Max Mednik
  • Home
  • About
  • Interests
    • Angel investing
    • Magic
    • Scuba Diving
  • Blog
  • Contact

Readings and musings

Suzanne Nora Johnson on Leadership

7/12/2011

0 Comments

 
Picture
I had the true pleasure of hearing Suzanne Nora Johnson address my leadership class taught by former Mayor Riordan. She spoke of leadership, courage, and what has allowed her to succeed in business and philanthropic initiatives. I especially enjoyed hearing about her personal philosophies and which thinkers she takes to heart.

Johnson started her career as a lawyer and has worked in a variety of fields, including finance in the private and public sectors. In 2006, Forbes named her in its list of the 100 Most Powerful Women in the world.

Most notably, Johnson worked as Vice Chairman of Goldman Sachs as Head of Global Marketing, from which she retired in 2007 to work on solving international problems. She now is Chairman of The Global Council on Financial Risk and on the boards of many large institutions including Pfizer, the Broad Foundation, and the Carnegie Institute.

Johnson grew up in Chicago and had a large family with many first cousins. She went to USC and from there applied to law school. She clerked for a judge in the South to broaden her perspective and went on to practice law in New York for a couple years. She knew her goal longer term was to eventually work at the World Bank, so she applied to three investment banks to gain experience. That's what brought her to Goldman Sachs, where she eventually led the team to restructure emerging market debt.


Compare and Contrast

Johnson structured her talk by contrasting similar and often confused concepts.
  • Achievement vs. success: focus on long-term results
  • Strategic vs. tactical: long- vs. short-term
  • Drive vs. ambition: drive is about doing goals to advance self and others; ambition is mostly for self. The founder of Matsushita Electric was a factory worker who started by creating a bike light for factory workers in his garage. His employer didn't want to sell it, so he went off on his own and produced it himself. He cared deeply about helping other factory workers, and during the depression, he didn't lay anyone off.
  • Courage vs. risk-taking: strength to venture and withstand danger vs. simply bearing danger. May Chidiac was a journalist in the Lebanese broadcasting company; after terrorists exploded half her body, she still went back on the air to continue providing independent reporting.
  • Innovation vs. adaptation: something new vs. adjustment to environmental conditions. Marie Curie found new elements because she was looking for something new.
  • Inclusiveness vs. tolerance: worldliness, involving actively other perspectives vs. simply allowing something different or sympathizing. Sir Ratan Tata, founder of the Tata Group, endowed chairs in English universities to study poor people; his company is innovating in emerging markets way before others -- that's inclusiveness.
  • Generosity vs. charity: liberality in giving, freedom from pettiness vs. relief donations. When Walter Payton, a football player, didn't take the opportunity given to him to skip ahead on the liver transplant list, this was generosity and ethical conduct.
  • Fairness vs. disinterest: active treatment of all equally vs. freedom from involvement. Martin Luther King as overt and sought affirmative behavior towards fairness.

Long-Term Philosophy
  • Societal fundamentals: inter-generational equity, global growth and security, functional democracy
  • Inter-generational equity: Chris Hitchens, secular atheist, says the future belongs to the next generation
  • Live for the next generation
  • Passion to achieve results
  • Optimism and opportunity in face of challenge
  • Engage in innovations that improve the world
  • Work with others in common cause
  • Absolute importance of integrity
  • Commitment to give back
  • Proverb: Work for your future as if you're going to live forever; work for your afterlife as if you're going to die tomorrow.
Teams and Decision-Making
  • Sort naysayers and supporters when you're right and wrong
  • Understand and trust teammates
  • Evaluate the odds and be comfortable with ambiguity
  • When all else fails, use Hail Mary pass; just do something uncomfortable and take risk
  • Need to throw the ball; can't be frozen
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    June 2021
    May 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    April 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    May 2019
    March 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    October 2010
    September 2010
    August 2010
    July 2010
    June 2010
    May 2010
    April 2010
    March 2010
    February 2010

    Categories

    All
    Angel Investing
    Cacti
    Cars
    China
    Community Service
    Culture
    Design
    Djing
    Dogs
    Education
    Entertainment
    Entrepreneurship
    Family
    Finance
    Food
    Google
    Happiness
    Incentives
    Investment Banking
    Judaism
    Law
    Lighting
    Magic
    Marketing
    Medicine
    Networking
    Nolabound
    Philosophy
    Professionalism
    Psychology
    Reading
    Real Estate
    Religion
    Romance
    Sales
    Science
    Shangri-La
    Social Entrepreneurship
    Social Media
    Sports
    Teams
    Technology
    Travel
    Turtles
    Ucla
    Venture Capital
    Web Services
    Weddings
    Zen

    Subscribe

    RSS Feed

Picture
Picture
  • Home
  • About
  • Interests
    • Angel investing
    • Magic
    • Scuba Diving
  • Blog
  • Contact