JEAN-PHILIPPE COURTOIS: Hello, welcome to the Positive Leadership Podcast. I’m Jean-Philippe Courtois, but, as we’ll be spending some good time together, please just call me JP.
You know, I’m someone like you who wants to keep growing as a person, as a leader. I want to learn how to spend more meaningful and joyful moments in my life with my family, friends, colleagues, teams, and organizations overall, so that we can altogether have a positive impact in everything we do from a personal, professional standpoint, but also eventually from a societal standpoint.
I’m also deeply passionate about the power of technology to empower and transform people, businesses, and society as a whole. You know, I must admit, I’m privileged. I’ve been working for this amazing company, Microsoft, for more than 37 years. I’m an executive vice president sitting alongside Satya Nadella, our CEO, and all the other members of the senior leadership team in Microsoft. And I’ve been learning so much over the past 37 years, in many different roles, including leading our global sales marketing and operations. And I’ve been able to partner with some of the most amazing leaders within and outside of Microsoft across the globe.
I’m also the co-founder of the Lead for Good Foundation, where we aim to unlock the potential of youth from all walks of life through social entrepreneurship and to accelerate the positive impact for the broader community.
And, last but not least, like all of you, I’m also a dad and a partner and a friend, and I think, like many of you, I’m trying to bring some harmony in those multiple lives. And, as I reflect on the last 15 months and the enormous impact of the pandemic on the world and all of us, I’m deeply convinced that people expect a lot more from leaders. They need more from leaders. They need leaders who can deeply listen, really care for others, while authentic and showing true empathy in the workplace. They’re also leaders to provide an environment of trust, of safety, inclusivity, and a real sense of belonging. They need leaders while generating a positive energy, and they need leaders and all of us to help create a sense of purpose beyond KPIs or OKRs and all those fancy score cards we have in our professional lives.
And this brings me to the topic of Positive Leadership. I’m deeply passionate about that topic. I’d like to show a small story with you. It was back 25 years ago. At the time, I was leading the French subsidiary of Microsoft. I was standing up in a very small intimate room in Les Ulis, which is a small suburb outside of Paris, and I was standing up presenting to Steve Ballmer, yes, our former CEO. At the time, well, the results I was presenting were not shining, I was missing the targets. And, on top of that, I was presenting a plan where I suggested to slash all prices by 30%, so that I could gain market share again in the country. Nine hours of intense questioning, drill downs and more, at the end of the day, I thought, hey, that’s my last day at Microsoft. And actually, when Steve wrapped the meeting, he gave me an incredible support. He decided to basically give me a vote of confidence. Give me confidence in my leadership, in the team to turn the situation around. And the way he did that with positivity has just been changing my mind as a leader for the many years ahead. You know what actually, six months later, well, Steve checked up of course, holding me accountable. He was delighted to see that we were actually overachieving our targets. That’s what Positive Leadership is all about.
So, to me, this is what Positive Leadership is all about. First of all, it’s about building a foundation of trust, but it’s also about generating a positive energy that truly flows into the teams you’re working with and to enable success for people, for organizations, and the society overall. But, as of today, that discussion, coming from positive psychology and neurosciences have been mostly contained in the academic circles and not broadly shared. So, my attempt with this Positive Leadership podcast is really to break the silos between academia, NGOs, corporate world, civil society, and share in a very practical way how you can activate your own Positive Leadership power to make positive difference in your life and in the world.
This is why I’ve invited some very special guests to excite and inspire us on this journey of Positive Leadership discovery. So we’ll have some outstanding CEOs, change makers, but also some wonderful academic researchers, sports coaches and very special social entrepreneurs. All of them represent a very diverse range of communities, but also perspectives from all around the world, and they also embody some of the core attributes of Positive Leadership power. And I hope that through their stories you’re going to discover how Positive Leadership can help you to be more resilient, to deepen trust, and also grow your growth mindset. I’m actually very excited to get started with Dr. Audrey Tang. She’s a Chartered psychologist, an award-winning author, and she has specialized in positive psychology and mental health in a very practical way.
DR. AUDREY TANG: And I would actually suggest maybe see your family as another team. And, in the same ways you would work with your teams at work and you would ask them is this working for you, how best do you respond to leadership, even you might be asking those questions, is asking similar sorts of questions.
JEAN-PHILIPPE COURTOIS: Then I have the pleasure to host an old a friend of mine, Kevin Johnson, who is the president and CEO of Starbucks, an amazing servant leader.
KEVIN JOHNSON: I’m so grateful for you and all the colleagues that I had the privilege of working with at Microsoft, and it’s just an honor to have a chance to reconnect with you. You and I are friends for life.
JEAN-PHILIPPE COURTOIS: I’ll continue with another very unique exceptional leader, Satya Nadella, with whom I’ve been working for so many years as a CEO of Microsoft. And then, following on that, we’ll have Mo Gawdat, a former employee at Microsoft and Google I got to know for many years too, who is an entrepreneur but also a very famous author with ‘Solve For Happy’.
So that’s just the start of an amazing journey we’re going to go together, and I can tell you, I can’t wait to get started.
Oh, sorry, just one last thing actually. Probably as my accent tells you, right, yes, I’m a citizen of the world, having visited more than 110 countries. But I’m also a proud French citizen. And I will be recording some special bonus conversations with some fellow French speakers as well.
Chers auditeurs, j'aurai vraiment le plaisir aussi d'inviter bien sûr des personnalités francophones pour une partie de ma série de podcasts, et donc au plaisir de vous écouter d’échanger avec vous !
I hope that you are all as excited as I am, as I know we’re going to have a great time together. So thank you so much for joining me today.
