Menu
Sign In Search Podcasts Charts People & Topics Add Podcast API Pricing

Jennifer Selby Long

👤 Person
1396 total appearances

Appearances Over Time

Podcast Appearances

Chief Change Officer
#341 Jennifer Selby Long: Politics, Power, and the Choice to Stay or Go

You're all coming in with naturally different assumptions about what it means to be on a team, what it means to communicate, what it means to commit. You all have different assumptions about what that looks like. And so stepping back to look at the style and do you have conflict that is really exacerbated by these different styles and the fact that you haven't talked about it out loud?

Chief Change Officer
#341 Jennifer Selby Long: Politics, Power, and the Choice to Stay or Go

You're all coming in with naturally different assumptions about what it means to be on a team, what it means to communicate, what it means to commit. You all have different assumptions about what that looks like. And so stepping back to look at the style and do you have conflict that is really exacerbated by these different styles and the fact that you haven't talked about it out loud?

Chief Change Officer
#341 Jennifer Selby Long: Politics, Power, and the Choice to Stay or Go

You've just frustrated one another. So as you start to work your way through this checklist of things, eventually what you come down to is the substance of what you don't agree on. And from there, then you can start to work through what that is. But it's often quite small compared to what it looks like because people are not taking the time to raise and deal with conflict.

Chief Change Officer
#341 Jennifer Selby Long: Politics, Power, and the Choice to Stay or Go

You've just frustrated one another. So as you start to work your way through this checklist of things, eventually what you come down to is the substance of what you don't agree on. And from there, then you can start to work through what that is. But it's often quite small compared to what it looks like because people are not taking the time to raise and deal with conflict.

Chief Change Officer
#341 Jennifer Selby Long: Politics, Power, and the Choice to Stay or Go

It's exacerbates the politics in the situation, right? Because it feeds... That lack of trust. And where you know the lack of trust, of course, you're going to have more politics. You're going to have much more of those power battles. Where you have more trust, you're going to have less of that. Just because of human nature.

Chief Change Officer
#341 Jennifer Selby Long: Politics, Power, and the Choice to Stay or Go

It's exacerbates the politics in the situation, right? Because it feeds... That lack of trust. And where you know the lack of trust, of course, you're going to have more politics. You're going to have much more of those power battles. Where you have more trust, you're going to have less of that. Just because of human nature.

Chief Change Officer
#341 Jennifer Selby Long: Politics, Power, and the Choice to Stay or Go

Yeah. You need to find the environment that is the best fit for you and for what you enjoy. I love your example of the person who said, yeah, we could probably be a lot more effective or successful if we had left from the political animal thing. But the reality was that was what that organization was like and he saw it. And so maybe that was not the right fit.

Chief Change Officer
#341 Jennifer Selby Long: Politics, Power, and the Choice to Stay or Go

Yeah. You need to find the environment that is the best fit for you and for what you enjoy. I love your example of the person who said, yeah, we could probably be a lot more effective or successful if we had left from the political animal thing. But the reality was that was what that organization was like and he saw it. And so maybe that was not the right fit.

Chief Change Officer
#341 Jennifer Selby Long: Politics, Power, and the Choice to Stay or Go

But maybe for someone who enjoyed that culture, it would be a great fit and they'd be pretty happy there. I do think what you said reminded me of The advice that is actually, it's not my own. It was from Martin Luther King's personal attorney, Clarence Jones. And he was part of the core group of activists who worked really closely with Dr. King.

Chief Change Officer
#341 Jennifer Selby Long: Politics, Power, and the Choice to Stay or Go

But maybe for someone who enjoyed that culture, it would be a great fit and they'd be pretty happy there. I do think what you said reminded me of The advice that is actually, it's not my own. It was from Martin Luther King's personal attorney, Clarence Jones. And he was part of the core group of activists who worked really closely with Dr. King.

Chief Change Officer
#341 Jennifer Selby Long: Politics, Power, and the Choice to Stay or Go

And I was super fortunate to hear him speak a number of years ago. Imagine your situation now. They have figured out that their movement is never going to get what it needs if they do not get a powerful white man from the South to align and to become an advocate. And that's got to be something that was pretty painful for them to realize.

Chief Change Officer
#341 Jennifer Selby Long: Politics, Power, and the Choice to Stay or Go

And I was super fortunate to hear him speak a number of years ago. Imagine your situation now. They have figured out that their movement is never going to get what it needs if they do not get a powerful white man from the South to align and to become an advocate. And that's got to be something that was pretty painful for them to realize.

Chief Change Officer
#341 Jennifer Selby Long: Politics, Power, and the Choice to Stay or Go

But the realization was there are no permanent friends and no permanent enemies, only permanent interests. So what are your interests? What are theirs? Well, in this case, they figured out that they needed a stakeholder who was a powerful white Theternet.

Chief Change Officer
#341 Jennifer Selby Long: Politics, Power, and the Choice to Stay or Go

But the realization was there are no permanent friends and no permanent enemies, only permanent interests. So what are your interests? What are theirs? Well, in this case, they figured out that they needed a stakeholder who was a powerful white Theternet.

Chief Change Officer
#341 Jennifer Selby Long: Politics, Power, and the Choice to Stay or Go

In your case, you might find that your personal interests and the personal interests of a firm that has that more intensely competitive political culture are aligned or not aligned, right? What are your interests? What are their interests when assessing the environment that you're in and the ones you're considering?

Chief Change Officer
#341 Jennifer Selby Long: Politics, Power, and the Choice to Stay or Go

In your case, you might find that your personal interests and the personal interests of a firm that has that more intensely competitive political culture are aligned or not aligned, right? What are your interests? What are their interests when assessing the environment that you're in and the ones you're considering?

Chief Change Officer
#341 Jennifer Selby Long: Politics, Power, and the Choice to Stay or Go

Get really clear on your own interests or values that are fundamentally unchanging and core. Your deep interests, right? The deep things that are who you are, not the more superficial current interests like I need to make this much money to, I don't know, pay my mortgage.

Chief Change Officer
#341 Jennifer Selby Long: Politics, Power, and the Choice to Stay or Go

Get really clear on your own interests or values that are fundamentally unchanging and core. Your deep interests, right? The deep things that are who you are, not the more superficial current interests like I need to make this much money to, I don't know, pay my mortgage.

Chief Change Officer
#341 Jennifer Selby Long: Politics, Power, and the Choice to Stay or Go

The second thing he said is you will not prevail unless the powerful majority sees that what you want is also in their interests.

Chief Change Officer
#341 Jennifer Selby Long: Politics, Power, and the Choice to Stay or Go

The second thing he said is you will not prevail unless the powerful majority sees that what you want is also in their interests.