At the end of the day, someone has to call the shots. It’s well enough to have stacks of Big Data, it’s vital to know the market, but it is purpose and a course that defines a company. That definition comes only from leadership. A company cannot hire for leadership; it’s not something that appears on a resume. Instead, leaders must be discovered and crafted.

To shed some light on the issue of leadership, Dave Vellante, cohost of theCUBE, from the SiliconANGLE Media team, joined Dr. Robert Gates, American statesman, scholar, and the 22nd U.S. Secretary of Defense, during the ServiceNow Knowledge16 conference.

Some things can’t be taught

The conversation opened with a look at Gates’s latest book, A Passion for Leadership: Lessons on Change and Reform from Fifty Years of Public Service. The book described some of his experiences with U.S. presidents and his life in public service. Gates took a moment to speak about leaderships, saying there are aspects of leadership that cannot be taught, including empathy, courage and sincerity, among others. These things are personal, he said, and develop during the course of your life. They can’t be taught in a university.

This includes a sense of humor. “I think a sense of humor reflects balance,” Gates said, “It reflects a perspective on the world that is healthy.”

He then mentioned how the book took about 18 months to write, being quicker than his previous book, Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War, which involved more purely factual information.  

Leadership inside the company

The discussion moved toward corporations, starting with executive term limits. “I think these broad rules are a mistake,” Gates said. He explained that in some cases term limits have value, but in other cases, the older leaders of a business can be the most restless, innovative people at the company.

Gates also spoke about moving executives through different positions at the company. He described how he would tell rising officers that he wanted people with a breadth of experience so they would have a broader view of the challenges they would face. By the same token, he said, it doesn’t make sense to rotate someone with a specialty out of their area of expertise.

Watch the full interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE and theCUBE’s coverage of ServiceNow Knowledge16.

Photo by SiliconANGLE