What’s Your Leadership Language? | Rosita Najmi | TED

翻译人员: Jia Z 校对人员: Gentle Yang

As an Iranian refugee who grew up in rural east Tennessee,

作为在田纳西州东部农村 长大的伊朗难民，

and someone who studied,

以及在30多个国家学习、

lived and worked in over 30 countries,

生活和工作的人，

I thought I knew how to navigate across cultures and languages.

我以为我知道如何穿梭于 文化和语言之中。

I was wrong.

我错了。

There I was, day one of business school,

进入商学院的第一天，我就在那里，

getting my bearings and hearing an alien language.

摸索自己的方向，并听着一种外星语言。

It wasn't English, French, or my native Persian.

既不是英语、法语， 也不是我的母语波斯语。

It was a bouillabaisse of languages,

这是一系列语言，

jargon from across the organizational multiverse:

来自整个组织多元宇宙的行话：

the corporate world,

企业界、

the nonprofit sphere,

非营利领域、

international development

国际发展

and the public sector.

和公共部门。

It was weird.

太奇怪了。

In business school, I thought I'd learn about leadership styles.

在商学院里， 我以为我会学习领导风格，

What I found were leadership languages.

但我找到的却是领导语言。

And I learned that by becoming conversant in these languages

我了解到，通过熟悉这些语言，

that I could communicate with and contribute to all of these worlds.

我可以与所有这些领域进行交流 并为这些领域做出贡献。

So how does one become multilingual?

那么一个人如何掌握多种语言呢？

Here's my story.

这就是我的故事。

In college, I went to West Africa to study microfinance

在大学期间，我去西非学习小额信贷

and economic empowerment.

和经济赋权。

Seeing a large public health need,

看到庞大的公共卫生需求，

I cofounded and led a nonprofit

我就共同创立并领导了一家

collecting medical supplies and money.

募集医疗用品和资金的非营利组织。

We saw what collective action could yield,

我们看到了集体行动能带来什么，

and we were creative with our advocacy and our fundraising,

我们的宣传和筹款很有创意，

with campaigns like "Band Aids for Benin."

开展了 “贝宁创可贴” 等活动。

Along the way, I studied different leadership styles:

在此过程中，我研究了不同的领导风格：

autocratic, democratic,

专制型、民主型、

laissez faire, servant, collaborative, transformational and more.

自由放任型、仆人型、协作型、变革型等等。

I read books, attended trainings

我阅读、参加培训，

and I even had the privilege to study with some of the greats

甚至有幸向一些伟人学习，

and to work with General Colin Powell and Dr. Maya Angelou.

并与科林·鲍威尔将军和 玛雅·安杰卢博士一起工作。

After all of this,

在经历了所有这些之后，

I became convinced that there's no best type of leadership.

我确信没有最好的领导风格。

So many of us just default to one style or another,

我们中的许多人只是默认 使用一种或另一种风格，

similar to how we're born with our native tongue.

就像我们生来就有母语。

But this default style doesn't work in every situation.

但是这种默认的风格 并不适用于所有情况。

Many leaders obsess over leadership style

许多领导者沉迷于领导风格，

when really they just need to get over themselves.

而实际上他们只需要克服自己即可。

(Laughter)

（笑声）

(Applause)

（掌声）

Sorry, leader, it's not about you.

对不起，领导，这与你无关。

(Laughter)

（笑声）

What's more useful is to adapt and personalize your leadership

更有用的是调整你的领导力 并使其个性化，

to be the leader the situation and the people involved need.

成为应对当前形势和相关人员 所需要的领导者。

It's not so much style as language,

与其说把风格作为语言，

the living vernacular of each discrete community and culture.

不如说是每个不同社区 和文化的活生生的方言。

The successful leader will aspire to be multilingual,

成功的领导者将渴望掌握多种语言，

to speak fluently with all groups and to translate among them.

能够流利地与所有团体交谈， 并在他们之间进行翻译。

In 2012, while working at the Omidyar Network,

2012年，在 Omidyar Network 工作期间，

I was one of the sponsors of a two-year study

我是一项针对 12 种影响力投资基金的

of 12 impact investing funds.

为期两年的研究的发起人之一。

One of the "ahas" of this project

该项目的 “亮点”之一是，

was that the most successful funds were those led by multilingual leaders,

最成功的基金是那些 由多语言领导者领导的基金，

people that could communicate across the corporate, nonprofit, philanthropic

他们能够从企业、非营利组织、慈善

and public policy perspectives.

和公共政策的角度进行沟通。

These leaders also made sure

这些领导者还

that others on their team were multilingual.

确保团队中的其他人会说多种语言。

This came to me as a bit of a surprise.

这让我有点惊讶。

I expected the secret sauce to be in sophisticated financial modeling

我以为秘诀在于复杂的金融模型

or some other type of complex analysis.

