From his speech at the LTI Luncheon in 1998 in New Brunswick, NJ. Some references are outdated but the messages are still clear and useful.
It's good to be here. Congratulations to the Delta Chapter on 150 years of continuous operation. The Phi Chapter, though 151 years old, could not maintain continuous operation when the colleges on the Heights closed. But it re-started at Washington Square, where it started Zeta Psi. I am glad we started the Delta Chapter in 1848.
I want to personally welcome Bill Haynes of the Phi Chapter. Bill and I were at Stuyvesant High School together in September 1942. He was smarter than I and graduated first. He entered NYU, joined the Phi Chapter, and encouraged me to join Zeta Psi. Bill, I do not know if I ever thanked you for encouraging me to join Zeta Psi; please accept my thanks now.
We know of two black eyes fraternities received shortly after our last convention. My glow from receiving a Distinguished Service Award on Saturday night of our 150th Convention was dimmed Monday morning by hearing of the death of a fraternity pledge at LSU in Baton Rouge. It is my wife's alma mater and our home town, but not a school where we have a chapter, so our minds were eased a bit. This ease of mind was shattered a month later by the announcement of the death of a fraternity member at MIT, one of my alma maters and the location of our Rho Alpha Chapter. It took me three days to be sure he was not a Zete. If one of these men was a Zete, many of us would not be here.
Your presence here today shows that you take your Zete membership seriously. We joined Zeta Psi to have fun, make close friendships, and learn responsibility about life by running a fraternity house like a business and meeting obligations. By going to college and joining Zeta Psi, then becoming a leader of your group, you are responsible to set a good example.
Despite all the definitions of leadership I have heard, there is an X quality, a little extra. Trying to define leadership reminds me of Supreme Court Justice Stewart's comment about pornography: "I can't define it but I know it when I see it."
In the next few minutes I will discuss six leadership traits that will help you develop this X quality. I will give you some examples. Some of you may claim that certain leaders did not have some of these qualities. The only thing I can say is play the averages. If you achieve or try to achieve these traits, you will succeed.
When I was a 19-year-old college kid I was talking to someone about my career choice of engineering. Simply speaking, his question was: "Can you make a buck in engineering?" After giving him a couple of platitudes about people in engineering, I made the smart 19-year-old kid's comment: "Of course, it all depends on if I get the breaks." He replied something I have remembered for over 50 years: "If you are the right kind of person, people will make the breaks for you." As a corollary, "If you are the right kind of leader, people will follow you."
Let's review those six traits for the right type of leaders.
1The first trait is knowledge—knowledge about your job. There is no substitute for knowing what you are doing. The world is too smart nowadays for you to bluff your way through. I ran an engineering company for a quarter-century. I would have fallen flat on my face if I had tried to run an accounting office or a bank loan office or a factory. To do my work, besides my formal education, I attended many seminars, read research papers (do not wait until it comes out in books, that is too late; read the research papers) and did quite a bit of research on my own, a significant part of my work. I was asked many times, "Where is that theory published?" "I said it is not published, it is right here (tapping my head). We are developing it." You must have knowledge of your job.
2The second trait is imagination. Most manufacturers accept that 25% of the products they will be making and selling 10 years from now have not been invented or designed yet. Examples: computers; air bags; the channel tunnel; space ships; the European Union and Eurodollars. Could anyone have imagined 20 years ago the French abandoning the franc and joining with the Germans who abandoned their mark to use a currency with the connotation of the American dollar? Yet that is happening. The Eurodollar will be legal tender in 11 European countries next January 1.
On a cruise along the Norwegian coast last month, we sat next to an English couple in their early 30s. He was an accountant for a multinational company in England making gaskets to go around car doors. Even though the UK has elected not to join the EU, and even though the Eurodollar will not become legal tender until January 1, his company is being asked to quote prices in Eurodollars. What will this mean to America? Europe has about 250 million people, the same as the United States. The U.S. realizes competition is coming from them. Why did we get NAFTA? We saw the handwriting on the wall. What will happen when all Europe gets together? Imagine the Europeans and Russia west of the Ural Mountains: you have a trading block of 500 million people! They will become more efficient than us unless we expand NAFTA to include not only North America but also a good part of South America.
Other imagination: Jim Carey, our past Phi Alpha, mentioned in his report last year expanding into Mexico. What a language barrier! But it isn't. Many Mexican children start studying English in the first grade. I spoke to 6- and 8-year-old children in Mexico. They speak English a lot better than I speak Spanish. Imagine if we have chapters in Mexico and they can exchange their children with universities up here. How this would increase fellowship! Imagination!
3The third trait is flexibility—changing when needed. Pratt & Whitney went from reciprocating engines in WWII to jet engines; automobile manufacturers switched from standard shift in the 30s to automatic, and now it's the standard; buggy whip manufacturers changed to fishing rods then radio antennas.
