Nancy Koehn - Survive and Thrive During Turbulent Times

Nancy Koehn - Survive and Thrive During Turbulent Times

Author: Smart People Industries January 16, 2018 Duration: 1:00:46
For leaders in the 21st century, there is one pressing question: What set of skills is required to lead in crisis, and can history give us answers? Our guest this week, Harvard Business School historian and professor Nancy Koehn, has surveyed some of history’s greatest leaders and made an incredible discovery: courageous leaders are not born but made, and the power to lead resides in each of us.  Nancy examined the lives of five of the greatest leaders of all time to better understand how they led through adversity and came out the other side stronger. These extraordinary individuals include: polar explorer Ernest Shackleton; President Abraham Lincoln; legendary abolitionist Frederick Douglass; Nazi-resisting clergyman Dietrich Bonhoeffer; and environmental crusader Rachel Carson. In her book, Forged in Crisis: The Power of Courageous Leadership in Turbulent Times, Nancy begins each chapter by showing her protagonist on the precipice of a great crisis: Shackleton marooned on an Antarctic ice floe; Lincoln on the verge of seeing the Union collapse; escaped slave Douglass facing possible capture; Bonhoeffer agonizing over how to counter absolute evil with faith; Carson racing against the cancer ravaging her in a bid to save the planet. Significantly, as we follow each leader’s against-all-odds journey, we begin to glean an essential truth: leaders are not born but made. In a book dense with epiphanies, the most galvanizing one may be that the power to lead courageously resides in each of us. Join us as we learn the keys to leadership in turbulent times and the lessons we can glean from some of the most well respected individuals of all time. Nancy Koehn is a historian at the Harvard Business School where she holds the James E. Robison chair of Business Administration. Koehn's research focuses on how leaders, past and present, craft lives of purpose, worth, and impact. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Stanford University, Koehn earned a Master of Public Policy from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government before taking her MA and PhD in History from Harvard. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Every other week, Chris Stemp and Jon Rojas sit down with a guest who has fundamentally shaped their field, driven not by a rigid agenda but by genuine curiosity. The Smart People Podcast from Smart People Industries is built on the idea that the most compelling insights emerge from relaxed, authentic dialogue. You’ll hear authors, innovators, and cultural leaders-each with significant recognition in areas like business, education, or society-speak in a way that often feels more like a fascinating dinner conversation than a formal interview. Chris’s thoughtful questioning, paired with Jon’s producer perspective, gently guides discussions into unexpected territories, revealing the personal journeys and nuanced ideas behind public achievements. This podcast thrives in the space between expertise and accessibility, making complex topics relatable without sacrificing depth. It’s for anyone who believes that learning is a continuous, engaging process, and that the best lessons come from listening to people who think differently. Tune in biweekly for conversations that are as intellectually substantial as they are genuinely enjoyable, reminding us that smart discourse can be both enlightening and warmly human.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 500

Smart People Podcast
Podcast Episodes
The Economic Lie That Let Companies Sell Us Out with Eric Ries [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 53:33
What if the problem isn’t that a few companies got greedy? What if the problem is that we built a system that teaches companies to sell us out? In this episode, Eric Ries joins us to explain the economic lie sitting unde…
The Plastic Problem Most People Miss with Judith Enck [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 40:32
Most of us think we understand the plastic problem. We’ve heard about ocean pollution. We’ve heard about recycling. We’ve heard the word microplastics enough times that it barely registers anymore. But what if the most i…
The Science of Feeling Dead Inside with Dr. Corey Keyes [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:07:03
What if you’re not burned out, not clinically depressed, and nothing in your life is falling apart—but you still feel numb, empty, or like you’re just going through the motions? In this episode, sociologist and mental he…