Happy Sunday Everyone:
I had been invited to attend a webinar with Jamie Dimon two weeks ago (I’m sure with 5-10 thousand other people). Most of you know, Jamie Dimon is the Chairman and CEO of JP Morgan Chase, and has been since 2005. I don’t follow him, but I’ve always known him to be viewed by many as being at a different level than his peers. Perhaps my own naivety, but I couldn’t tell you the names of the CEOs of the other 4 largest banks in the country, but can always remember Jamie Dimon. The interview was between he and Chase’s head of their private client group. The subjects were global concerns, AI, banking in general, rates, coming out of covid, and work from home, and then some random questions. Although I’m sure he knew the questions that were coming ahead of time, it didn’t seem rehearsed, even in the slightest. Jamie Dimon doesn’t need my endorsement, but I was impressed by his intelligence, confidence, and leadership qualities.
As the call was ending, he was asked, “what advice would you give to the next generation”. I can’t do justice to exactly what he said, but it was certainly briefer and better than any commencement speech I’ve heard. It wasn’t only something I wanted to take back to Jack/Thomas, it was something I needed as a contemplation for my own life. I wrote down the words he used, and I’ll use my own thoughts behind those words. As I’m sitting here thinking, I’m going to use this as an exercise for our team. If we used these words as a platform for personal/professional life, things would always be better:
- Be Curious-My Grammy died at 102 still curious, still investing in life. I think of my mentors, they are curious people. They’re curious about other people. They’re curious about the study of something. This isn’t a word for a new generation, this is a word for the continuation of life. You’re either curious or stagnant. Stagnant isn’t good, curious is. For our team, I’ll ask, “what are we doing to stay curious in our work, what does that look like for our team?”.
- Work hard-my opinion, the pain of the effort is so much better than the pain of regret for mailing it in. The effort of “working hard” creates confidence for so many other areas in our lives. Working hard equals perseverance. Most people I rely on work hard at what they do. Most people I wouldn’t rely on, do not. A constant question we might ask ourselves, how do people see us, hardworking, or not?
- Follow up-Follow up equal’s trust. Do I need to be reminded of that! Working with Jack on the porta potty stuff, having him see his follow up and the results that come from it, clearly a lost art. Follow up shows you honor your word. Dependable isn’t a sexy word but it means everything, dependable people follow up. I believe our team’s strength is in part because of our follow up. If we get an incoming call/email for an update, alarm bells go off, it’s like a code red, means we didn’t follow up.
- Be honest-Mark Twain said, “if you tell the truth, you don’t need to remember anything”. There is a magic formula on being honest and making sure people know you care. It touches on “follow up” above. You can’t help everyone, and you can’t follow up on everything for everyone. Being honest on what you can and can’t sign up for is tricky, especially as we’re trying to keep everyone happy (It’s impossible). Being honest comes ahead of making people happy and them knowing you care.
- Meet a lot of people-There are times when I think “i have enough friends, I know enough people”. It’s easier to keep your network small, it doesn’t require any growth or curiosity. Let’s think of those three words “easy, growth, and curiosity”. I’ll take the latter two. Personal or business-if I went into every engagement with a growth and curiosity mindset, I’d be guaranteed to find some great new relationships (and kick a few bad ones to the curb too).
- Take care of yourself, your health, and people around you-simple again, not always easy. Invest in myself (mentally, spiritually, physically) and be in a better position to pay that forward to the people I love and care about around me. Healthy examples around me make me want to be better, I want to be that healthy example to others too.
- Give a damn, have a heart, mean it-This was probably my favorite thing he said. Brag alert but my coaching students would ask about our team, and the magic they seem to feel when watching a team meeting or interacting with us. If I had to sum it all up, I’d say exactly those words “we give a damn, we have a heart, and we mean it”. If you don’t give a damn, if you don’t have a heart, you’ll never mean it, and you will be found out, sooner or later.
If you’re still reading, thank you! long one, I know. Our team will be printing/laminating these words from Jamie Dimon. I do better with consistent gut checks, standing meetings to review progress. These words will be reviewed as to how I’m measuring up to them in my own life and with our team.
Have a great Sunday today.