Should Business Leaders Get Political? A Framework for Speaking Up

The ONE Thing

NOVA Media

Entrepreneurship, Business, Careers

4.8 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 20 April 2026

⏱️ 37 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

When something bad happens in the world, every business leader has a difficult decision to make - the decision to speak up, or to stay silent. In the past, silence was the safest option - today, that’s no longer the case. In such a chaotic world full of conflict, inequality, and political polarization, it’s never been more important to get this question right. In this episode of The ONE Thing Podcast, Jay Papasan tackles the modern leader's biggest dilemma: The choice to speak up. Whether it's a global crisis, a political movement, or social turmoil, the pressure to "say something" is at an all-time high. To find the answer, Jay sits down with four world-class experts - Donald Miller, Phil M. Jones, Julia Lashay Israel, and Valorie Burton - to build a definitive framework for navigating public conflict carefully and intentionally. This episode is not about telling you what to think. It is about helping you make a wiser decision, one that aligns with your values, your responsibilities, and the impact your voice can have. Challenge of the Week: The next time you feel the urge to immediately post, react, or speak out, pause first and get curious. Ask what else you need to understand before adding your voice. That pause may help you create clarity instead of more noise. *** To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: the1thing.com/pods. We talk about: [00:00] Should Business Owners Speak Up or Stay Silent? [07:05] Julia Lashay’s Framework for Posting With Integrity [11:01] Phil M Jones on Curiosity, Context, and Slowing Down [14:08] Donald Miller on Regret, Responsibility, and Brand Risk [16:21] Valorie Burton on Mission, Empathy, and Adding Clarity [20:56] How this shows up in our lives [26:02] The 6 Question Framework for Deciding When to Speak [36:16] Your Weekly Challenge Links & Tools from This Episode: The ONE Thing Operating System Watch and Listen to Julia Lashay full episode here Watch and Listen to Phil M Jones full episode here Donald Miller Website Valorie Burton’s Website Free Resources Want to be a guest or share feedback? Email podcast@the1thing.com Produced by NOVA

Transcript

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0:00.0	When bad things happen around the world, should we be silent or should we speak up?
0:04.8	This is the question every business owner I know is wrestling with right now.
0:08.2	It's not the first time we'll have to deal with it and it's certainly not the last.
0:11.5	And this decision to speak or be silent has a really big impact.
0:15.4	It impacts our personal relationships.
0:17.3	It impacts our careers.
0:19.0	It impacts our businesses' growth and profitability. Our ability to attract and retain employees. It has an impact across all of those areas at the same time. There are strong expectations on both sides. People are looking for us to hear our voice. What is our position? And at the same time, we've been taught sometimes through really hard experiences,
0:38.4	that staying on the sidelines can be safer, that neutrality is better for business.
0:43.0	It's a big decision, and we should make it wisely.
0:45.7	I wish I could tell you a definitive answer for every single person listening,
0:49.5	because you're probably wrestling with this too.
0:51.7	Do I take to social media?
0:53.0	Do I take to my platform and let my voice be
0:55.4	heard? Well, the answer can be complicated, but I do promise you in this episode, I'm going to give
1:01.2	you some tools that you can make a great decision for you, youran, and this is the one thing, your weekly guide to the simple steps that lead to extraordinary results.
1:25.1	Like every great conversation, let's start this with the right expectations. This is not going to be an opinion piece. This is going to be a coaching episode. Coaches don't tell their clients what to think. They teach them how to think about the problem. When we ask the right questions, that's how we get a great answer. Now, this is a question, be silent or speak up, that I've been wrestling with for a while personally.
1:47.0	I'm in a community of authors, podcasters, YouTubers, people with literally together millions of followers.
1:54.0	And we've been asking the question, with everything that's going on in the world, do we have a moral obligation to speak up?
2:00.0	And if we do, how do we decide how to do it?
2:02.7	And what's the right framework? So I've been talking to friends. I've been talking to coaches.
2:07.3	I've been talking to people who are authorities around these areas to try to help give you
2:12.2	an informed framework for making those decisions. Now, the one thing is built around asking great questions
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