Joel Podolny is the former head of the Yale School of Management, founding dean of Apple University, and now co-founder and CEO of Honor Education, an asynchronous learning platform used by companies and universities. In a TIME interview, he shares essential traits for modern leadership: - Drive meaning in the organization, connect people’s work to the purpose of the organization and show people you value them as individuals and as employees. “People spend the vast majority of tier days devoted to work and if they can’t find meaning in work, that’s a pretty big gap. . . .” Storytelling is a great tool for making vision come to life. Podolny says that “good organizational stories are . . . retold and remembered. It’s not just that the leader tells stories, but the people are good at retelling the story that the leaders told.” He shares a story that's often retold at Apple: When #SteveJobs was leading the Macintosh team, he asked the team to reduce boot up time by 20 seconds. Faced with some resistance, he calculated the number of seconds in human lives that would be saved, and estimated it was the equivalent of two lives/day). Jobs said “That’s unused, unproductive. . . time. The person. . . want[s] to do something, and we’re getting in the way of them doing it. So let’s give life back to the world.” - Anchor one’s leadership in an area of expertise (vs. being a general manager). Podolny says that while people think leadership is leadership, his experience at Apple taught him that teams benefit from being led by someone with expertise in their work. In a transformation, you need the instinctive sense that comes from being an expert of what needs to be changed to compete successfully. It’s hard to innovate, to know when you’re onto a solution for a problem, without the experience and expertise. - Deep curiosity when things don’t go as expected, because it means you’ll question your assumptions when things don’t go as planned and be better able to meet the unexpected. Podolny believes that curiosity is also what helps someone go from being a functional expert to a leader because they’re open to the possibility that they could be wrong and that there could be a better way to do things. #leadership #storytelling #purpose #vision #stories #expertise #curiosity
Love the focus on curiosity. I think in the past leadership was associated with knowing, with not needing to know more. With knowing better. So it's great to see the desire to know more as a key focus here.
Sadly, curiosity remains underrated as an important leadership attribute. I think it is critical to success to be curious.
I learned quite a bit about Apple and its early strategy from the documentary Art & Copy.
Thanks Helayna Minsk - this is consistent with trends on boards that hire for more specific skills in a world that continues to become more and more subspecialized
I like his emphasis on storytelling to bring purpose to life—it's such a powerful way to unite people around a shared vision. His points on expertise and curiosity also resonate; true leadership seems to stem from knowing your craft deeply and staying open to learning. Thanks for sharing this, Helayna Minsk!
What an insightful take from Joel Podolny on leadership! It's amazing how meaningful work, expertise, and curiosity blend to drive success in organizations.
Thank you for sharing Helayna Minsk. What great guidance! Curiosity and Creativity are some of the most critical skills companies look for.
Using purpose to unlock people's potential - taking them from success to significance. Master Facilitator / Coach / Speaker / Connector.
1moThis highlights something I so often see as a missing piece. The most effective way to connect an individual to the organizational purpose, is to understand that individuals purpose. With this understanding you know what drives them, what defines them at their best and the impact they want to make. There are always ways to find intersections here with organizational purpose which then enable folks to adjust their contributions to the things that light them up and drive the most value. That intersection is where the magic happens!