Business

7 C's of Leadership: Working With Others

Lesson time 14:50 min

In this lesson, Indra provides insight into how to be a great communicator—as well as how communication provides a pathway for successful mentorship and relationships with coworkers.

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Topics include: In this chapter, Indra provides insight into how to be a great communicator, and shows you how great communication ties into coaching others, both for mentorship and building succession.

Indra Nooyi

Teaches Leading With Purpose

Indra Nooyi, former CEO of PepsiCo, teaches you to think big, be brave, and make purpose-driven changes at work.

Preview

[MUSIC PLAYING] - The fourth C is communication. In today's world, where you have to bring people along with you on a big agenda, you've got to communicate the agenda with emotion, with passion, with missionary zeal. And whether it's oral communications or written communications, if you cannot simplify a message and communicate it compellingly, believe me you cannot get the masters to follow you. From the top to the bottom of the company, we have to accept that we are in a new era of uncertainty. These days volatility is not just the way that our normal lives are disrupted, it is our normal lives. We have to speed up everything we do. We need to start the next plan while the ink on the old is still drying out. The reason I come across as a crisp communicator is because I'm always thinking about how is my message going to land with you. And so what I want you to have when I speak is a picture of what I'm saying. And for me to be able to draw that picture means I can't have too many words, too many dots that make you confused as to what the picture is. Even though I was in a debating team all my life, it was in India. So when I came to Yale to business school, you had to pass the oral and written communications program to graduate from the first year to the second year. I actually flunked it. I flunked it for two reasons. One, I spoke too fast. And my brain and my mouth were not connected. So I was thinking faster than I was able to speak. And so I was mumbling all the words. The second is my arguments were too complex. At Yale, they said you've got to simplify, simplify, simplify the message you're going to give. Rather than deductive thinking, which is laying out all the facts and saying therefore this is the answers, start with an inductive thinking. I think this is the answer because. And lay out the logic, so people know where you're headed. So I'm eternally grateful to those two teachers at Yale who flunked me and then passed me. But in that process, they taught me so much. [MUSIC PLAYING] People who talk most in the room are people are just like to talk because they think if they talked a lot, people would view them as smart. Be very careful because listen to them carefully. Are they just uttering a lot of words or are they uttering sentences that make a huge difference and actually contribute to the debate and discussion at hand? A few well-placed words is way more important than a stream of mumbo jumbo. So you've got to be very, very careful. So don't just look at the big talkers, look at the people who are truly adding value in discussions, who move the discussion forward. Sometimes when you look at the arc of a meeting, sometimes you go laterally in a meeting. You're just going over the same subject again and again. But then there are some people will make a comment or two that starts to move the conversation forward. People go oh I got it. Learn from those people. People who synthesize ev...

About the Instructor

Ever wonder what it takes to be the CEO of a Fortune 50 company? Indra Nooyi didn’t set out to become the first woman of color to do so. She simply (and tenaciously) focused on big ideas. As the former CEO of PepsiCo, Indra transformed a global industry. Now she’s teaching you her transformational approach to leadership. Learn to simplify complex problems, persuade others to buy into your vision, and discover how leading with purpose can improve your life beyond the boardroom.

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Indra Nooyi

Indra Nooyi, former CEO of PepsiCo, teaches you to think big, be brave, and make purpose-driven changes at work.

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