How Leaders Lead with David Novak · 2026-01-15 · 66 min · 13,270 words

#274: Chuck Robbins, Chairman & CEO, Cisco – Adapt your leadership style

Listen to the original audio · Transcribed with NVIDIA Parakeet · Timestamps stay in sync with the live audio

Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of How Leaders Lead with David Novak. Today's guest is Chuck Robbins. He's the chairman and CEO of Cisco, which is one of the most influential technology companies in the world. Chuck's been with the company since 1997, and though the magnitude of his leadership role is now gigantic.

He's a leader who knows how to stay grounded and really connect with the people he leads. You're gonna love this conversation between David and Chuck. Enjoy it and I'll see you at the very end of the episode for the debrief. I always believed my job every day was an interview. And what I did in my role every day was showing them that I was the right candidate for the next job.

We might have to cut this out from the actual episode, but I gotta hear the story of Pance Patterson. You've been talking to Eric Church too much now. Yes, I have. So if you really want to hear it, my CFO is a guy named Mark Patterson who uh he and Eric have become friends as well and we play golf occasionally together. Uh and there's a there's an outside chance we're playing very soon.

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