2018 Class Day Distinguished Speaker Carla A. Harris of Morgan Stanley

god is good all the time and all the time god is good well good afternoon - Dean Nuria esteemed professors my fellow Achievement Award winners invited guests staff parents family but most importantly good afternoon to the 2018 class of Harvard Business School it is such a privilege and an honor to be here and to be chosen by you class of 2018 to be your class day speaker I am so excited to be here at this time this year to share this day with you but before I go on I want to thank two people in particular my second year professor of Career Management Tom DeLonge he was instrumental in the way I left HBS because he asked me a very important question after all the classes were done he said Carla will you know when and that question has been something that has guided me as I've gone year after year to make 31 years on Wall Street so I say publicly to you sir thank you very much the second person that I'd like to thank is Professor Lakshmi Rama Rajan who wrote the case on me that many of you studied and that I had the privilege of listening as you all dissected my life in front of me in Section but I want to thank her because I think she did an outstanding job and it was a privilege and an honor to be the subject of an HBS case now my my my things have changed so much in the 31 years since I said where you are sitting today in May of 1987 the Dow was at 2,200 and change and yesterday it closed at 24,000 and change of the 30 companies that made up the Dow only 13 remain and 13 don't exist anymore over the course of these years amazon has evolved from a mere bookseller to a disruptive threat to numerous industries the internet became prominent the Berlin Wall fell the iPhone was born Google was founded and then evolved from being just the company to being both a noun and a verb we endured the first major terrorist attacks on US soil in 9/11 the United States elected its first African American president global warming reached a tipping point in the summer of 2010 with record high temperatures and excessive flooding Nelson Mandela was released from prison Saddam Hussein was captured we had a global financial crisis we had the fall of iconic financial institutions and the advent of artificial intelligence can anybody say Alexa we have also seen over this time the rise of populism and nationalism which i think is a direct result of countries and cultures failing to invest in those who are underserved who lacked access to opportunities for equal education and employment there by growing the divide between the haves and the have-nots and also simply just a direct result of people's general resistance to and fear of change but while a lot has happened over these three decades since I left Harvard Business School there are some things that have not changed at all as you sit here today on the eve of your official graduation you are eager to begin your career and to obtain your current definition of success you are eager for your journey to leadership and you think you have a pretty good idea about how to get there but you were smart enough to know that there are some things that you don't know but you are not sure what they are no indeed some things are still the same in many ways the career journey is still referred to as the game and like any game there are play that you need to win that go beyond the rules of basic skills that you have acquired looking back I wish someone had given me a bit of a playbook so today HBS class of 2018 I want to imagine just for a moment that I'm graduating with you today and that I had the privilege of receiving a letter from an alum that said where I'm sitting three decades before and that gave me the please that will make my journey smoother giving me a clearer path to success allowing me to evolve as an effective impactful leader and it goes like this dear Carla congratulations on your graduation from HBS you are now a member of a group of people that have acquired the academic and intellectual tools to become managers and leaders from an institution that has been known throughout its 110 year history for creating great leaders in Carla membership has its privileges you have the privilege to have access to opportunities that many other MBA graduates don't have due to the outstanding and powerful vibrant alumni network that HBS has you have the privilege to have special access to an esteemed group of scholars that you have studied with at the Business School that will continue to make themselves available to you as you grow and evolve you have the privilege of being perceived as a leader because of your HBS heritage even before you have evolved as a leader ah yes membership has its privileges but there are a few other things that you will need in order to maximize your success in whatever seats or seats that you choose over the course of your career number one you cannot get to the top by just putting your head down and getting the work done it takes more than that you need to understand the difference between performance currency and relationship currency you see performance currency is the currency that is generated by your delivering that which was asked of you and a little bit extra every time that you deliver on an assignment above people's expectations you will generate performance currency it works just like the stock market any time a company says to the street that they will deliver 25 cents to share in that quarter and that company delivers 40 cents to share that stock goes up every single time and so will yours and performance currency is valuable for three reasons number one early in your career it will get you noticed it will create a reputation for you number two early on in your career it will get you paid and promoted and number three it may even attract the sponsor and if you don't know Karla while a mentor is a nice thing to have you can survive a long time in your career without a mentor but you would not ascend without a sponsor the sponsor is the person that is carrying your paper into the room uh-huh that room that room where you are not present that room where somebody else is talking about whether or not you are worthy of an opportunity and that sponsor is the person that is spending their valuable political and social capital on you and if you have good performance currency it raises your level of visibility such that a sponsor may naturally be attracted to you