Becoming the Best. Kraemer Harry M.

what you stand for, what your values are, and what matters most.

      2. Balance: The ability to see situations from multiple perspectives, including differing viewpoints, to gain a holistic understanding.

      3. True Self-Confidence: Acceptance of yourself, recognizing your strengths and skill mastery, as well as your weaknesses, while focusing on continuous improvement.

      4. Genuine Humility: Never forgetting who you are, appreciating the unique value of each person in the organization, and treating everyone with respect.

      The more people grasped these principles, the more they wanted to know how, in practical terms, to apply them in their daily lives. From CEOs to first-time managers to students, people want to know what they need to do to make a difference in their organizations and beyond. They came to realize that leadership does not have anything to do with titles and organizational charts. Rather, it has everything to do with the ability to influence others by relating authentically to every individual with whom they come in contact.

      People at every level and with any job title, from the newest team members to the CEO, can and should become values-based leaders. Whether someone is the CEO of a company that employs 100,000 people or an entry-level person who just graduated from college, values-based leadership begins with one's ability to understand one's self. Self-knowledge and self-awareness must come first, before someone is able to relate to and influence others in positive and meaningful ways.

      For many, becoming more self-aware requires a significant change in mindset. To illustrate, I use the analogy of wanting to become healthier. When people read a compelling book or hear an expert speak on the importance of a healthy lifestyle, they set a goal for themselves to lose weight or start an exercise program. This instantly raises some very practical questions: Where do I start and what do I do? Does being healthy mean I have to exercise excessively or that I can never eat another chocolate bar for the rest of my life? What lasting changes do I need to adopt that will help me reach my goal of being healthier?

      Similarly, when people commit to becoming values-based leaders, they want to know exactly what they can do to catalyze change, drive results, and make things happen. People want to understand what it means to lead and influence others, and to do the right thing as defined by their personal values, as well as the mission, vision, and values of their organization. They want to know where to start and what to do, knowing that this is not a fad or a quick fix (like a crash diet), but rather a fundamental change in philosophy, attitude, and behavior (like adopting a healthy lifestyle).

      Fortunately, values-based leaders have an invaluable tool at the ready: self-reflection, which is the core principle of values-based leadership. Whenever I address a group, the questions I'm asked most frequently relate to self-reflection and, specifically, how to practice it. People from college students to CEOs want to become more self-reflective in their daily lives. They know intuitively that by gaining greater self-knowledge, they will be better able to lead themselves first, which will then enable them to be more effective in leading others.

      As will be discussed further in this book, the benefits of self-reflection are realized through regular (ideally daily) practice, using questions such as: What did I say I would do today? What am I proud of, and not proud of? How did I lead others and follow others? If I had today to do over again, what would I change? If I am fortunate to have tomorrow, given what I've learned today, how will I act? Self-reflection may be practiced at the end of the day, or be incorporated into any personal time for introspection, such as taking a walk, going for a jog, or sitting quietly for 15 or 20 minutes. Having practiced self-reflection for all of my adult life, including as CEO of Baxter International, a global health-care company with 50,000 team members (I prefer this term over employees), I can attest to the positive results of engaging in this discipline.

      Other commonly asked questions include: How do I develop a balanced perspective? How do I become truly self-confident? How can I gain true self-confidence without being perceived as arrogant or selfish? What does genuine humility really mean? If I am genuinely humble, will I run the risk of not being noticed or being passed over? Do I need both true self-confidence and genuine humility?

      Because of these questions and more, I decided to write this book as a how-to on values-based leadership. In addition, many of my students at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management have asked me to take the values-based leadership journey to the next level. Since I always listen to my Kellogg students, there was really no alternative for me but to do so!

      My first book, From Values to Action, stemmed directly from my values-based leadership classes at Kellogg, where I have taught for 10 years. In 2004, I stepped down from my role as chairman and CEO of Baxter International, where I had worked for 22 years, including the last six as CEO. At that time, I was asked by Don Jacobs, Dean Emeritus of Kellogg, to teach at the graduate school. I was surprised by his request, since I'm not an academic with a PhD, but he reminded me (half joking, half serious) of my promise that I would do anything for my graduate school alma mater. Of course, I said yes.

      Being a former chief financial officer and having majored in finance at Kellogg, I first considered teaching finance classes. However, based on my 35 years of business experience, I realized I could add more value to the students by teaching leadership. Since then I have taught values-based leadership, which has become one of the most popular classes at Kellogg, because of the keen interest in the topic and a host of talented leaders who, as guest lecturers, share insights from their careers with my students.

      One of those students, Samir Gokhale, audio taped all of my values-based leadership lectures and transcribed them in order to convince me to write my first book. His efforts jumpstarted my writing of From Values to Action and my speaking about values-based leadership, both of which have been beneficial to my teaching (a virtuous cycle, indeed). In my opinion, you can't truly understand a topic until you have listened intently to others' questions and explained concepts clearly.

      Today, I am responding to the questions I receive as part of my speeches and presentations to audiences of every type and description. Over the past four years (and counting) of giving more than eight talks per month, I have met countless people who want to understand how to put the principles of values-based leadership into practice. They are CEOs and other C-level corporate officers, executive managers, middle managers, entry-level individuals, and students. My audiences have included multinational companies such as Google, Aon, McDonald's, Raytheon, AT&T, Target Corporation, Abbott Laboratories, CareerBuilder, and Hospira; universities, including Northwestern, University of Chicago, University of Notre Dame, University of California, University of Minnesota, and Lawrence University (my undergraduate alma mater); consulting and financial services firms, such as McKinsey & Co., Booz & Company, Accenture, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of Montreal, Ernst & Young, KPMG, Deloitte, Spencer Stuart, and Huron Consulting; smaller startup companies in industries such as software, manufacturing, hospitality, and health care; associations for chief financial officers, chief marketing officers, senior human resources officers, and chief information officers; spiritual leaders, including priests, ministers, and rabbis; and philanthropic and religious/spiritual institutions of all sizes. I also had the opportunity to deliver a TEDx talk on values-based leadership at the United Nations in New York City.

      Conceptually, values-based leadership is founded on the four principles of self-reflection, balance, true self-confidence, and genuine humility. On a personal level, these principles become the basis of intentional actions and deep commitments that enable each person at every level of an organization to bring his or her best self to work. At an organizational level, these four principles, when applied, enable the creation of a values-based organization.

      In these pages, I give both explanations and concrete examples, drawing from my own experiences, and my interactions with leaders at every level. I include interviews with 10 values-based leaders from diverse organizations, ranging from small to large, private to public, for-profit to not-for-profit, and domestic to global. This book lays out a pathway from understanding the four principles to putting them into practice in what I believe are five key areas that define what it means to be a values-based leader and build a world-class organization. They are:

      1. Best Self: You actualize who you are meant