Leading Matters: Lessons from My Journey

7:20 am on a sleepy Monday morning, at the west gym on Stanford campus, I was heading to the pool for my morning swim when I ran into John Hennessy leaving the gym, unhurried, waving and smiling at the gym receptionist as he left. His appearance is unassuming, and completely belies any trace of Hennessy the star researcher, founder, and university president. This humility isn’t coincidence but a cornerstone of his character, as he explains in his book. Leading Matters is a collection of leadership and business wisdom told through palatable anecdotes. I learned about events ranging from how Stanford’s Bing Concert Hall was built when Itzhak Perlman visited and told Hennessy how bad the performing arts facilities were to the drama surrounding Stanford’s plans for a second campus in New York City. Hennessy isn’t afraid to flex his achievements, but I didn’t find the tone to be too imposing. It’s a fun read for anyone who’s been at Stanford, as being here has given me a the context to understand where Hennessy’s coming from and what he’s done.

Visionaries have this ultimate weapon: “let me tell you a story”. Hennessy spends a whole chapter explaining the importance of telling good stories, and the whole book telling stories from his life. The analogy he makes is that leaders should be loaded with a “quiver of stories” that they can draw from for any occasion. It’s not common to see someone from an engineering background valuing stories so much, but I presume Hennessy had to learn it on the job when he transitioned from professor to startup founder, and finally to pure leadership in managing Stanford; he mentions how although numbers and facts get someone interested, it’s always some compelling or relatable story that clinches the deal or donation. Storytelling isn’t my strength and I’m working to address it: taking Hennessy’s advice, I’ve started a written story collection to keep in memory the cool stories I come across and practice telling them.