4The fourth trait is understanding people. People want more from a job other than just salary. Unemployment now is 5%, in the 80s it was 10%, in the 30s it was 25%. People had to put up with a lot of nonsense in the 30s and 40s to have a job and to get money to put food on the table. Nowadays they won't do that. With people surer of working, how are you going to keep them without understanding them? If you do not understand people, you are going to have trouble. Look at the recent GM strike. Last month strikers were on the picket line saying General Motors wasn't fit to work for. Now they are back building cars. What quality work are they going to turn out? Where was understanding in that situation? You decide. People will work better for you if they know you care for them. Show appreciation for a job well done, whatever their level. Say to the people who polished the floor over the weekend: "That floor has a good shine, you people did a good job." They will bust the buttons off their shirts to do the next job well for you.
5The fifth trait is assuring group participation. You cannot do the job alone. People help you to meet the challenge if you let them, ask them, encourage them. One of the greatest examples in modern industry is Home Depot, a supermarket for home products. It started about 25 or more years ago and the company started giving stock ownership to its employees. Some of those employees who work in the warehouse putting products on shelves are millionaires; the company has grown that much. They are going to work to keep you happy when you go to Home Depot. Americans want to learn. Most of us are here because our ancestors wanted a better life. I did not use my engineers as construction inspectors on jobs; I had technicians doing that work. They reported to our engineers who still had the responsibility for the work. The technician had the opportunity to work himself up to a semi-engineer. You have all heard of nurses, most of you have heard of nurse-practitioners -- one step above a nurse, one step below a doctor. It is a way for these people to advance. We all seek to be doing something better next year than we were doing the last.
6The sixth trait is fairness. Even with all the above traits, every once in a while you will have to make a tough decision that not only the people affected by it will not like, but you will not like. It will not be one that suits anybody. I am not going to say it will be a bad decision, but it will be the least detrimental of the choices you have. Explain to your people that it is your job to make that tough decision. Let them know: "I know you feel it is not fair to you but I have to look out for what is fair to the company, and these are my reasons for what I will do." A few years ago I had to start a drug-testing program for truck drivers. The government mandated that people who drove trucks in interstate commerce had to be tested on hiring, in case of an accident, and in case of suspicion. Besides, they had to be tested every two years, no ifs, ands, or buts. Now of course we have random testing. I gave people plenty of notice and in two months tested them and they were clean. I also said no Capozzoli employee was going to be treated any differently than any other employee. Whether you are sitting behind the wheel of a truck going 65 mph down an interstate or sitting behind a computer terminal, you all get the same treatment. If one person has to be drug-free, all of us have to be drug-free. No problem. I went along fat, dumb, and happy for two years, then we had an accident. We tested the three people in the accident: one was dirty, one refused to take the test, one was clean. Then suspicion: test the whole company, me included. Again two dirty, one marginal, one refused to take the test, and one left for a new job with two hours' notice. Two of the dirty people had five-year pins. By law, they were entitled to a month or more of in-house rehabilitation, in those days at $10,000 per month, each paid by the company. After rehab, I would have to take them back. They turned it down. The ones that refused the test had to leave. I felt the one man who was very marginal would be tempted on an out-of-town trip. I persuaded his department head to have him wait a week, and re-take the test. He did and he was clean and is still working for us. I lost six employees; I replaced just three of them and my production went up. Why? Those fellows knew what was going on, and I was fair. I did not penalize them by rewarding people who were law-breakers and I eliminated a possible danger by their not working with people without full control of their mental faculties due to illness or senselessness from drugs.
If you wish, you could add to this list, but use these traits as a start. I am not going to say you will be like great Zetes I have had the opportunity to hear speak, two of them in person. Red Motley, Alpha Beta '22, University of Minnesota, was General Secretary from 1922 to 1924 and our Phi Alpha in 1944-45. I heard him speak in New York when I became an active in 1945. He was the developer of Parade, one of the largest Sunday Supplement magazines in the U.S. Red was the speaker at the first Leadership Training Institute held here at the Delta Chapter in 1956. My only comment is that I wish Red had started the LTI in 1945 so I could have benefited. The second great Zete leadership example is medical Dr. Ed Cadman, Phi Lambda '41, University of Washington. He became President of Rotary International in 1985, a 1-1/4 million-person international service organization in many countries including China (since China now includes Hong Kong). I heard him speak in person in the mid 1980s. Of course, the third Zete leader is Pete Wilson, Eta '55 at Yale. He is now Governor of California and I have heard him speak on television.
I cannot say—no one can say—that if you follow everything you have learned and will learn in these three days, that you will match these three Zetes in their accomplishments. If you do live up to these standards, follow the discussion leaders, participate, you will do what your fellow Zetes expect you to do. Thank you.
« Return to the LTI page