How do leaders of large organizations leverage beliefs to lead - even when they can’t interact with all of their employees every day? In part 3 of our interview with Kelly King, Chairman and CEO of Truist Financial, Kelly shares his strategy for impacting his over 55,000 employees.
How do leaders of large organizations leverage beliefs to lead - even when they can’t interact with all of their employees every day? In part 3 of our interview with Kelly King, Chairman and CEO of Truist Financial, Kelly shares his strategy for impacting his over 55,000 employees.
How do leaders of large organizations leverage beliefs to lead, even when they can't interact with all of their employees every single day. In part three of our interview with Kelly King chairman and CEO of Troost financial Kelly shares his strategies for impacting his over 55,000 employees
Speaker 2:All about teaching beliefs and positive reinforcing behaviors. But like in my role, I can't do that with 58, 50 5,000 teammates. Right. You know, flung over into our country. So what do I do? So, so I start by making sure the, my executive team is aligned. We're all aligned on the same beliefs. And then they, and, and make sure they understand the model and that they align the beliefs with their reports and you work down the organizational structure so that the beliefs are cascading down through the company person, by person, by person. Then you re, what I try to do is reinforce it with other approaches. Like I'll do a lot of videos. Um, you know, for years and years, I've done a quarterly video where I, which goes to every teammate where I'm talking about their culture, purpose, mission values, which are fundamental beliefs, like the ultimate beliefs, right? Uh, so, um, so I'm always teach Mo most everything I do. When I, when I leave here today, I'm going to go meet with her one of, one of our executive leaders, his team, and you know what, I'm gonna talk to him about beliefs. I'll talk about our core values and our core operating beliefs and so forth. So, so in my role, my number one job nine announced on what I needed to do is to teach and reinforce beliefs throughout the entire company, primarily purpose, mission, and values, but it goes all the way through a branch manager has the same responsibility. Now here's the challenge. And the reason it doesn't work in most companies, many times, top leaders believe they can just write an email or write a letter and say, everybody's like, here's the deal, hint, the plan, his beliefs, but go, go forth and build that doesn't work because you got to have that reputation conveyance of, and it's gotta be by credible source. So, so I'm a credible soulless because I'm CEO of the company, right? So I get a certain amount of tick mark just by, but it's not enough. I can't do it. I mean, it's got to work then the most powerful sources go beads a coach, the boss, if you will, that's closest to the, the teammate, right? So in a branch with seven or eight teammates, the branch manager is going to be the most powerful source. So I have to make sure we are reinforcing through all of the meetings, all the videos. And I do, I do, uh, you know, audio recordings and I send them out and anything I can do, and there are written messages, but they are the least impactful is the videos and the, and going out and meeting with, with, with teammates. Um, I mean, like one of our biggest challenges just last year and a half has been, we haven't been able to get out cause our pandemic. Right? Yeah. So it's hampered our ability to get the belief changes as effectively and efficiently as we would like it. We we've had to do a lot more virtually, so we've done it. We started a process. We just had to do it more, more virtually. Uh, so, so that's the way it works. It's a ma it's not the change in the process. You just have to be thoughtful about the technique that you use depending on what your audience is.
Speaker 3:So in that same space where, you know, you and I are standing and we're overlooking, you know, 58,000 or 55,000 teammates, I want to ask you, how do you manage your beliefs now at this vantage point, responsible for all these teammates?
