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Psychopaths in the C-suite | Fred Kiel | TEDxBGI

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    Thank you, Michael, and thank all of you.
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    I'm so excited to be here.
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    This is the first time that I will make
    a public presentation
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    about the research that I've been doing
    for the last six years.
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    Before I get into my subject
    of the talk itself,
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    I want to ask each of you here
    to stop and think for a minute
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    about someone that you might know
    in a leadership position,
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    maybe in your own company,
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    and ask yourself: do they fit
    any of these descriptors?
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    Are they maybe manipulative?
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    (Laughter)
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    Deceitful? Arrogant?
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    Easily pass blame onto others?
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    And, in spite of all of that,
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    they still are admired by people
    in the senior management?
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    I thought you might.
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    Wherever I go, people instantly
    recognize that description
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    in somebody that they know
    that's in a leadership position.
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    Do any of these faces look familiar?
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    Bernie.
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    And Martha.
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    And another Bernie.
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    And the latest, who was just
    convicted recently of insider trading,
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    Rajat Gupta.
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    Now, these four people
    all have one thing in common,
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    and that is they've all been convicted
    of white-collar crimes.
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    And, according to news reports,
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    they have ripped off a lot of people
    financially and emotionally,
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    and I know, in some cases,
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    that people even committed suicide
    because of their fraudulent behavior.
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    In 2005, I was the co-author of a book
    called "Moral Intelligence,"
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    and my co-author and I
    simply made the claim in that book
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    that high-character leaders will get
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    better sustained long-term business
    results than low-character leaders.
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    Now, we kind of thought it was obvious,
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    but, believe it or not,
    we got a bunch of pushback,
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    and the pushback was this,
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    "Don't tell me that,
    you're a psychologist,
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    and all that soft stuff is nice to have,
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    but it's not really essential
    as long as you stay legal,"
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    that what really creates value
    is the business model,
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    and that this is just
    sort of frosting on the cake.
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    And I thought, "Well,
    you know, fair enough.
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    I don't have the data."
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    So, we set out to get the data,
    and, over the past six years,
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    we've enrolled 100 CEOs
    in a national research study
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    aimed at understanding
    and researching the connection
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    between character and business results.
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    We've enrolled CEOs
    in Fortune 100 companies,
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    Fortune 500 companies,
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    a lot of privately held firms,
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    and we actually have ten CEOs
    of non-profits in our study.
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    Now, we didn't set out
    to study psychopathic leaders,
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    and frankly we were mostly interested
    in the other end of the continuum.
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    We wanted to understand
    high-character leaders,
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    the impact that they have,
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    but we encountered
    a few of these bad actors as well.
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    But I'm here today
    because I want to share with you
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    two results from our research
    that I am most excited about,
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    and the first is
    that high-character leaders
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    do in fact deliver
    better business results.
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    There is a significant
    return on character.
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    And the second result
    that we discovered from our research
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    you might find a little surprising
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    is that character is something
    that can be taught.
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    So, I want to talk
    about these two outcomes.
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    The first one: return on character.
    What do I mean by that?
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    Well, first of all,
    I need to define character.
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    Character is something
    that other people notice.
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    You can infer what
    a leader's character is
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    by how they treat other people
    in the workplace.
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    And we concluded that there are
    four moral principles
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    that, when leaders follow them, they will
    be seen as people of deep character,
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    and there are two of the head
    and two of heart.
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    When a CEO or a leader of any kind
    demonstrates integrity,
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    it tends to generate trust
    among the workforce.
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    And when they demonstrate responsibility,
    it tends to be inspiring to the workforce.
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    When they see that a leader or a CEO
    demonstrates forgiveness,
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    that's what generates innovation
    in the workforce.
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    And finally, when they show compassion,
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    that's what drives up
    workforce engagement
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    and talent retention.
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    So, that's what I mean by character.
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    When I say "return on character,"
    I mean something else.
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    I'm talking there
    about hard business metrics.
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    And so, we chose to study two:
    the return on assets
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    and the level of workforce engagement.
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    But, before you could really
    proceed with our research,
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    we needed to come up with a way
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    of creating a single
    character score for a CEO.
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    So, the way that we did that
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    is that we asked random samples
    of employees simply to rate
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    how well their CEO demonstrated
    these four principles
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    of integrity, compassion,
    responsibility and forgiveness.
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    And then, we took all of those ratings
    and put them into one average score,
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    and that became the CEO's character score,
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    which then allowed us to create
    this character curve.
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    (Laughter)
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    Each dot on this character curve
    represents one of the CEOs in our study.
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    And we ended up
    with complete data sets on 79,
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    and we have almost
    8,000 employee observations,
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    which gives them their character score.
