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June 3 - June 11, 2019
To believe in something, and not to live it, is dishonest. —MAHATMA GANDHI
It’s not hard to make decisions when you know what your values are. —ROY DISNEY, FORMER VICE CHAIRMAN, WALT DISNEY COMPANY
Who you are, what your values are, what you stand for . . . They are your anchor, your north star. You won’t find them in a book. You’ll find them in your soul. —ANNE MULCAHY, CHAIRMAN AND CEO, XEROX
“[H]e who cannot change the very fabric of his thought will never be able to change reality, and will never, therefore, make any progress.”
there are few trust taxes that are higher than those attached to duplicity, particularly regarding motive.
The only thing worse than a coach or CEO who doesn’t care about his people is one who pretends to care. People can spot a phony every time. They know he doesn’t care about them, and worse, his act insults their intelligence. —JIMMY JOHNSON, FORMER COACH, DALLAS COWBOYS AND MIAMI DOLPHINS
Having spent many years trying to define the essentials of trust, I arrived at the position that if two people could say two things to each other and mean them, then there was the basis for real trust. The two things were “I mean you no harm” and “I seek your greatest good.” —JIM MEEHAN, BRITISH PSYCHOLOGIST AND POET
The behavior that best creates credibility and inspires trust is acting in the best interest of others.
Scottish author J. M. Barrie said, “Never ascribe to an opponent [or I would say to anyone] motives meaner than your own.”
be careful to not interpret the intent of others by projecting your own intent onto their behavior—and also to realize that often others may be interpreting your intent in this way.
First, make sure you have identified the principles that will bring the results you want.
Second, recognize that you may need help to create this deep inner change—and seek it.
For some, this will involve searching out role models, reading biographies of caring people, or creating a mental/spiritual daily diet of the uplifting, caring thoughts express...
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Third, behave your way into the person you want to be.
declaring his intent not only builds trust, it also puts more accountability on him to be true to what he’s said.
You should not be satisfied with being a victim, nor with being a survivor. You should aim to be a conqueror. There is an extraordinary quality of spirit that leads one to aspire to conquering rather than surviving. I hope you discover that spirit in yourself.
Capable people are credible. They inspire trust. It’s that simple.
Unless you’re continually improving your skills, you’re quickly becoming irrelevant. And when you’re irrelevant, you’re no longer credible. And without credibility, you won’t sustain trust—which will dramatically impact both speed and cost.
I am still learning. That is an important mark of a good leader . . . to know you don’t know it all and never will. —ANNE MULCAHY, CHAIRMAN AND CEO, XEROX
On the individual level, the problem is that many people aren’t into the idea of continuous improvement. So they’re working in a company—maybe they’ve been there for ten or fifteen years—but instead of having fifteen years of experience, they really have only one year of experience repeated fifteen times! They’re not adapting to the changes required by the new global economy. As a result, they don’t develop the credibility that would inspire greater trust and opportunity. Often they become obsolete. Their company and/or the external markets outgrow them.
If corporations aren’t engaged in continuous improvement, and in some cases radical improvement, they risk becoming irrelevant and obsolete. They demonstrate the truth of the words spoken by the great historian Arnold Toynbee: “Nothing fails like success.” In other words, they keep doing the things that made them successful in yesterday’s market, but those same things don’t create success in today’s global economy.
If you don’t like change, you’re going to like irrelevance even less. —GENERAL ERIC SHINSEKI, U.S. ARMY CHIEF OF STAFF
What’s Dell’s secret? At its heart is his belief that the status quo is never good enough, even if it means painful changes for the man with his name on the door. When success is achieved, it’s greeted with five seconds of praise followed by five hours of postmortem on what could have been done better. Says Michael Dell: “Celebrate for a nanosecond. Then move on.”
The complacent company is a dead company. Success today requires the agility and drive to constantly rethink, reinvigorate, react, and reinvent. —BILL GATES, CHAIRMAN, MICROSOFT
I know of one extraordinary man who for years would get up very early every morning and read for two hours. His goal was to learn everything possible about organizational behavior and development, human behavior, management, and leadership.
This is the kind of person I am striving to become. What changes do I need to make in my lifestyle to achieve this?
