Jared Diamond is a Pulitzer Prize winner, MacArthur “Genius,” National Medal of Science recipient, and one of Foreign Policy‘s Top 10 Public Intellectuals, as well as a longtime Lavin Exclusive Speaker. He’s spent his career studying the forces that make societies rise, thrive, and fall—The Independent calls him “one of the few people who have changed the way we see human nature.”
In his new book, Profits, Prophets, Coaches, and Kings, Jared applies that same sweeping analytical lens to the concept of leadership. Drawing on leaders across politics, business, religion, and sports—from Rachel Carson to Margaret Thatcher to Mark Zuckerberg—he shows that leadership effectiveness isn’t a matter of character alone, but of the conditions under which a leader operates: resources, geography, culture, technology. And when we understand that, we’ll be better placed to create the conditions that make great leaders.
Nobel Prize winner and Lavin speaker Daron Acemoglu says the book takes “a huge step forward toward understanding how circumstances and individual talents, determination and strategy make leaders that have the potential to change our world.” UCLA economist Nico Voigtländer calls it “Jared Diamond at his very best,” adding that “Profits, Prophets, Coaches, and Kings is illuminating, surprising, and impossible to put down.”
In talks based on his book, Jared brings this research directly to organizations asking their own questions about leadership, strategy, and change. Audiences explore:
- When leaders genuinely change outcomes;
- When circumstances deserve more of the credit;
- And how to create the conditions that make leaders who make a difference.
Want more from Jared?
Learn more about him here, and contact us to book him to speak at your event!