or if like many of us you have to exercise your power and ask for a sponsor it heightens the probability that that person will answer in the affirmative upon your approach but here's the problem Karla with performance currency early on is worth about a buck fifty but over time it starts to experience diminishing marginal returns that buck 50 works this way right back down to a dollar why because now you have established a new standard of excellence everybody knows that you will do a great job everybody expects that you will deliver so there's no longer a premium associated with your deliverable the currency that now is most important is the relationship currency and relationship currency is worth about 225 and it never experiences any diminishing marginal returns and relationship currency Carla is the currency that is generated by the investments that you make in the people in your environment the investments that you make in the people in your environment you will not work in a silo people today are working in highly integrated environments so at a minimum you must have relationships with every seat that touches your seat if the only person that knows that you're doing a great job is your boss then your ability to ass in will be vulnerable why that person may leave the organization they may lose their seat at the decision-making table or there may lose their juice so it's your job to make sure as many people as possible is aware of your outside contribution here's why relationship currency is so important your ability to ascend will be a function of somebody's judgement judgement about whether or not you're ready judgment about whether or not the team will follow you and judgment about whether or not you will be successful and ladies and gentlemen judgments are directly influenced by relationships everybody on this yard today has power hard-earned personal influential currency but I ask you ladies and gentlemen how many people on this yard will use their hard-earned personal influential courtesy on somebody that they do not know mm-hmm that's right so remember Carla that your ability to ascend will rarely if ever be a function of whether or not somebody likes you but it absolutely will be a function of whether or not somebody knows you the second thing I want to tell you is that leadership is a journey from execution to empowerment when you are just starting out in any organization you are in fact that individual contributor but as you move up in an organization you must evolve from someone who is just executing to someone who is developing other leaders or empowering other people true leaders make leaders and I have learned that the secret to growing your power is to give it away number three talking is overrated hmm listening is far more important as your grandmother told you the reason why God gave us two ears and one mouth is that you're supposed to listen twice as much as you talk if you learn how to really listen you will get to the leadership seat much faster and you will be a better leader when you listen you can hear what people are really saying yet they are not articulating when you listen you learn that there are very few people that have original thought when you listen you realize that there is no need for you to be intimidated by other people because most people don't know what they're really talking about mm-hmm when you listen you can form the foundation of building relationships then you can say to someone let me repeat what I heard you say did I understand you to mean when you say that that person is now saying wow she was listening oh he heard me and you have just generated immediate currency in that exchange that you can use to invest in that relationship why everybody values being heard number four when a crisis comes make sure that you do not react but rather that you respond when you react you're coming from a human place a place that responds to stimulus fight or flight but when you respond you're coming from that power that is ripped within that power that leverages your strength of discernment that leverages your intellect and your experience that confident place that says no matter what this really is I know that I know that I know that I will prevail victoriously because I'm a winner and I know how the story ends number five dare to innovate drive change dare to take risks leaders don't compete Carla they disrupt and the only way that you can disrupt is to take risks change is inevitable growth is good nothing stays the same if you want to be seen as a leader then you must be fearless in the face of change in fact the key to getting comfortable with change is to create the change make it happen take the risk of trying something new innovate the worst that can happen is that you fail but guess what failure always brings you a gift and that gift is called experience not you know how to do it better now you know how to do it differently now you know how to do it successfully at the margin it is always worth taking the risk and remember Carla there are very few things in life that are irreparable including your career so take the risks because the only reason that people don't take risks is that discard they're just scared it's fear and hear me clearly fear has no place in your success equation fear has no place in your success equation any time you approach anything in your life personally or professionally from a position of fear you will always under penetrate that opportunity the reason I talk about fear Carla is that it's sneaky it's the reason that you fail to ask for the role that it's the reason that you fail to demand the compensation that you deserve it's the reason that you fail to ask for the promotion it's the reason that you fail to exercise your voice and to speak truth to power fear is the reason that you fail to given non-traditional candidate the opportunity for a job on your team I want you to be conscious of it so that you can perceive it as the culprit of the inertia in your career and in your life and then get rid of it always play for yes next don't be afraid of making a mistake you have to be willing to make a mistake if you're going to activate a try mistakes are valuable and valid part of life remember that everybody makes a mistake so making a mistake does not make you special what makes you special is how and if you get up the key to making mistakes is to leverage the lesson into the next opportunity don't let it be a career