Shadowing Practice: Leadership Has To Be Learned | Simon Sinek - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Just like there's no such thing as an expert leader, just like there's no such thing as an expert parent, right?
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All of these things are journeys, and you're always a student parent, you're always a student leader.
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And the best leaders, the best parents, they're constantly learning, they're constantly finding new resources, they're reading books, they're reading articles,
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they're watching TED Talks, whatever it is, more information, they're having conversations with their friends, right?
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The best leaders, the best parents.
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And it's the same with friends, which is you have to learn how to have a difficult conversation.
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You have to learn how to listen.
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You have to learn how to have an effective confrontation.
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If your friend has done something that hurt your feelings, can you bring it to their attention in a way
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that they will hear you rather than just defend themselves and fight with you?
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Do we know how to hold space for our friends in a time of need?
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I was struggling, and I called up a friend and said, hey, can I just talk to you?
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And I told them what I was going through, and they started trying to fix me.
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and I thank goodness
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that you can tell people in the middle be like don't need solutions I need you to just listen listen
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but most of us well -intentioned we go to fix men are particularly bad right we go to fix
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when sometimes all somebody needs is for you to sit in mud with me
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and make me feel not alone that's all I need and
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so most of us don't have those skills and
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when you talk about translating them into work right
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if somebody's got struggles at home their marriages on the fritz their kids are acting out, I don't know, you're in a,
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you know, there's a towering inferno a couple miles to the east, right?
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You think that doesn't come to work?
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So screaming and yelling at somebody, why haven't you made your numbers, is not helpful.
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Empathy is a thing we have to practice.
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I'll give you a real scenario that can happen at work, how empathy exists, right?
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So let's take a real -life scenario.
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Somebody missed their numbers, right?
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so we walk into their office call them up whatever
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it is hey um i noticed
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you missed your numbers for the third quarter in a row um
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you got to pick up your numbers in the fourth quarter otherwise
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i don't know what's going to happen you you got to hit your numbers
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that's fairly normal yeah now let's inject empathy dare i call it friendship into
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that scenario hey um your numbers are down for the third quarter in a row um
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we've talked about this before um are you okay what's going on I'm worried about you.
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Right?
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That will get you a more honest answer of where they're struggling.
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And the person can open up back with you.
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But so we can help.
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They won't be defensive in that scenario.
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So we can help.
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So we can help them.
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So we can help them.
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Right?
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If somebody is struggling, we can help them.
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But if they can't tell us and we don't know how to listen
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and we don't know how to ask and we don't know how to confront and we don't know how to have empathy,
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then we're going to get no information and
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that tension is going to get worse and worse and worse until somebody quits or gets fired.
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so how about the best leader that you've ever personally had the best leader that I've had
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two people come to mind for different reasons Dennis was my leader back in young in my career
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and this is
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when I learned about behavior over accomplishment I was a young account executive at a big ad agency
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and new business pitches were done by the senior leaders it was the end of the year
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and all the senior leaders have gone away on their holiday vacations and me and another junior
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person who were assigned to work on this pitch uh were told prep the war room
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and you know so
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when all the senior folks come back
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they can do the pitch prepping the war means hang the research on the walls
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that takes an hour right we had a week to kill
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so we just decided to do the pitch ourselves like we combed through the data
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we found an insight we wrote the deck came up with a strategy the whole thing
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and when the senior leaders came back we were like we finished you know like we did the whole deck
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and they used our pitch they used our strategy in the pitch
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and we lost the business oh boy we did not win the pitch
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and my boss gave me a huge promotion
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they didn't just move me up one level they moved me up two levels in one night
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and what he was doing was rewarding my behavior not my accomplishment interesting
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because I took initiative he was rewarding my initiative
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and you know what he gets when he rewards my initiative more initiative
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if he said to me look great work but you didn't hit it
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so sorry yep I would never have shown any initiative after
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that because why would I right or I would just play it safe you know
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so one thing I learned was reward the behavior you want to be repeated
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and so that was a big lesson for me but
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But probably the single best leader ever I had was a guy named Peter Intimaggio.
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Peter never answered a single question I asked him.
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It was so annoying.
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Peter, I don't know what to do.
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What do you think we should do?
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Well, I think we should do this.
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Then I think you should do that.
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Peter, something's out horribly wrong.
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What do I do?
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I don't know.
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What do you think you should do?
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I was just like, so annoying.
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In the moment I couldn't see it, I just thought he was, I just answered by, please, I'm asking you because I don't know.
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Isn't that obvious?
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But what he taught me was self -reliance, what he taught me was self -confidence, and what he taught me was accountability,
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because when things went horribly wrong, he taught us that you couldn't go in and be like,
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it got screwed up, you said, I screwed it up.
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You didn't go and say, they screwed it up, you said, it got screwed up on my watch.
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Like, he taught us accountability, but we never got yelled at.
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I never got yelled at when something went sideways.
