what's interesting is I have a lot of companies come up to mean they say how
do we know who our high potentials are I love that question I've got two answers
number one you've got to look for people who are competent does that make sense
you've got to have people who are competent but even more importantly than
competence you need people of character character and competence powerful
combination every now and then I'm approached by a friend this particular
friend in Orlando is is a middle school principal she says John would you
address our students we have an awards banquet coming up there's going to be
two thousand parents and grandparents and we've got four hundred seventh and
eighth graders I love the opportunity i said i would love to do that so i posed
the question to the students the students were in front of me it was a
gymnasium right the stands are filled with parents and gram I'm not even
looking at him I'm gonna rest on the kids and I posed the question I'm never
going to forget this I said who can tell me a great definition of character
there's this young man 13 years old in the first row he was the only one who
raised his hand I ran over to him i said what's your name he stands up he says my
name is on mind i said a mind thank you thank you so much what is the great
definition you want to share he says it's what you do when nobody else is
working
the place erupted it everybody erupted I said a month maybe you should do the
speech you know what's interesting is we've heard that definition before it's
really not all that unique of a fairly unique were 13 year old what's even more
unique was that he was that quick he was that quick in coming up with a construct
meaning that he lives his life as a 13 year old with a construct of character
we need that look at the examples of business people character is a
determinant of her ultimate destiny not our destiny ultimately how people
remember you I don't care who you are diligence there's no substitute for
working hard it is a long curvy road you cannot necessarily be concrete about
what your vision is about next steps you can't but you've got to commit every day
to becoming the best that you can be more capable more committed more aligned
that's the gift of leadership that's a great leader so great parents do with
their children think about it as you work with leaders back at work future
leaders a younger people massive talent how do we unleash talent we've got to
get people focused in on the inner core inner core character values self-concept
soft when I talk to CEOs about this stuff they say it's soft it is kind of
odd but you know what's interesting is how you think your thoughts every day
about anything whatever thought you have control your emotions you can't have an
emotion without first having a cognitive you can't
thoughts control emotions emotions control behavior behavior controls
results the inner core is so powerful you know what's interesting is the world
sees your outer core nobody sees the inner core except oh you tell me who
sees your inner core who is the only person who can see your inner core you
John mattone is the author of seven books his recent bestsellers intelligent
leadership what you need to know to unlock your full potential and talent
leadership a proven method for identifying and developing high
potential employees are being heralded by leading experts as groundbreaking and
innovative JD meyer from sources of insight says intelligent leadership
might just be the best leadership book of 2013 it's one of the deepest
leadership and personal development books since stephen covey's the 7 Habits
of Highly Effective People and Tony Robinson's unlimited power it's that
good Marshall Goldsmith says John shares knowledge that took him three decades to
amass how fortunate that we can benefit from his wisdom think about this that
very often the first step to failure is success that's the first step people get
afraid when I say that what are you talking about you're scaring me don't
scare me think about this opportunities happen to successful people
opportunities happen to successful organizations so before you may not have
had many opportunities now what happens well they're all kinds of opportunities
coming on and then what happens is predictably you lead to the next what I
call the 3ds distraction that's what happens take your eye off the ball Jim
Collins years ago wrote the book good to great credible buck if you go back to
that book do you know that a lot of those companies don't even exist anymore
unbelievable you know why he predicted it he predicted it it's the 3ds
opportunity oh wow then we get this track in our personal lives to my
correct distraction leads to diffuse the effort and focus now we're diffused the
relationships it's very interesting how many people in this room have noticed
the unique relay chionship that a grandparent has with a
grandchild how many people have noticed that before damn parents in
grandchildren and you can go anywhere on the globe in this any country and you
watch a grandparent interact with a grandchild it's it's different every
conversation grandparent and grandchild were connecting I to I face-to-face i
watch the parents and what do they do they stood up like authorities right it
is it is something that I've observed all over the world of course you know
what the cynics say the cynics say hey wait a minute grandparent grandchild
they share a common enemy thank you all so much god bless you thank you to shake
that thank you thank you very much
you