The Leadership Chronicles
The Leadership Chronicles
Podcast Description
We came to HBS to make a difference as leaders and great citizens of the world. And many times we ask ourselves, how can we achieve personal fulfillment while satisfying our desire to make a difference for others in this world? What is our ripple effect on ourselves, our families, our communities, our professional endeavors, and others?
Supporting that aspiration, our Podcast will provide those pathways, connections, thought leadership and resources enabling us to be the best person and leader we can be.
Podcast Insights
Content Themes
The podcast focuses on personal fulfillment, leadership development, and the impact of individual actions on broader communities, featuring episodes like the journey of Jan Moran from HBS to her entrepreneurial pursuits in the beauty industry, which highlight storytelling's role in women's careers.
We came to HBS to make a difference as leaders and great citizens of the world. And many times we ask ourselves, how can we achieve personal fulfillment while satisfying our desire to make a difference for others in this world? What is our ripple effect on ourselves, our families, our communities, our professional endeavors, and others?
Supporting that aspiration, our Podcast will provide those pathways, connections, thought leadership and resources enabling us to be the best person and leader we can be.
In this episode of Leadership Chronicles, Leslie Zane (MBA'86) shares her journey as a pioneer in marketing and behavioral science. From her early career at Bain & Company to founding her own consulting firm, Triggers®.
Leslie shares with us that traditional marketing is dead—breakout growth requires a new playbook. For decades, marketing has wasted billions assuming the conscious mind makes decisions. It doesn’t. People choose brands, leaders, even ideas—because of unconscious associations built deep in memory. Leslie helps brands and people bypass the conscious mind and unlock the instinctive brain—the hidden engine of choice, brand preference, and growth. When you do, brands grow faster and farther—often with less spend, less time, and less risk.
She reflects on the influence of her parents, her experiences at Harvard Business School, and the challenges she faced in advocating for innovative ideas in a traditional industry. Leslie also offers valuable advice for aspiring entrepreneurs and emphasizes the significance of courage and expertise in forging one's own path.
Hosted by Sherri Sklar, MBA’89 and Sarah Alter, MBA’95.Highlights
- The unconscious mind drives most of our decisions, not the conscious mind.
- Family influence plays a crucial role in shaping leadership qualities.
- Breaking barriers in marketing requires courage and perseverance.
- Accumulating expertise is vital before starting your own business.
- Leadership is about asking the right questions and being vulnerable.
- Courage earns trust much faster than flattery.
ABOUT LESLIE ZANE, MBA'86
Leslie Zane is an award-winning marketer, TEDx speaker and the foremost authority in harnessing the instinctive mind to accelerate brand and business growth. Like many pioneers, Zane’s ideas were dismissed early on. In 1995, she founded Triggers®, the first brand consulting firm rooted in behavioral science and, together with her team, cracked the code on accelerating brand growth. Over the past 25 years, her company has delivered over $25bb in incremental revenue growth for Fortune 100 clients.
An alumna of Yale, Harvard Business School, Bain & Company and P&G. Leslie is a recipient of the Congressional Women of Distinction and the Ogilvy Award.
Her work has been featured in over 25 prestigious publications including Harvard Business Review, Knowledge@Wharton, and World Economic Forum, Newsweek, and more. Her book, The Power of Instinct: The New Rules of Persuasion In Business And Life has been hailed as ”the biggest gamechanger since Malcolm Gladwell's Blink.”
Leslie serves on the board of El Centro Hispano which empowers Hispanic immigrants with skills to thrive in the United States.
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