Public Service and Entrepreneurial Thinking (ft. David Burt)

Public Service and Entrepreneurial Thinking (ft. David Burt)

Perspectives on leading— together and alone— from the middle of the Atlantic

OPENING QUOTE:

“Leaders have to recognize that an approach that may work in one instance and may be very good, it may work 90% of the time, cannot work 100% of the time, and you have to be flexible enough to adjust your approach.”

- David Burt

GUEST BIO:

David Burt is the Premier of Bermuda— head of government for the British Overseas Territory. He began his career at George Washington University with a degree in finance and information systems before returning to Bermuda as an entrepreneur to launch his own digital consultancy. In 2016 he was elected as opposition leader in Bermuda before becoming premier in 2017, the youngest in Bermuda’s history.

CORE TOPICS + DETAILS:

[2:46] - Inspiration by Demonstration

The power of getting your hands dirty

One of the best ways to inspire people to do their best is to not be afraid of doing the work yourself, showing the people around you that you’re not afraid to get your hands dirty in the day-to-day. David calls it “inspiration by demonstration.”

[8:23] - Inward Leadership

Recognizing your own strengths and weaknesses

David highlights the importance of recognizing the areas where you can improve as a leader. That also means taking on responsibility when something doesn’t go well. Even if a mistake happens two or three levels down, true leaders say, “This is my responsibility,” rather than putting it on others.

[19:17] - Building for Tomorrow

Leaders as visionaries

“We need to make sure that we are adjusting to the realities— not just what we see today, but which may come down the road,” David says. He believes that presenting a clear vision for the future can bring even those from across the aisle into the fold and create greater unity throughout government.

[20:26] - Learning from the Unsuccessful

The top isn’t the only place with meaningful perspective

David has a message for developing leaders— don’t just learn from the successes, but the failures. “I think that some of the best lessons in leadership of which I have learned are from people who may not have been regarded as very successful leaders, but who have been willing to share with me the lessons of which they learned, the things of which they may have done differently had they had known before and made those mistakes. I think that is a very important thing, and that's what I would encourage people to certainly do.”

RESOURCES:

[0:50] About the Politics of Bermuda

Follow David Burt:

Premier of Bermuda Website

Twitter

Follow Chris Roebuck:

Website

Twitter

LinkedIn

Facebook

Perspectives from the Top

ABOUT PERSPECTIVES FROM THE TOP:

Discover the secrets of success for you and your organization shared by the world’s leading thinkers, doers, and trailblazers. Join Chris Roebuck, Honorary Visiting Professor of transformational leadership, leader in military, business, and government, inspiring global keynote speaker, one of HR’s Most Influential Thinkers, bestselling author, and your host of Perspectives from the Top. The show reveals a treasure trove of insights from mega trends to practical strategies and actions to take your career up a gear. From government world shapers and business mold breakers to evidence driven academics and enthusiastic entrepreneurs, each episode shows you how you can immediately use these new ideas and actions to drive your success.

Learn more at: PerspectivesFromTheTop.com

ABOUT DETROIT PODCAST STUDIOS:

In Detroit, history was made when Barry Gordy opened Motown Records back in 1960. More than just discovering great talent, Gordy built a systematic approach to launching superstars. His rigorous processes, technology, and development methods were the secret sauce behind legendary acts such as The Supremes, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Diana Ross and Michael Jackson.

As a nod to the past, Detroit Podcast Studios leverages modern versions of Motown’s processes to launch today’s most compelling podcasts. What Motown was to musical artists, Detroit Podcast Studios is to podcast artists today. With over 75 combined years of experience in content development, audio production, music scoring, storytelling, and digital marketing, Detroit Podcast Studios provides full-service development, training, and production capabilities to take podcasts from messy ideas to finely tuned hits. 

Here’s to making (podcast) history together.

Learn more at: DetroitPodcastStudios.com

ABOUT THE HOST:

Chris has shown over 21,000 leaders in over 1500 organizations globally how they can discover their secrets of success in a way that meets and beats their organizations specific challenges.

Chris has done this across sector, culture and geography - UBS, HSBC, KPMG & London Underground, legal firms to construction, tech and IT, to retail, facilities to scientific research, police to not for profit, pharmaceutical to SMEs. From the UK National Health Service of 1.4m staff and UK Government to the Red Cross in Myanmar, from Investment banks in London to Middle East Telecoms, from the Chinese Space Program leaders to HR Directors in India and global retail CEOs in Rome.

When he was the Global Head of Leadership at UBS, overseeing a staff of 70,000 across 100 countries, his team helped the bank transform organizational performance to increase profitability by 235%, market capitalization by 50% and win numerous awards. This is now a Harvard Case Study.

Chris has been quoted as a business leadership expert globally in the Harvard Business Review China, FT, Wall Street Journal, Le Monde, New York Times, Business Week, Time Magazine, Washington Post, Times of India, Straits & Gulf Times and many others. He judges business awards and has done over 350 TV interviews on leadership and business on BBC, Sky, Bloomberg, Al Jazeera, CNBC & CNN. He’s also skied at 60mph by accident. 

Learn more about Chris at: ChrisRoebuck.Live

CREDITS:

Chris Roebuck: Host | [e-mail]

Connor Trombley: Executive Producer | [e-mail]