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b'New Center for Public Leadership co-director Deval Patrick ascribes bad leadership as a root cause of many of the huge problems facing human society and the world, including the climate crisis, and threats to democracy and human rights. But are bad leaders flawed because of their personal shortcomings or are they an inevitable product of the flawed systems they operate within? And what makes a good leader? Is it their ability to get people to follow them? Or is it choosing the right things to lead those people toward? Patrick recently became co-director with Hannah Riley Bowles of the Harvard Kennedy School\\u2019s Center for Public Leadership, or CPL, as it\\u2019s usually referred to here in Cambridge. Transcending his humble beginnings growing up as the son of a single mother on the South Side of Chicago, Patrick has built an impressive\\u2014and impressively varied\\u2014leadership resume, including serving as governor of Massachusetts, becoming the first Black man to do so. He also served as the Assistant US Attorney General for Civil Rights under President Bill Clinton, as a top corporate executive at Texaco and Coca-Cola, and even launched a brief bid for the White House in 2020. Patrick says that too many of today\\u2019s leaders are focused on getting into leadership positions and keeping them\\u2014with all the power and perks that entails\\u2014but have lost track of the greater meaning of what they can achieve for the common good. He joins us to talk about how good, values-based leadership can help turn things around\\u2014and the role he hopes CPL can play in that effort. \\n\\nDeval Patrick is a professor of practice and co-director of the Center for Public Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School. Originally from the South Side of Chicago, Patrick attended Milton Academy, thanks to the organization A Better Chance, and then Harvard College and Harvard Law School. After law school, he clerked for a federal appellate judge and then launched a career as an attorney and business executive, becoming a staff attorney at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights in the Clinton administration, a partner at two Boston law firms and a senior executive at two Fortune 500 companies. In 2006, in his first bid for elective office, he became Massachusetts\\u2019 71st governor, the first Black person to serve in the role. During his two terms, Patrick expanded health care to over 98 percent of the Commonwealth\\u2019s residents, made unprecedented investments in Massachusetts public schools and public infrastructure, and launched initiatives stimulating clean energy and biotechnology. Under his leadership, Massachusetts ranked first in the nation in student achievement, energy efficiency, health care coverage, veterans\\u2019 services, and entrepreneurship, and emerged from recession to achieve a 25-year high in employment. Patrick remains involved in progressive politics, currently as co-chair of American Bridge 21st Century through its BridgeTogether initiative, which supports local grassroots groups working to build engagement among disenfranchised and marginalized voters. Patrick is a Rockefeller Fellow, a Crown Fellow of the Aspen Institute, and the author of two books, A Reason to Believe: Lessons from an Improbable Life and Faith in the Dream: A Call to the Nation to Reclaim American Values. He divides his time between Cambridge and Western Massachusetts.\\n\\nRalph Ranalli of the HKS Office of Public Affairs and Communications is the host, producer, and editor of HKS PolicyCast. A former journalist, public television producer, and entrepreneur, he holds an A.B. in Political Science from UCLA and an M.S. in Journalism from Columbia University.\\n\\nThe co-producer of PolicyCast is Susan Hughes. Design and graphics support is provided by Lydia Rosenberg, Delane Meadows and the OCPA Design Team. Social media promotion and support is provided by Natalie Montaner and the OCPA Digital Team.'