Speaker 2:So, so for me personally, there are basically two categories of beliefs and truth for most people, there's that interest and that outside of truth right now, for me, uh, it becomes much easier than for some people, because most, all of my beliefs outside and inside, or the same, or I wouldn't have been here 49 years, cognitive dissonance would have long since taken over. Um, but so, so, so let's talk about purpose. Purpose is the ultimate belief. That's why I said the top of the culture pyramid, if you will, purpose mission values. So our purpose at truest is to inspire and feel better lives and communities. How does that align with me? Because great leaders really put in a lot of effort to make sure that the teammates purpose is understood by the teammate, uh, and substantially aligns with the company purpose, not be total, your, your whole purpose in life. Doesn't have to be the truest purpose, but we all spend the majority of our waking lives at work to think about, right? So if you're working for an organization where you don't really believe what they believe is not going to work out real well, you might get a paycheck, but you're not going to be happy. You're not going to really be very successful. So, so my purpose is to make a politic menu for the impact on the lives of as many people as I can even tell you how I got that purpose, let's go back to the beginning. So when I was up and my mom was depressed and my dad was an alcoholic, everything was negative, negative, negative negatives. I had this yearning when I was looking through those windows, I was driving down the road. I was looking for something positive, right? I had this yearning for some positive out of life versus everything being so negative. Uh, and then as I went through that journey, I described going to college getting good grades and all that. I was trying to pick up politics by controlling what I could control. Part of it worked part of it did. Um, but when I S uh, what I finally stumbled on as I went through this journey of becoming faithful and reaching out, um, I, uh, I had, I had the good fortune of, uh, turning a bad situation into a good situation. So at one point in my career, I was working for an individual who was like, really negative I'm this person was so negative. I say he, when the politic thinking, rather than would come to town, he would go and offer the gift of rebuttal. Right. Naturally, but it was that kind of negative. Yeah. It was a sunny day. So yeah, let's go. The hottest we'll burn everything up. Negative gut. Well, what I saw was that everybody in the office was negative. The office was losing money and it was beginning to get good to me too. I'm just like walking every day and everything is negative and the low nothing bothered him, but I had the good fortune of going to actually a positive thinking, Riley. Uh, they came to town, uh, and it will probably 50,000 people in the audience. And it's great people like Dr. Norman, Vincent Peale and, you know, Zig Ziglar and some of the politics thinking people wow, gave these speeches. And, and one of them, I distinctly remember said about 90 to 95% of you are going to hear these messages. And for two or three days, you will feel upbeat and positive and feel like things are good. And then you go forget it all. And you will move on right back to where you were, about 5% of you are gonna listen to this, really take it in and decide to change your lights. I decided I wanted to be part of that 5%. So I started reading more positive stuff. I listened to everything Earl Nightingale ever did. And I, and I started solving all of this positive. Uh, and I developed a program at the office. I was working in, I call it EPA, enthusiastic, positive attitude. I got buttons for everybody. I got, you know, and then it started picking up, uh, I'm still young. I was still about 28 to 29. Cause I was going to be able to journey with the people in home office, heard about it. They brought me down to the board room in front of all the top leadership. And let me put on my little program about Tuesday to positive attitude. So I became kind of the EPA guy. Right.
Speaker 3:But what an incredible impact that you had by just changing your
Speaker 2:Environment, that's the way life is. If you, if you are willing to try to do your best and by the way, not try to go get credit for what, not, not, not trying to make a fortune that it just genuinely do. It can make an impact cause the right thing to do. What do you want to do? If you do that, you can have a really big impact on life. It's amazing to impact anyone individual can have on the world. I didn't realize that in the early days, but, but I'm fully aware today that every single one of us has an enormous opportunity to make a major impact on the world. I call it the butterfly effect. You know, a single little butterfly can flap its wings on one side of the earth and create a hurricane all the way around the world. True scientific fact, really it's true. Scientific proven it. So, you know, it's a little butterfly I can do that. You can do a lot, right? Absolutely. But without purpose. And so, so, so what I have found is that people that are ultimately the most successful and happy nights, I always link those two, uh, is, are the people that are clear about their purpose and they aligned themselves with an organization or group of people doing something that they think is a part of that purpose. So think about my purpose, make a positive, meaningful impact on the lives of as many people as I can choose, inspire and build better lives and communities, same thing, different words. Yeah. Right. Why am I happy at truest? We have the same purpose. And that's what good leaders try to do is always get teams that have shared purposes. That's why I say leadership is about creating an environment. So people come together with a shared purpose and have their needs, motivational needs met in the process.
Speaker 3:I love that. That's such a great tool, both we're working with existing teams, but also when you're looking to add new people onto your teams, that it's less necessarily about, you know, what are the tactics that you've used or what's necessarily experience starting with that purpose and making sure there's a good alignment there. That sounds like it's a really big qualifier for bringing someone on your team.