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    So, this is a lot of data.
    We have a lot of confidence in it.
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    Now, first thing you'll notice
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    is there are no real
    psychopaths in the study.
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    Well, how many psychopaths
    do you think line up at the door
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    for a research study on integrity
    in the workplace?
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    They just don't show up.
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    But we did get a few that -
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    (Laughter)
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    We did get a few that could be called
    "almost psychopaths,"
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    and the only real difference between
    an almost psychopath and a real psychopath
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    is that they're more functional.
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    The almost psychopaths are people
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    that often have outstanding professional
    skills in one way or another,
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    but they still are the kind of people
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    that match that profile
    I mentioned at the beginning:
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    deceitful, manipulative,
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    don't care about other people,
    have no conscience,
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    have no remorse on the impact
    that they have on other people.
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    We encountered one in our study.
    His name was "Tom."
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    That's not his real name,
    but the name I'll give him.
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    And the thing that most
    impressed me about Tom
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    when I walked into his office
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    was that there was literally
    no more room on the wall
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    for a picture of Tom
    and some important person.
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    It was all filled.
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    And Tom spent the entire interview
    trying to convince me
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    what a wonderful company he had,
    and what a wonderful CEO he was,
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    and how everything was going
    just wonderfully well.
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    Well, when we got the data
    from his employees,
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    it told a different story.
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    In fact, the employees said
    that Tom lied to them about half the time.
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    They said that it was not safe
    to tell the truth to senior management.
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    And, furthermore, the employees said
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    that all of senior management
    would alter business outcomes,
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    they thought, if it was
    to their advantage to do so.
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    Well, then, that crisis in 2008
    came for that particular company,
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    and it exposed their weaknesses,
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    and, within a few weeks
    after that crisis hit,
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    Tom and his leadership team were fired
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    and the company was broken up into pieces
    and sold to its competitors.
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    That was one of my almost
    psychopaths in this study.
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    Going up the character curve,
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    you'll notice next the
    low-character underperformers
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    and the average CEOs,
    and, for sake of brevity,
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    today I've put them into one category.
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    These are not bad people.
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    They're so much as underdeveloped people.
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    It's as if their level
    of character development
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    was sort of arrested
    at about the 9th grade.
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    They are people who are kind of fearful,
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    and that's their biggest agenda item,
    to achieve security,
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    and that translates into pursuit of money.
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    So, these are CEOs
    that are all about themselves.
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    their biggest objective is to make
    as much money as they can.
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    And, of course, their employees
    see through this as well.
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    Their employees say that these CEOs
    also tell the truth about half of the time
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    and that they care for people as people
    even less than half the time.
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    But that brings me to the top
    of the character curve
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    and this amazing group of men and women
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    that we've chosen to call
    the "virtuoso CEOs."
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    These are men and women
    I really come to admire and love
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    in the course of this study.
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    When I read the open-ended comments
    that their employees said about them,
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    my first responses were, "I wish I could
    have found a CEO like that to work for.
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    I would have gone to work
    for them in a heartbeat."
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    Now, one of the dots in that circle
    is a well-known CEO right here in Seattle.
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    It's a name that I'm sure
    you will all instantly recognize,
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    and that is the recently retired
    CEO of Costco, Jim Sinegal.
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    When we saw the ratings that Jim got from
    the random sample of Costco employees,
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    they were some of the highest we had seen
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    on integrity, responsibility,
    forgiveness, and compassion.
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    And, when I saw those ratings, I thought,
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    "Huh, I go to Costco
    warehouses all the time.
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    I think I'll see if I can find
    a disgruntled Costco employee."
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    So, I have a new hobby,
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    and that's trying to find a disgruntled
    Costco employee in a warehouse.
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    (Laughter)
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    And so far, no luck.
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    I kind of sidle up to them and I say,
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    "Tell me, what's it like
    to work at Costco?"
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    And I always get the same response,
    "Oh, I love it here."
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    And after, we talk about
    their wonderful pay and benefits,
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    I say, "Well, anything else?"
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    "Oh, yes, it's the way I'm treated.
    It's my manager, my boss.
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    She always stands up for me.
    I know I can depend on her."
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    So, obviously, Jim honoring these four
    moral principles we talked about earlier
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    has made that a part of the culture.
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    He has insisted that all the managers,
    and leaders, the entire company,
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    behaved in that way, and it shows.
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    Now, we asked ourselves, "If all we knew
    about a CEO was their character score,
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    would that allow us in any way to predict
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    what business outcomes
    or business results would be?"
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    And we thought an interesting way
    of looking at that
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    might be to divide this curve
    in half, at the median,
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    and let's look
    at the hard business metrics
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    for CEOs above the median on character
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    versus those below
    the median on character.