或其他类型的复杂分析。

According to this study,

根据这项研究，

the multilingual leader will describe their work

多语言领导者将把他们的工作

as being unremittingly financially driven -- business speak,

描述为坚持不懈的 财务驱动——商务发言、

moving the needle on social and environmental challenges --

推动解决社会和环境挑战——

nonprofit and philanthropic speak,

非营利和慈善机构发言，

while addressing systemic market failures --

同时解决系统性市场失灵——

public policy speak.

公共政策发言。

The study further found

该研究进一步发现，

the need to be conversant into four industry languages.

需要熟悉四种行业语言。

Those are finance, nonprofit, government and international development.

它们是金融、非营利组织、 政府和国际发展。

The multilingual leader

对我来说，这位会说多种语言的领导者

was something that seemed very familiar to me.

似乎很熟悉。

This really rang true

这确实是正确的，

based on my own experience of patchworks across these sectors,

根据我自己在这些领域拼凑的经验，

and it took me back to that first weird day in business school.

这使我回到了在商学院那个奇怪的第一天。

Now that we've described the how, let us turn to the what.

现在我们已经描述了“怎么做”， 让我们转向“做什么”。

Where should leaders focus?

领导者应该把注意力集中在哪里？

I will modestly propose three topics that cut across issues,

我将谦虚地提出三个跨越问题的主题，

and together we'll double-click on one of them.

并一起探索其中一个。

Data, climate, power.

数据、气候、权利。

How each of these sectors measure the impact and even the timing,

这些部门衡量影响的方式，甚至时间、

the tempo and the tools that they use for each

节奏以及各自使用的工具

could not be more different.

都截然不同。

Say you're the private sector at one end.

假设你一方面是私营部门，

You have accounting on a daily, a weekly,

你有每天、每周、

a monthly and quarterly increments.

每月和每季度的会计增量。

The public sector.

在公共部门，

You're working on multi-year election cycles.

你正在研究多年的选举周期。

The nonprofit and philanthropic sector,

在非营利和慈善部门，

well, you may give yourself 15 years or even a generation to reach a goal.

你可以给自己 15 年甚至 一代人的时间来实现目标。

Yet all of these sectors must come together

然而，所有这些部门必须齐心协力

to reach these outcomes.

才能取得这些成果。

To make it real,

为了让它更加真实，

let's look together about how these sectors can come together

让我们一起看看这些部门如何联合起来

to address power

解决权力问题，

with the focus on gender equality.

并重点关注性别平等。

Say you're a public sector leader.

假设你是公共部门的领导者。

You have the unique ability to create equity, a level playing field,

你拥有创造平等、 一个公平的竞争环境的独特能力，

so everyone has a fair shot.

这样每个人都有公平的机会。

You can create regulations and incentives

你可以制定法规和激励措施，

to increase the use of gender data.

以增加性别数据的使用。

You can set goals for women on boards and in public office.

你可以为董事会和 公职中的女性比例设定目标。

You can practice gender budgeting and you can mandate paid care.

你可以实行性别预算， 也可以强制带薪护理。

Say you're a leader in the business sector.

假设你是商业领域的领导者，

You can design products and services that unleash the economic power

你可以设计能够释放女性客户经济力量的

of the female customer.

产品和服务。

You can fortify and diversify your supply chain

你可以通过女性拥有的企业 来强化和多元化

with women-owned businesses,

你的供应链，

and you can invest in your female talent pipeline

你可以投资女性人才通道，

with pay equity and leadership opportunities

通过薪酬公平和领导机会，

so that your corporate decisions are more inclusive.

使你的公司决策更具包容性。

Or maybe you work in philanthropy or international development.

或者你可能从事慈善事业 或国际发展工作。

You can help remove the barriers, whether formal or informal,

你可以帮助消除影响权力分配的障碍，

that influence how power is distributed.

无论是正式的还是非正式的。

You can fund the research and training

你可以资助公共和私营部门

that both the public and the private sector need to do their part.

履行其职责所需的研究和培训。

You can fund campaigns and grassroots efforts

你可以为影响社会和文化规范的

that influence social and cultural norms.

活动和基层努力提供资金。

And you can help get women in decision-making roles

你可以帮助女性在家庭、社区、

in their households, in their communities,

国家和经济中

in their countries and in economies.

担任决策角色。

The multilingual leader can be conversant

多语言领导者可以通晓

and use the languages of all of these sectors

并使用所有这些领域的语言

to identify the root causes,

来确定根本原因，

and then collaborate together

然后共同合作

to find the solutions to these complex issues.

以寻找这些复杂问题的解决方案。

So here is over 20 years of experience distilled into one sentence.

将 20 多年的经验提炼成一句话就是：

Don't fret over your leadership styles,

不要为自己的领导风格而烦恼，

focus on your leadership languages.

专注于你自己的领导语言。

So over to you, leader.

那么就交给你了，领导者！

Which languages are you going to learn next?

接下来你要学习哪些语言？

Thank you.

谢谢。

(Applause)

（掌声）