Name: How to Overcome an Impatient State of Mind
Uploaded: 2017-02-14
Duration: 3 min 55 s
Description: Principal Financial Group CEO shares what he learned on the job.

Dan, when you were tapped to become CEO of Principle Financial, this is this first time that you've ever held a CEO job. So what have you learned in this past year or so about what it takes to be an effective leader? Communications, you've got to constantly be reminding our employees what our strategy is, what our culture is, living the culture of the organization. Communicating the culture of the organization. Reminding people of what our strategy is. And then of course encouraging them to reach and satisfy the needs of our customers. What is the one leadership skill that you wish you knew when you took the CEO job but you know it now? Yeah, so I really think it's patience. And I'm an impatient person. And you expect people to come along on the voyage with you. And that they're keeping up with you. When in reality, you have to retrace your steps from time to time. Reiterate why we're doing what we're doing, and why it's important. If it's something that's important to me because I think it's important to our customers and to our shareholders, then I have to continue to be patient. And communicate it, and communicate it, and communicate it. I don't know if you've heard this before, but it's been said that a good leader knows how to manage people, but a great leader knows himself. In your experience, have you found that knowing yourself is a precursor to being a great leader? I think keeping your ego in check is always in good order, no matter what you're doing for any company. But I do believe that's part of it. My view is, managers manage a process, leaders lead people. That's how I would distinguish the difference between managers and leaders. What are you doing to groom the next generation of leaders? Collaboration. I really believe you've gotta have a collaborative environment. From my perspective there's nothing more important than culture. What's the DNA of the organization? What's the ethos of the organization? If you don't have collaboration, if you don't have good teaming in today's day and age, if you're not able to work across your business lines and fully leverage the resource of the company You'll be suboptimal, and today you can't be a suboptimally run organization. Mhm, I know you're also trying to create a culture of innovation at Principal, what are you doing on all levels of the company to get all of your employees to take more risks, to try new things, to experiment rather than going The old fashioned comfortable way in playing it safe. I'll give you one example we are in partnership with an organization called Plug and PLay. Plug and Play is an innovation center that is located in Silicon Valley. WE have people Pool that will be working with these very creative entrepreneurs trying to extract some of those great ideas. Partnering with them even though they're not employees but partnering and hearing and understanding and leveraging their thinking and how we can bring that to our customers. So what is your message to your executives and employees on every level about Doing things differently. Yeah, I think it's just that. I think it's having an open mind. The reality is this, if we can have self- driving cars people will figure out much of what we do in principle. So how do we add value to our customers? How do we differentiate our product relative to the competition? And at the end of the day it's getting better outcomes for our customers. Dan you joined Principal right out of college. I did. So you spent your whole career with the company I'm sure you had a lot of mentors along the way. What is the best leadership advice you ever received and why did it stick with you all the years .>> The best piece of advice I got from my Father who got it from my Grandfather. Which is you think you have a big problem, take nine other executives sit around a table. Throw in the worst problem that you think you've got. By the time you hear the other nine, you'll find out that your problem isn't that big. It's good leadership advice for me, because at times you can get a bit of a brain cramp. Or you can get locked into a certain way of thinking, when in reality you know your industry. You know how to solve problems. Figure it out.

Principal Financial Group CEO shares what he learned on the job.