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The year before John Donahoe became CEO of Nike, he gave himself the gift of wisdom.
While his career journey had been prosperous – 20 years at Bain & Company from consultant to CEO, CEO of eBay, CEO of ServiceNow – he recognized the need for an intentional pause. So, John took a year off. During this sabbatical, he created what he called a “Wisdom Tour” – a quest for inspiration, advice, and guidance through a series of mentoring conversations. Reflecting on the enriching experience in an interview with Fortune’s podcast Leadership Next, John said: “I was 55 thinking, what will I care about when I’m 65? Some people are 65 who have vitality – they’re young at heart, they’re happy. But there are an awful lot of people at 65 where that’s not the case. “I learned from brain science that our brains get more negative over time. So I started reaching out to people 65 and over who have the vitality that I looked up to.” In total, John connected with 50 people and asked: “Tell me how you understand your life at this stage and how you have handled transitions since your 50s. How can I keep vitality into my 60s and 70s?” 5 lessons John learned during his Wisdom Tour: 1. Attitude is everything This learning journey informed John’s next stage of his life. He recognized his gift as service-based leadership and sought a role that would allow him to leverage it. With this clarity, he joined Nike as its new CEO. You don’t need to quit your job to create your own Wisdom Tour. But you need to:
Wisdom is swirling all around us… but accessible only to those brave enough to seize it! © 2023. Ann Tardy and MentorLead. www.mentorlead.com. All Rights Reserved. |