#274: Chuck Robbins, Chairman & CEO, Cisco – Adapt your leadership style

How Leaders Lead with David Novak

David Novak Leadership

Entrepreneurship, Business, Management

4.8 • 596 Ratings

🗓️ 15 January 2026

⏱️ 66 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Great leaders don’t cling to one leadership style. They adapt as people and situations change. And they figure out how to do it without losing what makes them real. Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins shares how he’s learned to lead through major transformation with honesty, vulnerability, and a clear understanding of what his people – all 90,000 of them – need from him. If you're navigating change (or just trying to be a little more human as a leader!), then this one’s for you. You’ll also learn: How to scale your business through the right partnerships The hidden opportunity in almost every customer crisis 3 ways to lead through big change Why “chasing the competition” is a losing game Take your learning further. Get proven leadership advice from these (free!) resources: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The How Leaders Lead App⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠: A vast library of 90-second leadership lessons to stay sharp on the go ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Daily Insight Emails⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠: One small (but powerful!) leadership principle to focus on each day Whichever you choose, you can be sure you’ll get the trusted leadership advice you need to advance your career, develop your team, and grow your business.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of How Leaders Lead with David Novak.
0:04.6	Today's guest is Chuck Robbins. He's the chairman and CEO of Cisco, which is one of the most influential technology companies in the world.
0:12.7	Chuck's been with the company since 1997 and though the magnitude of his leadership role is now gigantic,
0:20.0	he's a leader who knows how to stay grounded and really
0:22.9	connect with the people he leads. You're going to love this conversation between David and Chuck.
0:27.9	Enjoy it, and I'll see you at the very end of the episode for the debrief.
0:32.6	I always believed my job every day was an interview. And what I did in my role every day was
0:40.5	showing them that I was the right candidate for the next job we might have to
0:50.2	cut this out from the actual episode but I got to hear the story of Pants Patterson.
0:58.0	You've been talking to Eric Church too much now. Yes, I have. So if you really want to hear it,
1:04.8	my CFO is a guy named Mark Patterson, who he and Eric have become friends as well. We play golf
1:10.5	occasionally together.
1:13.1	There's an outside chance we're playing very soon. And this, Mark actually had a pair of
1:21.6	pants that someone else had bought for him to wear, and he was playing very poorly on the front
1:26.5	nine. And he was convinced that it was
1:30.2	the pants that were causing the problems because they were baggy they looked like grandpaw pants
1:34.3	and so after nine he went into the pro shop bought a pair of pants put him on went to the tent
1:40.2	tea and proceeded to play great on the back nine so So Eric decided to call him Pans Patterson.
1:47.3	And he went on and on about how he started talking about like, could you imagine like a defensive
1:52.5	back in today's world with NIL and college? You know, Pan now starting for the Tar Hills,
1:57.6	Pans Patterson. And he thought, Eric thought it was the funniest thing. And he went, he just, he laughed and he kept, and it's, it's, it's stuck. I texted Eric a few days ago and asked him about playing golf with us. And his first answer, his first question back was, after he said yes, was his pants coming. There you go. I love it. And now we call them that at Cisco too now, so it's something that's not going away.
2:23.1	That's great.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from David Novak Leadership, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of David Novak Leadership and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.