Oxford Saïd Voices - Leadership Decisions, Episode 1

So, so, so I would say, um, let's have a look at history and see what, uh, what kind of leaders we had in the past.

We had a lot of, uh, great leaders with great minds, with great ideas, and still these people made horrible, um, uh, decisions, and, uh, they failed.

And we have to ask ourself, what was the reason? Was it, uh, uh, was it, uh, because they lacked in information, or was it because, um, they, um, they, they were biased or w- w- whatever? I mean, and this is something that's very interesting to me.

Good.

That's good.

Now, um, you talk about history there, um, and so what, what in particular, which periods intri- interest you most, or what you think are most useful for, for learning about leadership?

I would say you can n- n- not say, uh, um, y- absolutely.

You, you ...

E- every, every era has, uh, its own, um, uh, teachings.

Um, I'm a friend of, uh, the ancient, uh, Greek and Rome time since I have studied also Latin in college, and, um, also the state philosophy, um, uh, I mean, a, a, a very strong focus on state philosophy.

That's something that, um, um, that really attracts me, that, uh, the teachings of Aristo and Plato about, uh, how a state has to work, and, um, also what ki- uh, what, what a leader should be.

This is something that Plato also, uh, said, um, um, um, that how leaders should behave, what, what, how should they think.

And, um, yeah.

But I mean, if you look, um, also, um, after the industrialization, I mean, in the 20th century, we see also a lot of good leaders, um, in Europe, except in Germany, but we, um ...

W- well, in Germany, we have them in the '60s.

We had, uh, Konrad Adenauer, the guy who made Germany very s- um, um, who pu- uh, uh, put Germany back in, uh, uh, at the world stage.

But, um, we had great leaders in Britain.

We had, in the US, great leaders, and everywhere else.

So, um, every time has its challenge, and every challenge makes its leaders so ...