Speaker 2:Exactly. Any, any, any great interview, uh, with a person who's a potential candidate to come to work should be all about purpose. Let me tell you what the purpose of through is, is, you know, and, and if that person really, you know, uh, is inspired by that, then this is probably could be a good match, but it doesn't matter if that person has the greatest technical skills in the world. Uh, and maybe there's a statistician or computer program or whatever, if they really, for whatever reason, don't align with this idea of making the world better, it's just not gonna work out real well. They might be around for a while, but they'll be, there'll be, and they might get a check, but they won't be happy. You, you don't really become happy in life until you find a way to do whatever you do, uh, in a way so that, that happiness, which is think about it again, that happiness is kind of back into that Steph esteem and self actualization. That sense of my life matters. It's not just, it's not just having fun. I mean, it's part of half that, and I'm telling me to happen in some deeper sense. I'm talking about it. My life matters. It's a sense of fulfillment, a sense of achievement. And, uh, so, so you feel you get that when you are pursuing this purpose, that is important to you and I, and I, and I share with people, um, when you, when you are searching for your purpose, most people don't know what the purpose is that they, they did a project. Recently, I read about where they stopped like a hundred people on the street and ask them about their purpose in life. 90% couldn't even verbalize any kind of response, 90%, 10%. It could kind of begin to get ahead of 90%. Well, think about it. Most, most people don't grow up in an environment where, you know, parents sit down. So let's talk about your purpose in life. What did they talk to on their go to school and get some, get some good grades there. Most people don't really understand this whole concept. That's why, what we do at the Institute. So important to help try to get people, to try to see how important purpose is. Yeah. Uh, and so, um, so people wander through their lives like they're, they're on a treadmill of life, you know, get a job, have a family, possum toys, get a house, get a bigger house, get a car, get a bigger car. All that says will make you happy. And then one day you hit a wall. Like I didn't find out didn't work. And then sadly, that happens with so many people toward the end of their lives. And to have this daunting reality check, this was not a dress rehearsal. That's the sad thing. That's why when I get a chance to have this kind of discussion, I love to do it because if I can reach one person and they can grab a hold of this idea that maybe that guy's on to something, maybe to examine this idea of what, what is my real purpose in life. And then I, and so I say to people, if you want to go down this journey and you should, uh, it's gonna take a little work. You know, you got to spend some time with yourself, but here's a clue, not for everybody, but for most people, your purpose will relate to your childhood might be something really good or might be something more challenging. Like I went through. But for most people who have a really strong purpose in life, it comes out of experiences. When you're a young,
Speaker 3:It's almost like they're trying to resolve it or interact with it.
Speaker 2:We had a video for one of our teammates. He works for us in our mortgage area, in Greensboro. And, um, so he tells his story. And his story is when he was a young kid, four or five years old, um, their house burned down. So he stands out there with his mom, watching the house, burned down their homeless. Uh, and then it ends up in a laundromat. One day I just found a cleaned their clothes. And this lady was talking to him, found out what was going on. The lady's mom had just passed away. So she had an empty house. She lives this young man that works for us and his mom move in. And she said, you can stay there till you get on your feet. Wow. So, so now he tells his story, guess what department he works for us mortgage lending. Oh, how about that? Good lending. His, his purpose is he, he gets to help people get in houses and they're pretty cool. That's cool. He lost his house. It's traumatized in his mind, but then now he's happy in life because he's helping people have their house and a pretty cool,
Speaker 3:That is amazing. And I just love that. You know, I just recently bought a house with my husband and, you know, so I'm, I'm very familiar right now with the experience of it. And it would just be such an amazing experience to go through this with your banker, because you spend so much time talking with them and you know, all that to know what a meaningful experience it is for them. Like, I'm not just a number, I'm not an incentive plan. They're helping me get the home of my dreams because that's what they want to do in this world.
Speaker 2:Right? Yeah. So, so Dan, all of a sudden, you got a, you got a teammate aligned with the company aligned with the client, right?
Speaker 3:Wow.
Speaker 2:Everybody gets their purpose Smith
Speaker 3:And which then aligns with the community, right. When people
Speaker 2:Get homes with the community. Can I mention to you what I think the grand opportunity is
Speaker 3:Please? Yes.
