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Transcript

Attention: The New Currency of Leadership · The Humanistic Leader Podcast- Dr. Craig Nathanson

• 0:00
  Welcome to the Humanistic Leader Podcast. This is Dr.
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  Craig Nathanson, and in today's short reflection, I want to invite you to slow
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  down for a few moments and think more deeply about leadership,
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  life, work, and what it means to remain human in a rapidly changing world.
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  Today, I want to talk about attention, not time, attention.
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  Increasingly, attention may be our most valuable human resource,
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  You know, every day, thousands of things compete for it News alerts,
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  emails, social media, algorithms, advertising, notifications And without realizing
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  it, we can spend hours reacting to things we never intentionally chose to focus on,
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  Remember that where your attention goes, life follows Attention shapes our experience,
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  our relationships, our memories, our emotions, and ultimately who we become.
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  Think about the things you remember most from your life. You remember what captured
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  your attention, the people you loved, the places that mattered,
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  the experiences that changed you.
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  Attention is deeply connected to memory, and memory is deeply connected to identity.
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  In last week's podcast, I discussed how I answered my son's phone call in the
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  restaurant And I realized that at that time, that phone call deserved my attention in that moment,
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  Sometimes, the greatest gift we can offer another human being is our undivided,
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  attention Like that phone call Not advice, not solutions, not fixing, just attention.
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  You know, when another person feels really heard, something powerful happens.
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  They feel respected. They feel valued. They feel understood.
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  Many people are surrounded by, you know, communication and yet starving for this connection.
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  In many ways, attention is becoming the new currency of the modern world.
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  Companies compete for it. Media platforms compete for it.
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  Advertisers compete for it. Now AI systems compete for it.
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  Attention, though, is limited. Every time we give attention to one thing,
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  we choose not to give it to something else.
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  The question is whether we are investing wisely. Are we investing attention
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  in relationships, in learning, in reflection, in meaningful work?
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  On a recent trip to Washington, D.C., I was at Dulles Airport.
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  It's a very old, beautiful airport.
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  And to go from one terminal to the other. There's like this old shuttle that
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  you have to take. And my wife and I were on the shuttle and we were kind of
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  jammed in with a bunch of people.
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  And I accidentally bumped into this woman and I said, you know,
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  I'm so sorry. She said, oh, no problem.
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  And normally I would have left it at that. But for some reason,
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  I asked her, how are you doing? Where are you going?
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  And this led to a 20 minute conversation. She was on her way to her 60th high
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  school reunion And she was excited But at the same time she said Well this might
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  be my last I'm not sure if we'll get together again,
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  Turns out she was from the city where I was born And we made this like Wonderful you know connection,
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  In the past I wouldn't have paid Really attention to the person next to me.
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  So are we investing attention in, you know, the people that we run into?
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  You know, as artificial intelligence becomes more capable, one of the defining
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  human strengths of the future may not be access to information because machines will have information.
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  The defining strength may be wisdom, discernment, reflection,
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  and the ability to determine what really matters.
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  AI can help us process information, but human beings decide what information
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  deserves our attention and what has meaning.
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  Attention sets really at the doorway, as I think about it, between information and wisdom.
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  Every day we're making conscious attention decisions.
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  Some are conscious and, you know, many are unconscious. Each decision seems
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  small, But over time, those decisions become our lives,
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  One conversation One relationship One walk One quiet moment at a time The good
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  news is that our attention can be reclaimed,
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  The fact that you're choosing to listen to this podcast right now Shows your attention,
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  Every time we listen deeply Every time we take a walk with, you know,
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  distractions Every time we become fully present with another human being We
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  reclaim a small piece of ourselves,
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  So today I want to leave you with a simple question What has been receiving
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  most of your attention lately?
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  And does it deserve it?
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  Because ultimately our lives become what we repeatedly pay attention to. Choose wisely.
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  This is Dr. Craig Nathanson. Wherever you are on your journey,
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  remember to be your own best friend,
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  learn to lead yourself before leading others, and keep becoming more human in
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  a rapidly changing world. Until next time.