Conversations on Leadership: Wisdom from Global Management Gurus

Foreword

The way I learn most effectively, I discovered long ago, is in conversation with others. It is in the playful, exhilarating, joyous thrashing out of ideas with brilliant people that my own ideas are brought to life, refreshed, and vetted. George Braque once observed, “The only thing that matters in art is the part that can’t be explained.” Perhaps the only thing that matters in leadership is the part that we struggle to capture and bottle. Conversation has been one of my main pathways to pursue it.

Lan Liu surprised me with this shared passion when he visited me in Santa Monica on a pleasant morning two years ago. He had made an appointment with me as a “leadership student” and also editor-in-chief of China’s leading management magazine. ...