Speaker 2:We have plenty of challenges in this country today in this world today, we're seeing it through all of the issues around racial equity and social injustice and killings and all stuff that's going on all around us. And, and I just think we have a real issue because we are not coalesced around a purpose, but it's not because we don't have a purpose. We just haven't been leading. We have had leaders for decades and decades who have allowed our country to lose its way. You know what our purpose is, it was declared in something called the declaration of independence, right. That everybody has their Naila for right to life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. If we can get everybody to get focused on that purpose, working together as this big community, wouldn't it be pretty cool that we can now all come together, just like we come together at truest, we can all come together 330 million working towards a common purpose of allowing everybody to do what they want to do with their life vocation, but do it for the purpose of us together and individually finding happiness. Why can't we find happiness together? You can be happy. I can be happy. We do different things, but we have a common purpose. And now when we tackle, uh, community problems, we work at it together because I want you to be happy and I want you to want me to be happy. So now we want each other to be happy. We have a common purpose when United, as states coming together for this common purpose, pretty cool.
Speaker 3:Help me to understand what happiness is and why leaders should even care about
Speaker 2:That was my view of happiness is it's that state of mind and emotions, uh, where you are at peace, you have a sense that you are living a life that matters. It doesn't mean that you don't have problems and challenges and obstacles in life. It means that you are able to endure and overcome those obstacles. The cause of this whole thing in life, we call it purpose that I have a purpose that I'm clear about. I'm excited about I'm motivated about, and I really want to do this thing. And, and the cause of that, even in the midst of obstacles, I can still be happy. I do these problems and these obstacles, the calls I needed to get them behind me so I can keep marching toward my purpose and achieving that purpose is what brings happiness and, and does. And unfortunately, people, especially in our country and other parts of the world, most of the here get really confused between success and happens. That's why we put them together because people believe if they are successful, there'll be happy. Remember that part of my story, right? Uh, and there's nothing wrong with being successful, but it's the definition of success. Most people wanted to find success, but how much stuff we have, how much money you make, how big your house is, how many cars you have, all that stuff, nothing wrong with that. That's part of capitalism and it's good, but it won't bring you happiness. Uh, what brings you happiness is how you live your life. Focus on that, that purpose, where people get confused. They think our purpose is to get a job, make a lot of money, buy the house, cause the house gonna make me happy. Right?
Speaker 3:And it will temporarily
Speaker 2:Temporarily for about an hour, right? I'm talking in the pocket. That's true, but no, really there's nothing wrong with that. Because if, if, if you, if you and your family are otherwise happy, focus on broader purposes, including raising your family, I just happened to have kids being involved in your community. If you've got this wholesome purpose, didn't have it all nice houses. It's just great. It's not the wrong way. I don't mean to imply that that's wrong. I have a nice house. There's nothing in there, war wrong with that. Except if it gets you confused and you think that is going to bring you habits. If you, if you achieve success in life, along the path of achieving your purpose, then sure. It's nice to have a good car. It's great. It's just that it can get you confused and get you off track through the main point. Yeah. And so, and so, so is that a separate, what happened is, is so, so the, so the journey is to find a place to do whatever you choose to do that will allow you to meet you, your purpose and an organization's purpose so that it brings you that sense of happens. And then, and then there are, there are some I've actually developed. Some steps to happen is to have, because in this last 18 months, what I've observed is that just saying what I just said, doesn't give you enough definition of what Tim had to do it though. Right. Kind of have to do it. And so I've developed four steps to happiness, which I think are really effective because I kept hearing people say over these last 18 months, I'll be glad when this is over. So I can be happy again. I've heard that a lot too. Right? Well, hint, the problem. That's not a wise way to live life. You know, because here's the two biggest mistakes people make in life is they live in the past or they live in the future. The people that live in the past are the people who are still mad, upset, worried about something that happened 5, 10, 15 years ago. Now you hear people say, well, I'm still married with Tom. Why are you adding Tom with 10 years ago? He did such