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He would sometimes get stressed, but he would say, well, how are you going to fix it?
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and I always knew that he had my back
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but he always made me do it
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and it was the single best leader I ever had
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and have you implemented
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that same way of working with your teams yeah I mean as best I can I mean I'm human
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but yes I'm pretty good about being laissez faire and I'm okay
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if people screw things up as long as they take it where I become difficult
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if somebody doesn't take accountability it got screwed up really it just happened Yeah.
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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You know, the market.
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Yeah.
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Yeah, the market.
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Yeah, so I love accountability.
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I love when people say, it's kind of like, go back to our Marine Corps friend here.
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The Marines say, no greater friend, no greater enemy, right?
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Like, if you take accountability, I will be by your side no matter how bad it is, and I will help you fix it,
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and I will look after you and I'll protect you.
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You lie to me or don't take accountability, I'm going to be asking you so many uncomfortable questions
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because I know what's going on and so do you and I would just keep noodling at you.
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Probably not a good leadership quality, but I love accountability.
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And by the way, I have to model it.
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I can't expect people to do it if I don't model it.
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So I'm the first person to say, I screwed up.
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I'm the first person to say, this happened on my watch.
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I'm the first person to say, I shouldn't have given you that.
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That is on me.
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I am so sorry.
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I am the first person to own every mistake, every screw -up.
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The buck stops here every time because I cannot expect somebody to do something if I'm not willing to do it.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “Leadership Has To Be Learned”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: leader, accountability, somebody, screwed, pitch. This video has 127 sentences and 1455 words to shadow. The speech runs for 7:07. The speaker talks fast, about 205 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 85% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| pitch noun | /pɪt͡ʃ/ | A throw; a toss; a cast, as of something from the hand. |
| accountability noun | /əˌkaʊn.təˈbɪl.ə.ti/ | The state of being accountable; liability to be called on to render an account or give an explanation; liability to be held responsible or answerable for… |
| initiative noun | /ɪˈnɪʃ.ə.tɪv/ | A beginning; a first move. |
| reward noun | /ɹɪˈwɔɹd/ | Something of value given in return for an act. |
| scenario noun | /sɪˈnɛəɹioʊ/ | An outline or model of an expected or supposed sequence of events. |
| empathy noun | /ˈɛmpəθi/ | Identification with or understanding of the thoughts, feelings, or emotional state of another person. |
| yell verb | /jɛl/ | To shout; holler; make a loud sound with the voice, especially to express intense emotions such as anger or excitement. |
| deck noun | /ˈdɛk/ | Any raised flat surface that can be walked on: a balcony; a porch; a raised patio; a flat rooftop. |
| accomplishment noun | /əˈkɑm.plɪʃ.mənt/ | The act of accomplishing; completion; fulfilment. |
| defend verb | /dɪˈfɪnd/ | To ward off attacks against (something or someone). |
| lesson noun | /ˈlɛs.ən/ | A section of learning or teaching into which a wider learning content is divided. |
| helpful adjective | /ˈhɛlp.fl̩/ | Furnishing help; giving aid; useful. |
| skill noun | /skɪl/ | A capacity to do something well; a technique, an ability, usually acquired or learned, as opposed to abilities that are regarded as innate. |
| promotion noun | /pɹəˈmoʊʃn̩/ | An advancement in rank or position. |
| vacation noun | /veɪˈkeɪ.ʃən/ | An extended trip or journey away from home for rest or pleasure. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| come back verb | To return to a place. | |
| act out verb | /ˌækt ˈaʊ̯t/ | To perform something specific. |
| call up verb | To retrieve from personal or computer memory. | |
| come up with verb | To manage to produce, deliver, or present (something) by inventing, creating, thinking of, or obtaining it. | |
| go back to verb | To stem from; to originate in. | |
| go through verb | To travel from one end of something to the other. | |
| open up verb | To open. | |
| pick up verb | To lift; to grasp and raise. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- You think that doesn't come to work?
- Peter, I don't know what to do.
- What do you think we should do?
- What do I do?
- What do you think you should do?
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | has done · haven't you made · we've talked |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | were done · were assigned · be repeated |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | friends, which is · person who were |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 52 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, I'm, they're. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: initiative /ɪˈnɪʃ.ə.tɪv/, accomplishment /əˈkɑm.plɪʃ.mənt/, promotion /pɹəˈmoʊʃn̩/, vacation /veɪˈkeɪ.ʃən/, friendship /ˈfɹɛn(d)ʃɪp/
- Long words — get the stress right: accountability /əˌkaʊn.təˈbɪl.ə.ti/, initiative /ɪˈnɪʃ.ə.tɪv/, accomplishment /əˈkɑm.plɪʃ.mənt/, uncomfortable /ʌnˈkʌm.fɚ.tə.bl̩/, confrontation /ˌkɑn.fɹənˈteɪ.ʃən/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like pitch, accountability, initiative.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.