limiting occurrence and never let anyone else tell your story own your narrative it is your narrative it is your story and it must have your spin giving away your narrative is akin to giving away your power sure there are people that will try to make you feel like this mistake is a major obstacle or problem but don't fall for it it's not true and it'll only be a problem if you let it next Carla be an inclusive leader guard are the days when you can survive as a my way or the highway type leader leadership in the 21st century will not be based solely on functional expertise but rather on consensus building the ability to collaborate to build bridges across obvious divides to tolerate others point of view in fact to embrace different points of view to not only have vision but to be able to articulate a vision and inspire not require but inspire others to line up and follow you being an inclusive leader involves soliciting other people's voices soliciting their voice into the conversation and embracing and leveraging all of who they are as the leader it is your responsibility to invite them into the conversation and when you invite them you must support them when you support and reinforce their inclusion and their contributions they will be inspired to consistently contribute at their highest level and that will accrue to your status in the leadership scene you must be dogged Karla about your insistence on having diverse teams don't be confused it's not about the right thing to do it's about the commercial thing to do in the world that you are entering diversity is a strategic competitive imperative that will lead to above market commercial gain don't let the rhetoric of the day fool you or blind you to the beauty or the bounty that exists from our very perspectives from our very genders from the varied neighborhoods from which we come for it is the diversity of perspectives it is from the diversity of our genders and the diversity of our persons that will bear the fruit of the next company the next great franchise the next great healthcare discovery or that will identify the gaps in a corporate strategy it will be the diversity of perspectives that will save a great franchise from a social media crucifixion because they ran the wrong ad or they gave the wrong response to an unfortunate event Carla people decisions will be some of the most important decisions that you will make making sure that you have the right people in the right seat at the right time will be far more important than whether you price your IPO one dollar less or one dollar more or whether you allocate the right amount of capital to a new endeavor or whether you overpay for an asset the people Asians are especially important if you are in a start-up for those decisions have real financial operational psychological and morale implications if there is any place that you should spend extra time as a leader as a manager as an owner is around people decisions number eight no need to fake it until you make it you are enough you are already a winner be authentically who you are because your authenticity is your distinct competitive advantage nobody can be you the way that you can be you here's a secret Carla most people are not comfortable in their own skin and when they see someone who is comfortable and confident in their skin they will gravitate towards you because they absolutely want some of that as a banker your success will depend upon relationships and the easiest way to build relationships is to bring your authentic self to the table when you bring your authentic self to the table people will trust you and Trust is at the heart of any successful relationship you will be surprised how many people will be intimidated by you because you are committed to bringing your authentic self to every interaction it is empowering and it is powerful beyond what you can see today number nine power lies Carla knowing whose you are not who you are stay focused on your highest power your universe or whatever you want to call it Carla you know who is on the throne get closer to that power and learn how to draw up on it make it muscle memory the more you give fakes and the more you use that power the more powerful you will become because of that relationship you have no choice but to be a glass-half-full kind of girl you know how to turn your worry into worship and your problems in the praise so just do it and lastly go for it every time play big don't try to inch your way to the top by playing it safe Eric Schmidt co-founder of Google said incremental ISM leads to irrelevance don't take baby steps to your goal you will be disintermediated and deemed irrelevant before you can gather momentum own your power even though you are just graduating you have power don't give it away by letting someone make you feel that you are less than or that perhaps you are not really qualified for the role don't even think about having that impostor syndrome the companies that gave you office knew exactly what they were buying you didn't fool them you are not that good of an actress they hired you because they thought you were and you are awesome terrific and outstanding they hired you because they thought you could make rain so make rain as your good friend Judith they do said this is real life this ain't a dress rehearsal swing hard every time until you find your home run swing Karla you are a part of the class of 2018 at the Harvard Business School and it is an awesome class they've already demonstrated that they know how to take their life from success to significance in the way that they've already started to do for others know that you know that you know that you have everything that you need to have an extraordinary career and an extraordinary life you have the best academic training that exists you have had extraordinary experiences and you have inspiring relationships expect and strategize to win and you will sincerely Karla the alum of 31 years class of 2018 congratulations and I look forward to your leadership [Applause]

Channel: Harvard Business School

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Keywords: HBS class day & commencement, diploma ceremony, HBS18, Class of 2018, Harvard MBA, graduation, doctoral degrees, Class Day, Alumni Achievement Awards 2018, Dean Nitin Nohria, harvard, harvard university, morgan stanley, Carla Harris, commencement

Id: 1z7psyNuT4o

Length: 24min 38sec (1478 seconds)

Published: Wed May 23 2018