2. Humility
Bogle has built a mutual fund empire big enough to warrant an inflated ego. But he hates arrogance, especially in leaders.
“I don’t think you can build something without a large ego, to be honest with you,” he says. “You have to try and suppress it as best you can.”
Remember those followers you need in order to be a leader? They won’t follow blindly after a self-important CEO. They’ll be more committed to following you if you can bring yourself down to their level and adopt the idea of servant leadership, as Bogle does.
“Don’t think you’re a big shot,” he says. “That doesn’t get you anywhere. You’re just a normal, dedicated human being. I think those whom you serve will be much better, more loyal, more dedicated, more committed people in working with you.”
You can’t expect employees to buy in to your purpose if they don’t trust you. And you can’t expect them to trust you if you perch upon an ivory tower. So another key to being a good leader is being a humble one.
“The chief executive is an employee; let’s never forget that,” Bogle says. “A lot of times people think they’re the dictator of a corporation. I think if people would just realize that, they might have a little bit less ego wrapped up in all of this.”
Q. How do you suppress your ego?
What you do is, first, you mingle with those around you. You don’t sit in some isolated office high above the earth. You get out and be with your people. I’ve always thought the idea of an executive dining room was totally absurd and destructive to any idea of leadership.
You better make sure that if the executives get bonus compensation on the basis of how well the firm does, shouldn’t everybody? The worker should participate proportionately in the company’s success. I’m appalled when I see some of these companies where all the awards seem to go to the chief executive. Do you really do everything, no help at all? Please.
Q. How do you make everyone feel like part of the team?
It’s attitude. They will know whether you’re interested in them or not by who you are, maybe as little as a smile or a thank you or just a chat about last night’s Olympics, whatever it might be.
It’s not talking to the people around you, trying to go on a witch hunt — ‘What’s wrong around here and what’s wrong with your boss, what’s wrong with this, what’s wrong with that?’ It’s basically convincing them that you’re as deeply involved in the hard work of building an enterprise as they are. You’re not isolated in some ivory tower and nobody knows your name, nobody knows what you look like, nobody knows who you are.
We have a celebration for someone who’s been here 25 years. We have an Award for Excellence for individuals, about six a quarter each quarter, and I sit down and spend about an hour with each of those people, just trying to get acquainted. They then learn a little bit about the founder of the company, and I learn a little bit about them and the kind of people we’re hiring here.