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    And we managed to get complete
    financial statements for two years
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    on 40% of our sample,
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    and here's what we discovered.
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    It's that the CEOs above the median
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    create almost three times the return
    on assets as those below the median.
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    And the only difference
    between these is their character score.
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    Now, we had hoped that we would find
    a difference that was significant,
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    but I didn't expect that it would be
    three times as much.
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    And then, even more compelling is that -
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    Let's look at the results
    of the virtuoso CEOs at top circle
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    compared to the ones at the very bottom.
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    The virtuoso CEOs contribute an average
    of 8,4% return on assets,
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    and those at the bottom of the curve
    lose money for investors.
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    This was pretty compelling evidence.
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    So, we looked next at levels
    of workforce engagement,
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    and they tracked exactly the same
    with these figures on return on assets.
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    So, high-character CEOs
    create these wonderful,
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    high-energy, positive work environments
    where people love to come to work.
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    The low-character CEOs create these
    painful work environments for people.
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    They don't even want to be there
    and try to leave as soon as they can.
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    So, we concluded from this hard data
    on two metrics business results
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    that character does matter,
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    that we were right
    when we wrote that first book.
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    So, I'd like to talk now about the second
    outcome of our research,
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    and that is that character can be taught,
    because people generally don't think that.
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    And, as I said before,
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    a measure of your character
    is how you treat other people.
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    And, you know, the most clear
    indication of that
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    is when there's no apparent gain for you.
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    So, think a minute: how do you treat
    the person that cleans your office?
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    Or the checkout clerk
    at the grocery store?
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    That reveals your character.
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    The other thing that we discovered
    that was really fascinating for me
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    is it dawned on us
    about halfway through this study
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    that character is mostly
    a matter of habit.
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    It's not a kind of a thing
    you do a lot of thinking about.
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    These are character habits that you've
    acquired through life experiences,
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    that you don't stop and think,
    "Now, how should I treat the person?"
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    You just automatically treat them well.
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    If you have a well-ingrained
    integrity habit,
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    your first response will be to tell
    the truth and to keep your promises.
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    If you have a well-ingrained
    responsibility habit,
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    your first response will be
    to own up to your own mistakes
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    and be concerned for the common good.
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    It's like muscle memory.
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    So, once we understood that, we thought,
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    "Well, habits can be changed.
    People do it all the time."
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    So, developing character
    is about strengthening moral habits
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    more than anything else.
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    It can be a little more
    complicated than that,
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    I don't have time to go into it, but it's
    mostly by strengthening moral habits.
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    So, that we thought was good news.
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    So, we wondered,
    back to our virtuoso CEOs,
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    "Do they have a particular set
    of moral habits
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    that are different
    from those at the bottom?
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    And, even more, do they all have
    a set of habits in common?"
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    And we found, in fact, that they do,
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    that there are three habits
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    that the high-character, virtuoso CEOs
    all seem to have in common.
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    And the first is what I call
    the empathy habit,
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    and the empathy habit is kind
    of what is sounds like,
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    it's immediately being able to sense
    what other people are feeling.
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    Now, virtuoso CEOs,
    this is a core competency for them.
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    You were born with
    a perfect skill in doing this,
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    but, growing up in our culture, it's
    probably often been trained out of you.
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    You've probably been also told
    in our culture that business is business,
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    and, "Don't get personally involved
    in business decisions", right?
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    Well, wrong, if you're a virtuoso CEO.
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    They do get involved
    in personal relationship
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    to the decisions they are making.
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    The first thing they think about when
    they make a difficult business decision
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    is, "How is this going to impact
    the people that are involved?"
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    The second habit
    that the virtuoso CEOs have
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    is what I call the other first habit.
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    When they're making
    a significant business decision,
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    the first thing they think about is,
    "How is this going to impact other people?
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    And what's best for other people?
    What's best for the business?"
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    And it's never about "me,"
    and "my salary," or "my status."
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    Now, the paradox of that, of course,
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    is that the high-character CEOs
    enjoy a lot of career success
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    and make a lot of money.
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    So, that's kind of interesting.
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    The third habit that they have
    is what I call the "I screwed up" habit,
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    and that's admitting
    to their own mistakes.
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    One of the CEOs in the study said
    that, early in his career,
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    when he was still a young man in his 30s,
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    he was already reporting to the CEO,
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    and one day the CEO called him
    into his office and said, say,
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    "We have a crisis on our hands.
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    I made a bad decision.
    I really screwed up."
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    And he said he almost fell off his chair.
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    He'd never ever heard a senior leader
    ever say something like that before,
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    admitting to his own mistakes.
