Good leadership can be broken down into a plethora of individual skills and attributes.
In part two of our episode on optimism in leadership, we hear from John Cook, a research assistant professor at the Center for Climate Change Communication at George Mason University in Virginia, USA. We will explore what he believes makes a good leader, the role of optimism in leadership and how to effectively exert positive influence.
After seeing the different approaches of various government and scientific groups over the last year when interacting with the public in response to COVID, Liveris Scholar Amber Spurway wanted to investigate how optimism can affect the efficacy of delivering messages for a desired response and whether people are more likely to trust an optimistic leader.
John Cook is deeply involved in the field of combating climate misinformation, and so has a wealth of experience when it comes to delivering information in the most effective ways. In this podcast, he shares his insights on how to best share information and influence the most people.
Meet our guest:
John Cook
Research Assistant Professor
Center for Climate Change Communication at George Mason University
John Cook is a research assistant professor at the Center for Climate Change Communication at George Mason University. His research focus is understanding and countering misinformation about climate change, with an emphasis on using critical thinking to build resilience. He founded Skeptical Science, authored the book Cranky Uncle vs. Climate Change, and developed the smartphone game Cranky Uncle, combining climate science, critical thinking, and cartoons to explain and counter climate misinformation.
Meet our interviewer:
Amber Spurway
Bachelor of Engineering (Honours)
Andrew N. Liveris Academy Scholar, 2020
Amber graduated from Rangi Ruru Girls’ School in Christchurch in 2019 as Proxime Accessit and was awarded the prize for the student with outstanding potential as well as the foreign language prize for Spanish.
Throughout high school, Amber was dedicated to STEM and took part in many different science and leadership development opportunities including attending the Global STEM Alliance Summit in New York, and two weeks in NASA at CASE Space School.
Learn more about the Liveris Academy.