It is a terrible thing to look over your shoulder when you are trying to lead and find nobody there. —FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT
Results matter! They matter to your credibility. They matter to your ability to establish and maintain trust with others. In the words of Jack Welch, having results is like having “performance chits” on the table. They give you clout. They classify you as a producer, as a performer. Without the results, you simply don’t have that same kind of clout.
I need to remember this principle in all of my interactions with the Board, with the Management Team, and the Lending Team.
If I can’t deliver results, how can I expect to have any credibility with any of them.
It is naive to think that they will follow me just because “I say so.”
As reported in the Wall Street Journal, at one time, David Sokol, CEO of MidAmerican Energy (a wholly owned subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway) had to face Berkshire Hathaway’s CEO—Warren Buffett—with some highly disturbing news. It appeared that the Iowa utility needed to write off some $360 million for a zinc project that had gone south. Sokol braced himself to be fired, but he was totally unprepared for Warren Buffett’s response. “David,” he said, “we all make mistakes. If you can’t make mistakes, you can’t make decisions. I’ve made a lot bigger mistakes myself.” The entire meeting was over
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In creating credibility with others, it’s not just the results that count; it’s people’s awareness of the results. Thus, it’s important to be able to appropriately communicate results to others.
a real key to success is in taking responsibility for results—not activities.
As I’ve emphasized over and over in this chapter, accomplishing results will build credibility and trust. But simply taking responsibility for results will also build credibility and trust—sometimes even when the results are not good . . . and sometimes when they were not even your fault.
It’s no use saying, “We are doing our best.” You have got to succeed in doing what is necessary. —WINSTON CHURCHILL
if you want to increase your results, expect to win—not only for yourself, but also for your team. Not at all costs, but honorably. Not at the expense of others, but in conjunction with others. Expecting to win—and expecting others to win—is a fundamental approach of helping to bring it about.
“When you ‘hit the wall,’” the runner said, “and you feel like you can’t go on, instead of focusing on your exhaustion and going into the ‘survival shuffle,’ lift up your head and pick up your pace.”
You can’t talk yourself out of a problem you’ve behaved yourself into. —STEPHEN R. COVEY No, but you can behave yourself out of a problem you’ve behaved yourself into . . . and often faster than you think! —STEPHEN M. R. COVEY
It’s important to know what constitutes a deposit to a person when you’re trying to build trust.
any strength pushed to the extreme becomes a weakness.
What upsets me is not that you lied to me, but that I can no longer believe you. —FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE
• Learn to get to your point quickly. Avoid long prologues and giving excessive context.
I frequently qualify what I am saying when I give an opinion. Is it because I lack courage or conviction? What does this cost me?
When it comes to our own behavior, we often have “blind spots”—things that we can’t see but others can. Getting feedback helps us see those blind spots.
Try to be transparent, clear and truthful. Even when it is difficult, and above all when it is difficult. —JEAN-CYRIL SPINETTA, CHAIRMAN AND CEO, AIR FRANCE
With regard to giving credit, I like to think of “the window and the mirror” metaphor articulated by Jim Collins. He basically says that when things go well, you look through the window; in other words, you look at everyone out there and all they did to contribute, and you give them the credit, attribution, recognition, acknowledgment, and appreciation. When things don’t go well, you look in the mirror. You don’t look out there and blame and accuse others; you look at yourself.
You can accomplish anything in life provided you don’t mind who gets the credit. —HARRY S. TRUMAN, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT
Make it a rule to never talk about family members in negative ways. Be thoughtful about how you talk with your partner about family members, including children. Catch your children doing things right—and share your excitement about their good deeds with others.
Future leaders will be less concerned with saying what they will deliver and more concerned with delivering what they have said they would. —DAVE ULRICH, BUSINESS AUTHOR AND PROFESSOR
The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn. —ALVIN TOFFLER
Anyone who stops learning is old, whether this happens at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps on learning not only remains young, but becomes constantly more valuable regardless of physical capacity. —HARVEY ULLMAN
when you make a commitment, you build hope; when you keep it, you build trust.
Given the impact of violating commitments, it’s vital to be careful with the commitments you make.
[A]lways deliver what you say you will. [N]ever make a promise that you can’t follow through on. [T]he way you really build trust, in a sense, is through crucibles. You have to show that you will do your part, even if it is difficult. —DENNIS ROSS, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR