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    But he said, "It had a wonderful impact
    on me because it freed me up."
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    He said, "From that point on,
    I knew I could do that as well."
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    So, more than anything else, when a leader
    admits to having made a mistake,
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    yet communicates trust and respect for the
    people in the room that you're talking to,
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    it says to them, "I'm just like you.
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    We're all in the same playing field,
    we're all in this together,
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    we're all coequal as people."
  • 16:38 - 16:42
    It's very energizing to people
    when a leader does that.
  • 16:42 - 16:45
    So, I have a three-point map for you.
  • 16:45 - 16:50
    If you want to try to increase
    the strength of your moral character,
  • 16:50 - 16:53
    practice empathizing,
    move from "me first" to "others first,"
  • 16:53 - 16:56
    and start owning up to your own mistakes.
  • 16:56 - 16:59
    Now, I know this is easier said than done,
  • 17:00 - 17:04
    but you can change habits,
    it's not impossible to do by any means.
  • 17:04 - 17:07
    And I would suggest that perhaps
  • 17:07 - 17:12
    you take a page out of the virtuosos'
    playbook, and do it the way they did it.
  • 17:12 - 17:13
    They have a particular strategy
  • 17:13 - 17:16
    for acquiring and strengthening
    their moral habits,
  • 17:16 - 17:21
    and that is that every one of them had
    one or more important mentors
  • 17:21 - 17:22
    in their career.
  • 17:22 - 17:25
    They often had multiple
    mentors in their career.
  • 17:25 - 17:27
    They started early at getting mentored,
  • 17:27 - 17:30
    sometimes before they got
    even into their career.
  • 17:30 - 17:33
    And I'm sad to say that the CEOs
    at the bottom of the character curve
  • 17:33 - 17:36
    had hardly any mentors, or none.
  • 17:36 - 17:40
    So, my advice to you is,
    do it like the virtuoso CEOs do.
  • 17:40 - 17:43
    If you want to strengthen
    your moral character,
  • 17:43 - 17:47
    find yourself a good mentor,
    but remember it should be somebody
  • 17:47 - 17:51
    that's higher up on the character
    curve than you are.
  • 17:51 - 17:54
    You would not think
    about trying to climb Mount Rainier
  • 17:54 - 17:57
    with a guy who had not
    climbed it before, right?
  • 17:57 - 17:59
    So, that would be my advice to you.
  • 17:59 - 18:02
    In closing, I have three dreams,
  • 18:02 - 18:06
    and one is that, in the near future,
  • 18:06 - 18:10
    character development will be
    part of the core curricula
  • 18:10 - 18:15
    for next-generation leaders in companies
    in leadership development programs.
  • 18:16 - 18:20
    The second dream I have is that executive
    search firms and recruiters
  • 18:20 - 18:26
    will find a set of tools
    that can accurately assess for character,
  • 18:26 - 18:28
    and that they'll use it to screen out
  • 18:28 - 18:33
    the superficially warm, friendly,
    manipulative psychopaths,
  • 18:33 - 18:36
    so that they don't even
    get into leadership positions,
  • 18:36 - 18:39
    because, when they do, they destroy
    so much value and cause so much pain.
  • 18:39 - 18:44
    And the third that I dream about is what
    Michael mentioned at the beginning,
  • 18:44 - 18:48
    that business schools will embrace
    character development
  • 18:48 - 18:50
    as the core of their curricula,
  • 18:50 - 18:54
    and maybe put all that other stuff
    online - well, just kidding -
  • 18:54 - 18:55
    (Laughter)
  • 18:55 - 18:58
    but that it'll be the core of the
    curricula, instead of how it is now.
  • 18:58 - 19:04
    It's mostly ignored or it's bolted on
    as an ethics course.
  • 19:06 - 19:08
    So, that's my dream for the future,
  • 19:08 - 19:11
    and, in closing, I just want to point out
  • 19:11 - 19:15
    that high-character CEOs
    do produce better financial results,
  • 19:15 - 19:18
    they do enjoy higher levels
    of workforce engagement,
  • 19:18 - 19:22
    and you can increase the strength of your
    character habits, it's not too late.
  • 19:22 - 19:24
    That's what star performers do.
  • 19:25 - 19:29
    So, return on character is significant.
    The data is in. Thank you.
  • 19:29 - 19:31
    (Applause)
Title:
Psychopaths in the C-suite | Fred Kiel | TEDxBGI
Description:

Fred Kiel talks about his research that uncovers the most effective personality characteristics in leadership.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx

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Video Language:
English
Team:
closed TED
Project:
TEDxTalks
Duration:
19:39

English subtitles

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