
00:43:53.199 --> 00:43:57.440
in complete alignment with with the work
that I do. So if that's what

686
00:43:57.480 --> 00:44:00.880
you mean by reinventing leadership, I
am right in your backyard, in your

687
00:44:00.920 --> 00:44:04.679
back pocket with you. Let's do
it. Let's do it reinventing it together.

688
00:44:05.079 --> 00:44:07.639
Okay. Well, and then part
of that that I think is really

689
00:44:07.719 --> 00:44:10.320
quite also unique that you put forth
in your book something that I really haven't

690
00:44:10.320 --> 00:44:14.320
seen before. Alex. And this
idea that your idea of micro leadership.

691
00:44:14.400 --> 00:44:16.880
Let's just briefly hit on that.
Yeah, a new concept I put forward,

692
00:44:16.920 --> 00:44:21.159
which is making that shift because so
often when you read a lot of

693
00:44:21.239 --> 00:44:25.960
leadership books, it's about that single
heroic act. It's about New Jaws pulling

694
00:44:25.960 --> 00:44:30.159
the iPhone out of his pocket,
it's about Lena Roosevelt leading the declarations of

695
00:44:30.239 --> 00:44:35.920
human rights. There's a role for
that type of leadership, but I think

696
00:44:35.960 --> 00:44:37.800
when we put those leaders up on
a pedestal, it causes so many of

697
00:44:37.880 --> 00:44:40.199
us to say, you know,
that's not who I am. I'm not

698
00:44:40.199 --> 00:44:44.440
that charismatic, I'm not outgoing,
I'm not an extrovert. We give ourselves

699
00:44:44.480 --> 00:44:49.960
a reason to say that's not us. But leadership isn't an acts, sorry

700
00:44:50.000 --> 00:44:52.880
Lush, hasn't a title. Leadership
is an act of showing up in the

701
00:44:52.920 --> 00:44:55.239
world. And so things look very
different going back to our idea of agency

702
00:44:55.679 --> 00:45:00.480
when you say, look, it's
not about having a title. It's about

703
00:45:00.519 --> 00:45:05.039
seizing leadership moments. And there's moments
appear before dozens of times per day,

704
00:45:05.119 --> 00:45:08.480
small little moments, small chances to
step up and serve others. And so

705
00:45:08.599 --> 00:45:13.360
for me, there's really three steps
to practicing micro leadership. So the first

706
00:45:13.719 --> 00:45:15.440
giving yourself permission is say, yeah, you know what, I don't need

707
00:45:15.440 --> 00:45:19.119
someone else to tell me I could
step up and help in a small way.

708
00:45:19.480 --> 00:45:22.599
What does this look like? Maybe
it's during a team meeting you notice

709
00:45:22.599 --> 00:45:24.880
one of your colleagues hasn't spoken up, and you say, hey, no,

710
00:45:24.880 --> 00:45:28.719
no pressure, but love to hear
from you if you're willing to share

711
00:45:28.800 --> 00:45:31.679
your perspective. Maybe it's being the
one person saying no when everyone else is

712
00:45:31.719 --> 00:45:36.000
saying yes. Or maybe it's staying
late to help a new college clean up

713
00:45:36.039 --> 00:45:38.440
after their first event. These are
tiny moments. You'll never go too far,

714
00:45:38.840 --> 00:45:44.000
but you give yourself that permission.
So give yourself permission. The second

715
00:45:44.320 --> 00:45:49.239
is serve others. My definition of
leadership is rooted in serving others. Fundamentially.

716
00:45:49.320 --> 00:45:52.760
I love servant leadership, small little
actions, ways of going beyond yourself

717
00:45:52.960 --> 00:45:55.639
that make things better for those around
you. And then the third is do

718
00:45:55.760 --> 00:46:00.440
it again and again and again.
The idea that any one act of micro

719
00:46:00.519 --> 00:46:05.159
leadership will be insignificant, but do
you practice it every single day. You

720
00:46:05.239 --> 00:46:08.719
might look back after a month or
a quarter and realized, well before my

721
00:46:08.719 --> 00:46:13.000
own eyes, I've just become a
leader. Because when you stop waiting for

722
00:46:13.039 --> 00:46:15.480
that title. And so, if
you see these acts, then there's acts

723
00:46:15.599 --> 00:46:20.280
hed up and before you know it, you've become that leader. Beautiful,

724
00:46:20.320 --> 00:46:22.599
and that is such a beautiful,
easy, open entree point for every single

725
00:46:22.639 --> 00:46:27.320
person listening to this program. So
that's micro leadership, Ladies and gentlemen.

726
00:46:28.159 --> 00:46:30.280
We have pretty much come to the
end of the show already here, Alex,

727
00:46:30.320 --> 00:46:32.559
but before we do, I just
want to quickly say, and before

728
00:46:32.599 --> 00:46:35.760
I want you to close, I
do want to just quickly share with their

729
00:46:35.760 --> 00:46:39.000
listeners and viewers that you list six
traits of an inclusive leader that I just

730
00:46:39.039 --> 00:46:43.400
think is really important for today's world. And then listeners and viewers, you

731
00:46:43.440 --> 00:46:45.760
just got to read the book to
learn more about them, but they are

732
00:46:45.960 --> 00:46:50.480
visible commitment to inclusivity. Number two
is humility, which we talked about.

