Dr. Cornell West is a leader I pay attention to. This weekend the Tavis Smiley Show [http://www.pbs.org/kcet/tavissmiley/] broadcast an hour-long interview with him that I found inspiring.
Currently a professor of religion at Princeton, West is a Harvard-trained philosopher who has spent his life teaching—but never in the philosophy department. He prides himself on having frustrated other academics who want to handily categorize his courses as literature or politics, art or music. I’ve heard him called a “public intellectual,” but what he calls himself is simply what the name philosopher literally means: “lover of wisdom.” His publications include a seminal work on race, a series of commentaries on the Matrix films, and hip-hop collaborations with the likes of Jay-Z and Andre 3000.
When asked why a lover of wisdom would dabble in hiphop the way he does, he said, roughly: I do hip-hop because young people and people who are telling the truth are doing it in hip-hop. If they were doing it in ballet, I’d strip down and say ‘ let’s dance.’
What I like about West is that he shows his willingness to listen broadly. Wisdom, to him, isn’t only the stuff of Ivy League libraries and lecture halls—it’s the stories, rants, loves and hates of average Joes and Janes.
This isn’t a success strategy only for public intellectuals like West—it’s been the key to corporate success for executives like Brad Anderson, the former CEO of Best Buy who help build an international brand out of a tiny chain of audio stores, largely because he found ways to spur and utilize employees’ wisdom.
Anderson and a host of other experts will join us November 21 for the first annual Wright Foundation symposium on Transformational Leadership. Space is limited, so see the details and register here [www. Transformleadership.com] today.
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