and such and such. And they'll pound the desk. And the reg face gets red. Yeah. Not a thing in the world I can do about it. And Tom hadn't thought about in 10 years, he can join his life. You're just sitting there ruining your life, worrying about something he did 10 years ago, you can't possibly takes it. Let it go. Then you have people living in the future. These are the people who say, well, I'll be happy when, when I get that promotion, when the kids get out of school, when I retire, when win-win, the problem is none of us can change us today. None of us has tomorrow problems. This is our God given day to live our life. This is it. That's the genius of life to realize this is it. Uh, and so, so I, so I started thinking about people, sitting there, waiting for this to be over. I mean, I think it's getting better. And I think it's going to be over pretty soon, but we may have another pendant right behind it. What w what are you gonna do then? Then you go wait another 18 months. And then you go, there's always going to be problems. There's always gonna be obstacles. Don't wait, fall the problem with light to go away. You go, you could be waiting a long time. So, so what can you do? Four steps. First step, choose to be happy. May say that sounds pretty simple. Well, it is, but it's powerful because most people don't believe they have the right to choose, to be happy. Rather, they believe their happiness is a function of what goes on around them, right? It's
Speaker 3:An external moving internal instead of internal moving
Speaker 2:Out. Right? Right. Most people leave. I'm the victim. My circumstances are bad. Therefore I'm unhappy. I can't be happy to my circumstances. Check that gives away all of your control. You decide YouTube. I tell Latinos, here's the way to think about it. You're the one, a hundred, 100% all in all. You're the chairman. You're the CEO of this company called you. You get up in morning. You get to make the decisions. Choose to be happy. Now that's not all of it. That's the first step. So, uh, but, but I've taken control. I've said I can do something about this. I'm going to choose to be happy. Second step be clear about your purpose in life. We've talked about that. You have to be clear about their purpose in life, because think about it. If you get up in the morning and you got all these problems, like we'd have for less than 18 months, and you don't have any clarity of purpose, well, anything's depressing. And anything knocks you off the side of the road, right? It wouldn't take much of an obstacle, but think about it. Let's say a part of your purposes. You have a newborn child, uh, and, and you, as a responsible parent, you get up in the morning, you got a headache. What are you going to do? Tell them, tell the two week old baby, you're on your own for the today. I'm laying in bed and taking some aspirin because I got a headache. What do you know? What, what are you going to do? You're going to overcome that obstacle. Why? Because your purpose is more important than the obstacle, right? And the same thing in other aspects, when you have this purpose. So, so my purpose is everything. A hundred percent perfect about me at truest. Has it always been everything perfect. Everything goes away. Kelly wants to go to the doctor call. It's not the problems or obstacles, uh, became CEO, January, 2009. We were in the middle of the great depression, great recession. Now I'm ending my career in the middle of the pandemic. And over a hundred years, there's no problems. Obstacles that doesn't change my purpose. And so being clear about your purpose is the second step. The third step is really important. Oh, by the way, that's the second step relates to one of my five grade books. I started writing books. So there's the book that relates to that. It was called man's search for meaning. So those listening man search for many, many written by Victor. Franco is a powerful, powerful book. He survived. The Holocaust spent three years on, off switch, lost his family, lost everything, but stayed on purpose. And he said something that in fact it may substantially. He said, if you know your why you can endure any how my paraphrase, if you're clear about your purpose in life, you can overcome the obstacles. Wow, man, search for meaning break book. Third step have a growth mindset comes from a second of my five grade books called mindset written by Dr. Carol Dweck, D w E C K. Great book helps you. Professionally helps. You personally hits you thousand different ways because here's what he says in life. One chooses to have a fixed mindset or a growth mindset. If they choose to have a fixed mindset, I'm just a chores. But if they choose to have a fixed mindset, that mindset is my capabilities are fixed. I can't change. I can't learn. I can't grow those beliefs. The beliefs, I believe I can't, I can't achieve. I can't change. And so when the problems come, they overtake me. I become the victim who comes to, if I had problems, I can't do anything about it. I'm just a victim. My mind is fixed. My body thinks I'm all fixed. I'm locked. I'm the victim. A growth mindset person on the other hand says, I can learn. I can change. I can grow just as a problem. I can figure this out. It's a sense of positivity. It's a sense of optimism. You