Biden Talks Leadership Philosophy, Claims He Gets ‘Credit For — Holding the International Community Together’

President Joe Biden got candid about his relationship with foreign leaders during a conversation with podcaster Jay Shetty.

Released Monday, Shetty talked with Biden for his podcast, On Purpose with Jay Shetty, which primarily focused on mental health and resilience. During their discussion, Biden was asked how he accesses other people’s motivations.

“You were just saying there, that when you can understand someone’s motivation, you can almost disarm them without exposing them,” Shetty said. “How do we do that so that we go to the root of it?”

“You know, it’s hard to explain,” Biden replied. “I get credit for, these days, for sort of holding the international community together. I try to understand what the circumstance the other world leader is facing and see if there’s a way, what needs to be done. There’s a way through that he doesn’t, or she doesn’t have to make a great sacrifice to do what she’s doing, but help make the case why they’re helping others.”

“But there are ways to do that and it doesn’t require the person if they have a fundamental difference with you on a subject, but if they’re doing something because they don’t have the political bandwidth to be able to do it at home, you can provide it,” Biden added.

Biden elaborated that there are ways to allow others to “save face” while still accomplishing your goals.

“I will say to leaders sometimes, ‘Well, why don’t you let me criticize you for this or thank you for that?'” he explained. “They’ll go, ‘Okay, or why don’t you criticize me? Why don’t you criticize me for my not doing something?’ And then I’ll respond and say, okay, and then you can do what you wanna do. It’s just basic human nature. But I think trying to figure out what leeway a person has…”

“I mean, it’s hard, but there’s ways you can work through, not always, but you can work through things where you can allow the other person to save face and still get to where you wanna go. And sometimes it works with, you’re working with two people to get that done. But it’s just trying to figure out what is really, what impediments are in their way to keep them from being able to do what, you know, you feel in their, your gut, you know, they know they should do,” Biden said.

Watch above, via the On Purpose with Jay Shetty Podcast.

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