Purpose-Driven Leadership in an Era of Polarization

HBR IdeaCast

Harvard Business Review

Leadership, Entrepreneurship, Communication, Marketing, Business, Business/management, Management, Business/marketing, Business/entrepreneurship, Innovation, Hbr, Strategy, Economics, Finance, Teams, Harvard

4.4 • 1.9K Ratings

🗓️ 25 November 2025

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Even in difficult times, leadership must be about empathy, authenticity, fairness and service. That's according to Darren Walker, the outgoing CEO of the Ford Foundation, a nonprofit with an endowment of billions of dollars and a charge to reduce poverty and injustice. Drawing on his own upbringing in rural Texas to his time at the helm of one of the world’s largest philanthropies, Walker explains how inequality erodes hope, why discomfort is essential for meaningful change, and how leaders can build the courage to speak honestly.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Deal's not just another payroll platform.
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0:10.6	Built in-house, built for peace of mind.
0:13.1	Visit D-E-E-E-L.com slash HBR.
0:16.3	Thank you. I'm Adi Ignatius.
0:33.6	I'm Alison Beard, and this is the HBR Ideacast.
0:36.6	Music I'm Alison Beard and this is the HBR Ideacast.
0:45.6	All right. I want to talk about leadership.
0:47.4	Okay. Let's talk about leadership.
0:50.2	I think there's a special kind of leadership that's required today.
0:52.9	We're in a period of intense disruption, right?
0:55.6	Geopolitical upheaval, technological change,
1:01.0	shifts in cultural norms. And I'm not sure anyone has defined the new skill set that is required for leaders to succeed in this kind of environment. I think that's right. We see all different
1:06.5	models of leaders in business and politics today, we publish advice on specific attributes you need,
1:15.8	like the ability to lead with courage, to be a hands-on leader. But I don't think that anyone
1:22.2	has outlined what the whole package should be. So our guest today is trying to define all of that,
1:29.8	right? He's a powerful voice for consistent values-driven leadership, for learning to live with
1:36.0	being uncomfortable as we sort through the complexity. So this is Darren Walker, who's just
1:40.4	finishing up a 12-year stint as president of the Ford Foundation dedicated to advancing human welfare.
1:45.9	His background is inspiring.
1:47.7	He was born in a charity hospital in Texas to a single mother with few resources.
	...

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