From wizards of leadership

Supervisor Yaroslavsky delivered commencement remarks at the USC Annenberg School for Communication on May 17. We thought we’d share them with you here:

I am honored to address your graduating class of the Annenberg School here at USC. While I am a loyal UCLA Bruin, my mother and sister are graduates of this great university and I suppose I get partial credit for that.

As you prepare to take your place in the world, you and your peers are poised to become the leaders of tomorrow. So today, let me offer you some thoughts about leadership, drawing on some ideas of two extraordinarily successful leaders I came to know during my public service career. One is the late John Wooden, the former head basketball coach at my alma mater. The other is Steven Sample, the immediate past President of USC.

Coach Wooden is best known for his achievements in athletics, but to those of us who knew him more intimately, he was much more than that. He was a life coach and a philosopher.

Steve Sample is best known in these parts as the man who led USC into the 21st century with soaring academic achievements and a commitment to the community which this university calls home.

I had the privilege of knowing both of these men, and they both taught me a lot about leadership. I have chosen just a few of their profound and axiomatic nuggets of wisdom by which leaders should be guided.

Addressing the core issue of character, John Wooden said, “Character is more important than reputation, because reputation is merely what other people think of you; character is what you really are, and only you know what that is.”

Politics is my line of work, and I can tell you that in my profession, we spend far too much time worrying about what other people think of us and far too little pondering who we really are and communicating who we really are.

What people think of us is important. But what’s far more important are our core values—the values that we are willing to defend regardless of what others think. Or as Steve Sample said, knowing which hill we’re willing to die on. In short, who we are is ultimately informed by our character.

Wooden also reminded us: “You are your word. Don’t give your word unless you intend to keep it. A leader whose promise means everything is trusted.” The best example of this is John Wooden himself. When he came to UCLA in the late 1940’s from Indiana State University, the job he really wanted was head coach at the University of Minnesota. He waited for the call but never got it. One day, UCLA called and offered him the head coaching job in Westwood, and he accepted. The very next day, Minnesota called to offer him its job, but Wooden declined saying he had already given his word to another university.

How many of us would have made the same decision if we had been in his shoes? Times, indeed, have changed, but your word remains the highest valued currency in human relationships. A person of his word has integrity, and integrity will take you a long way in life. Don’t give your word unless you intend to keep it.

In his book, The Contrarian’s Guide to Leadership, Steve Sample urges leaders not to form an opinion about an important matter until all the relevant facts and arguments are in. Anyone who has ever served on a jury knows this, but this principle is applicable in any walk of life.

Leaders are constantly bombarded with arguments on all sides of an issue in an effort to persuade them of a particular point of view. Common sense dictates making a decision only after you’ve heard all the pros and cons. A leader who jumps to a conclusion before hearing all the facts will, more often than not, regret it. Moreover, leaders command a stronger and more loyal organization when their team members know that their opinions will be heard and valued, even if they are contrarian points of view. Avoid the temptation to jump to conclusions before you have all the facts.

Dr. Sample counseled us to become artful listeners–and, I would add, respectful listeners. Too many of those in my profession are so convinced of their monopoly on wisdom that they insist on imparting their opinions and conclusions before anyone else has even had an opportunity to weigh in. In practice, we routinely see legislators badgering witnesses with a fusillade of questions, cutting them off before the witnesses can muster even a sentence in reply, and then criticizing them for evading the question.

Listening can actually allow a leader to learn something from his subordinates. After all, leaders aren’t the only ones with good ideas. In fact, good leaders get their best ideas by keeping an open mind, and open ears, wherever they go.

A collateral benefit of listening to others is that it enables us to see things through their eyes–to walk a mile in their shoes. When you’re negotiating a contract or a peace treaty, the greatest gift a negotiator has is the ability to visualize what’s going through his adversary’s mind. It may actually lead to resolution instead of a dead end; a breakthrough instead of conflict. That’s why Sample writes that artful listening “is not just an asset—it’s a necessity.”

Sample also advised that leaders should surround themselves with people whose skills make up for their own shortcomings. I got similar advice from the late Senator Henry Jackson of Washington at the start of my career. He said, “Zev, surround yourself with people who are smarter than you are. Anything less is a waste of your time, because you’ll end up doing their work as well as your own.”

Dr. Sample and Coach Wooden both agreed that great leaders give credit to others, but accept the blame themselves. Any leader who fails to grasp this basic principle will not long endure in that leadership role. In any organization, nothing builds confidence in a team, and success in an enterprise, more than the knowledge that the leader will have your back when the going gets tough. People who feel this way about their leader will go to the ends of the earth for him. Those who don’t will do the bare minimum, if that.

Today, you become graduates in communication. An old proverb has it that “the eyes are the window of the soul”–but communication is the essence of your character. How we express ourselves is how we think, and how we think is who we are.

In politics, perception is reality. Our communication literally defines our personas for those we serve, and it’s changed enormously since I first took office. Back in the day, traditional print and broadcast outlets were the only way to get your message out.

Back then, they called me “the master of the 30-second sound-bite,” but today, if you can’t say it in six seconds, you’re out of the story. As media organizations downsize their political coverage, officials and institutions are filling the gap with their own multi-media websites, e-blasts and social media postings.

News consumers access their information on a variety of wireless platforms–podcasts, smart phones and tablets–no longer just radio, television and newspapers. But whatever form it takes, the bottom line remains that communication is transmitted through the voice of the communicator’s character.

You have been trained and taught well here at Annenberg, but as Mark Twain cautioned, “Don’t let your schooling interfere with your education.” Today, your schooling is formally completed, and I warmly congratulate you on that outstanding accomplishment. But your real education begins now, as you embark on the next chapter of your lives. As you do so, I wish you an abundance of character and wisdom. Good luck to each and every one of you.

Posted 5/22/13