Simplify Spotlight: Chris Hirst on Being a No Nonsense Boss
Think of a leader. Chances are you just conjured up an image of someone in politics, or someone in a corner office who runs a small army of people, or, indeed, someone actually in the army. Libraries of books have been written about these kinds of leaders and how to be more like them.
While some of these books are truly great — you’ll find those in the Blinkist library! — many of them are exercises in buzzword bingo, lionizing traits that are very specific to a certain industry or person, or claiming there’s some kind of mystical secret to being a great leader. In other words: bullshit.
Chris Hirst, global CEO of Havas Creative, has just released what he calls an “antidote” to that kind of leadership book. In this episode of Simplify Spotlight, he speaks to Caitlin about the problems with much of what we’re sold about leadership, and how we can all think about it in a more fruitful, fulfilling, and straightforward way.
No Bullsh*t Leadership
- 12 min reading time
- audio version available
The reality is that we all lead in different capacities throughout our lives. As Chris defines it, “a leader is anybody who has people they’re responsible for,” so whether you lead a team at work, or you’re a community organizer, or you just want to get a group of friends to agree on where to go on a night out, leadership is at its best when it’s simple, straightforward, and clear.
Listen to this episode of Simplify Spotlight to hear Chris wring the snake oil out of leadership advice, and learn how you can implement some simple changes that will make you more confident in your leadership, and help others to recognize their own capacity to lead.
If, after you’ve listened to the episode, you like the sound of Chris’ ideas, you can pick up No Bullsh*t Leadership in any good bookstore, or check out the key ideas on Blinkist. You can try Blinkist free for 14 days by clicking this link and using the voucher code: nobullshit.
We’re working hard on the next season of Simplify. In the meantime, you can listen to the back catalog here, or if you haven’t already heard our new podcast, Self? Help!, why not give it a try?