know, it's, there's a close correlation between having a growth mindset and being an optimist. So pessimists are people who say this bad thing happened. It's going to ruin my whole life. This will last forever. And it's all my fault. Optimists say the same bad thing happened. This problem will ruin my whole life. Probably not gonna last that long. It's not my fault. Anyway, I just gotta deal with it. So then rather than them letting them tackle them, they tackle it. Ah, they had that growth mindset. This is, I am capable of overcoming this. I am capable of fixing this problem. It's not going to fix me. I'm going to fix it confidence. Wow. And then, and then the fourth step in being happy, especially in challenging times is to help others, help others. They've done lots of studies on this. Uh, so you know, you've heard of people, uh, who have the runners high. So what happens when that happens is your body. Uh, there's actually a little part of the body called the hypothalamus is the control center. And it causes the brain to cause the body to even more emit, uh, endorphins, which is a chemical that makes you feel good, right? Same thing. They've proven when you go help other people, same process goes on your body, emits endorphins, and you feel good. Oh, how bout that? Yeah. It's given click slanted for electric. So, so the best thing to do when you're feeling down, you're feeling out, you not have just go help somebody else. And when people hear that, the here's, here's a piece of advice. People say, well, I'd like to do that. That sounds fine, but I don't have the time. And I don't have the money. It doesn't take rarely any money. And it doesn't take much time because what people need today to best help you can give somebody is not money. It is not a huge amount of time. It's letting them feel important. People want to know that their life matters. My life matters. And so when you do the little things to the little extra smiles, little pat on the back, it's a little, Hey, how are you? And wait for the answer. It's showing people that you care about them. That's what matters to people that gives them that lift. That gives them that sense. It makes them happier, makes you happier. And everybody wins. They, I tell people about this true story. Several years ago, a young man in San Francisco who left his apartment, walked several miles to the golden gate bridge, climb to the top, jumped off to his immediate death. Oh my goodness. He must have passed. Hundreds of people walk them that distance. They found a note in his apartment. Demote said, I'm going to walk to the bridge. If one person smiles at me, I won't jump. Oh, wow. Now you think about that one person. One smile one life. Yeah. Now there was another young man named Kevin hands. You can pull him up on the computer. Yeah. Kevin Hans made the same walk. Also climbed up to the top. Also jumped off. And by the way, when you jump off the golden gate bridge, it's like jumping off the top of a 28 story building. Wow. When your body hits typically splashes of spiders, every bone in your body. Oh my God. Kevin Heinz hit all of his bones. Splattered. He would have drowned the melee except a sea lion came up and kept him afloat coast guard got there. I say like, wow. And so Kevin, Hans, I believe has a purpose in life. He does too. He's written a book and he gives talks about this. But he says also, when he was walking to the bridge, he desperately just need and want somebody to reach out to him and let him know that his life mattered. Nobody did. He said only two people approached him. One was a police officer. Didn't say a word. And elder was a tourist. He wanted him to take their picture. Oh my goodness. So it climbed up. They jumped, but he was blessed I believe. And had a purpose and sea lion found it. So, so they little things in life. You never know. So here's the proposition. I make the people you can pretty well bet everybody you approach every day has got problems. Starting with your own family. You can just about guaranteed that. And so why not just since you believe, that's probably true. Why not? Go ahead and do a few little nice things anyway. And I call it planting seeds of hope. So my challenge to people is when you get up in the morning, imagine somebody hand you a handful of invisible seeds. These are seeds of hope. And every time you go out and you do a little something special little pat on the back, a little smile in your mind, take one of those little seeds, toss it down on the ground. You just planted a seed of hope. And I fully believe if you do that throughout your life best we can. Nobody gets it right every day. But didn't mess. We can, as you get to the end of your life, you'll look back over your life and you'll see the benefit of all those crawling up into big trees and pig flower. You'll say, you know that little boy down the street that couldn't read and you spend a little time on Saturday morning having to learn how to read. You'll see that Sam, that during the pandemic didn't have any food. You took them back and food. You could see all those people, all those things you did sprouting up. You'll see the source of life. They came from the seeds that you planted and you'll know that you've changed the world.
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