Businessman Curtis Berrien shared an insight for leaders that deserves to be lived out: “You need clarity on your own non-negotiables. You need to know what you won’t budge on, or you’ll be buffeted by the winds.” In short, what principles are you committed to that will guide your daily decisions? What is your solid ground as a leader? It took a fun-loving, insightful CEO at one of my client retreats to highlight the importance of taking time to define and share what you stand for. The story of our short but meaningful encounter says it best.
Even the beginning of my relationship with Russ Walden was memorable. The heat hit me as I came down the steps from my plane in Cabo San Lucas. Taxis and limos were lined up along the road. I headed for the man with a sign bearing my name, “Paulson.” There couldn’t be that many Paulsons; after all, it was a small plane at a small airport. We grabbed my luggage and headed for his limo.
As the limo driver opened the door for me, I noticed another man sitting on the far side of the backseat. “Greetings,” I said quickly as I slid into the leather seat next to him.
“You must be the speaker,” he said.
“Does it show?” I asked. “I mean, rented lips!”
“No, I just know all the CEOs, and I don’t know you. So, I figure you must be the speaker.”
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“I am,” I replied as I introduced myself.
“Russ Walden here,” the man replied.
“Nice to meet you, Russ.” I shook his hand as the limo pulled out and headed for the resort.
“We are tough on speakers,” Russ continued.
Part of me was wondering whether I should ask the driver to turn around, but there seemed no malice in his voice—just a certain playfulness. I assumed he was a banter person; he wouldn’t respect me until he had tested me.
“I’m tough on people who are tough on me,” I said with a matching expression, pausing for effect. “In fact, you’re looking more and more like my first volunteer.”
A smile formed on his lips, and I matched it.
“I like you better now,” Russ said. “I don’t want to be one of your volunteers!”
The resort was a lot better than the airport. The questions and interaction with the CEOs just made the morning that much more engaging for all involved. The evaluations were strong and the beach inviting, but as often happens to speakers, I had to catch a plane for another presentation.
As they were taking my bags to the limo, Russ came up to me and asked if he could ride with me to the airport.
“Why, sure,” I replied. “Do you want to test me some more?”
“In a way,” Russ answered. “I want to talk to you about some of the things you said this morning. I picked up a couple of—what did you call them? Keepers! I just wanted to dialogue with you a bit to see if I liked them as much as I thought.”
“Fine, I’d love that,” I said. “But you are going to miss golf.”
“You haven’t seen me play golf,” Russ said playfully. “It’s better for me, my team, and the course if I never appear out there.”
“I understand,” I said. “Hop in.”
My ride back to the airport with Russ was memorable. I don’t remember which “keepers” he had learned from my program. That part of the conversation faded quickly. After all, as a professional speaker, I’ve had many conversations with people impacted by something I had said. That’s my job. But on that ride back to the plane, Russ impacted me.
“I have what I call my page,” Russ said, pulling out a piece of paper that he had in his pocket.
“What’s on your page?” I asked.
“It’s a collection of mostly true and mostly plagiarized statements about the principles I use in leading people,” Russ explained.
“One page?”
“I figure that if I can’t write on one page what I stand for in leadership, I doubt whether I would ever use it,” Russ continued. “Now, all our leaders work from the same page. We keep a second page of things that might make it onto our page but haven’t yet. I’m thinking of adding some of the things you said today to that page for consideration.”
“That’s quite an honor,” I replied.
“You see, we do change the page occasionally,” Russ said. “But we don’t do that lightly. Because when we put something new on the page, we have to take something else off. That’s never easy to do.”
“How do you use this page?” I asked, now holding it and reading some of the statements as he continued.
“Whenever we hire someone,” Russ said, “after we’ve decided that they fit and have the skills we need, we hand them a copy of our page. We tell them that we’re going to offer them the job, but that we want them to take a night to think about it.
“We let them know that anyone working in our company deserves to know the principles we use in making our decisions. They don’t have to agree with every statement, but they need to know that we expect them to treat these principles as non-negotiables as long as they work here. That’s why we give them a night to think about it. We all want their commitment.”
“Do they have any say about what is on the page?” I asked.
“As much as any of our leaders do,” Russ continued. “We have changed the page at times. Some leaders have helped make refinements to the statements. Some have suggested better ones that we now have included, but we don’t change it often. These are value statements that have defined the culture we try to create for everyone.”
“How does it make a difference?” I asked, even more intrigued by the power of this one page.
“Privately held values are easy to cheat on,” Russ continued. “No one knows you hold them. But when you have written down your principles, when you’ve shared them and promised to use them as your non-negotiables, you know people are watching. When there is clarity about what you stand for, it’s easier for everyone to have the courage to take a stand. I know that’s how I feel every time I face a tough decision.”
Russ went on to talk about leaders that had long since been asked to leave the company because they refused to honor the non-negotiable values expressed.
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Russ has since passed away, but the page he gave me that day has been a treasure I have shared many times with other leaders in search of a meaningful compass in these changing and challenging times. Here is the content of the page he gave to me that day:
Russ Walden’s list of mostly true and mostly plagiarized thoughts on the management process (in no particular order):
- Weak leadership will destroy the finest strategy, while forceful execution of even a poor strategy can often bring victory. (Sun Tzu, 400 BC)
- Authority to manage is delegated downward; the right to lead is delegated upward.
- A person may be appointed to a high position, but never to leadership. Leaders are effective only through the authority conferred on them by those upon whom they depend for results.
- Leaders produce consent; others seek consensus.
- Manage a business by its economics, not by the accounting numbers.
- It is better to be approximately right than precisely wrong.
- Ethics are non-negotiable.
- The personal dignity of each individual is inviolate. A manager who often breaks this rule will eventually self-destruct, but I will probably get him (or her) first.
- As a manager, ask yourself, “How would I like it if my boss treated me the way I treat those who work for me?” If you are unsure, read Luke 6:31.
- Authority is not inherently useful, but you can greatly influence most of the things which you cannot directly control. A manager without influence is a contradiction in terms.
- Create real values and the earnings will follow. Never sacrifice tomorrow’s values for today’s reportable earnings.
- Spend your time with people who contribute to your energies; avoid those who drain them.
- A person has a right to know the significance of his work.
- We will only do things of which we can be proud. If our people are ashamed of a project it will be a disaster.
- If you aren’t having fun in your work, fix the problem before it becomes serious; ask for help if you need it. If you can’t fix it and won’t ask for help, please go away before you spoil the fun for the rest of us.
- Never let well enough alone. (Just because it isn’t broke doesn’t mean it can’t be better.)
- Build some regular customer contact into the job of every person in the company.
- Defending yesterday is far more risky than making tomorrow.
- Manners are the lubricating oil of organizations. (Peter Drucker)
Honor is a gift you give yourself, your people, and those you serve. What core value statements would you want on your page?
As you encourage your team to live out your shared values, take heart in the words of Mark Twain, “Always do what is right. It will gratify most of the people and astound the rest.”
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