733
00:46:50.760 --> 00:46:55.400
Three is curiosity about others. Can't
emphasize that enough. And then fourth cultural

734
00:46:55.440 --> 00:47:01.960
intelligence also very critical. Fifth effective
collaboration, and six awareness of bias.

735
00:47:02.039 --> 00:47:05.440
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, every
single one of us has biased. That's

736
00:47:05.480 --> 00:47:07.199
part of the human condition. So
just wanted to give that a quick shout

737
00:47:07.199 --> 00:47:10.360
out, Alex. I think this
is a fantastic list for inclusive leadership.

738
00:47:10.800 --> 00:47:15.599
They say that's actually the work of
Julie Borg and Andre Espadina, so I

739
00:47:15.599 --> 00:47:19.800
fuilt out that age originally created that
of course, giving credit where credit to

740
00:47:19.840 --> 00:47:22.360
do, I appreciate that. So
you know by now that this show is

741
00:47:22.360 --> 00:47:25.199
listening to by people around the world, and what they tune in for is

742
00:47:25.239 --> 00:47:30.119
to learn something about how to either
experience a destination workplace, or how to

743
00:47:30.159 --> 00:47:34.320
develop their own skills, or to
become the kind of leader that can steward

744
00:47:34.360 --> 00:47:37.360
that kind of a work world for
others. What would you allowed to leave

745
00:47:37.440 --> 00:47:40.559
them with? Well, there's so
many wonderful threads that we built together today.

746
00:47:40.559 --> 00:47:43.840
I think I wish we had this
more time because I'd like to build

747
00:47:43.880 --> 00:47:45.800
on some more of them. But
I think that if there's one thing,

748
00:47:45.840 --> 00:47:49.719
the theme that kept coming out again
and again, this idea of agency,

749
00:47:50.079 --> 00:47:52.480
this idea that you're more powerful than
you ever thought that you are. And

750
00:47:52.519 --> 00:47:55.960
I also believe that the world has
never been more ready for you. And

751
00:47:57.039 --> 00:48:00.519
so I hope that you'll leave this
being willing to give yourself permission to see

752
00:48:00.559 --> 00:48:06.199
leadership as being at less scary than
otherwise might be. You also lead in

753
00:48:06.239 --> 00:48:08.719
your own way. There's no one
way to lead. Lean into your values,

754
00:48:08.800 --> 00:48:13.679
lean into vision, but more than
anything, stop waiting from depression,

755
00:48:14.039 --> 00:48:17.639
give it to yourself and go be
a change maker. What a beautiful way

756
00:48:17.679 --> 00:48:21.559
to finish the show, Alex.
I am so grateful our passive cross.

757
00:48:21.719 --> 00:48:23.800
I am so grateful that I get
a host the show and I come into

758
00:48:23.840 --> 00:48:28.599
contact with brilliant minds like you that
when I read your work, I become

759
00:48:28.639 --> 00:48:30.400
a better version of myself, and
then I get to share with my listeners

760
00:48:30.400 --> 00:48:34.280
and viewers. So thank you for
being on working on purpose and being you.

761
00:48:35.360 --> 00:48:38.280
Thanks list I've really enjoyed our conversation
today, me too. All right,

762
00:48:38.280 --> 00:48:40.480
listeners and viewers, you are going
to want to learn more about Alex

763
00:48:40.519 --> 00:48:45.280
Buddock and the work that he does
helping to create change makers all around the

764
00:48:45.320 --> 00:48:47.840
world and his book Becoming a Change
Maker, So you can start by visiting

765
00:48:47.880 --> 00:48:52.960
him at his website alexbudak dot com. Let me spell that for you,

766
00:48:52.559 --> 00:49:00.840
Alex A l e X budoc a
bu d Ak alexbudek dot com. Last

767
00:49:00.840 --> 00:49:01.880
week, if you missed the live
show, you can always catch it be

768
00:49:01.920 --> 00:49:06.960
a recorded podcast. We were on
air with David Perl, the creator and

769
00:49:06.960 --> 00:49:10.679
founder of Street Wisdom, which provides
walk shops of curious discovery around the world,

770
00:49:10.679 --> 00:49:15.760
and he's also the author of Wonderful
Find wonder in the every Day,

771
00:49:15.000 --> 00:49:19.400
every Day. It was an amazing
conversation in I had him saying opera as

772
00:49:19.400 --> 00:49:23.840
well in Italian it was beautiful.
Next week we'll be on air with Maija

773
00:49:23.920 --> 00:49:28.719
Djevik talking about her new book,
The Possible Self, The Leader's Guide to

774
00:49:28.840 --> 00:49:30.440
Personal Development. See you then,
and remember that work is one of the

775
00:49:30.440 --> 00:49:34.920
best adventures and means of realizing our
potential and making the impact we crave.

776
00:49:35.280 --> 00:49:42.079
So let's work on Purpose. We
hope you've enjoyed this week's program. Be

777
00:49:42.159 --> 00:49:45.239
sure to tune into Working on Purpose
featuring your host, doctor Elise Cortes,

778
00:49:45.320 --> 00:49:51.039
each week on W four C Why
Together We'll create a world where business operates

779
00:49:51.079 --> 00:49:55.719
conscientiously, Leadership inspires and passion performance
and employees are fulfilled in work that provides

780
00:49:55.760 --> 00:50:00.400
the meaning and purpose they crave.
See you there, Let's work work on

781
00:50:00.559 --> 00:50:05.719
Purpose. Mmm mm hmm