Recently elected Trustee Michael Chu '68 shared lessons of leadership learned through his life and business experience to attendees of the Leadership 2000 Conference Saturday evening at the Rockefeller Center.
Dartmouth students are much like Ferraris " "high powered models with no mileage," Chu said, so he said he would "try to distill the lessons on leadership that my miles have accumulated on me."
He focused on four points essential to leadership: define the rules by which you will live, lead by example, ask yourself what really matters and know when to step down from positions of leadership.
"One of the first things you will be called to do" as a leader will be to "find the rules that you will play by," Chu said. These are the rules that will define you as a person.
People skills are also essential to leadership, according to Chu. The best leaders lead by example, not by working on others' fears or ambitions, Chu said.
But in order to lead by example, you must have an insight the team respects, and the "intellectual courage and clarity" to follow through on that vision.
You also must "have the good measure of your team" in mind, "not your own advancement," Chu said.
"The military has known this for ages; officers don't go to bed until their soldiers sleep " it's that kind of leadership that gets people to give their life for a leader."
"Many of you will be blessed with a lot of success," Chu continued. You "may be in a position of luxury," and "have the choice of what to do with your talents. When you have that choice, don't screw it up. You have to ask yourself, why am I doing this?"
When Chu was in the business world he said he "would look out the window and think, someday I'm going to do something that matters."
It was this thought that caused him to leave his position as a limited partner at Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., a major investment firm, for the position of CEO of ACCION International, an organization devoted to helping the poor throughout the world through microfinancing.
Lastly, Chu said, "It is a part of leadership that there is a time to leave the organization, because you love the organization."
A good leader gives all he or she can to the organization, then paves the way for the successor, Chu said.
This speech was the closing portion of the Leadership 2000 Conference, a gathering of approximately 50 students for a weekend of leadership-related speeches and activities.
