Good leaders don’t always try to be right: they know that sometimes they just need to stop and learn what really is right. Leaders can’t always know things: that’s why they need to collaborate, ask the right questions, and listen to others. I remember when we were building Bellagio and complex questions arose about the maintenance schedules requires for those famous fountains being developed out front: that on-going maintenance would cause them to be shut down so many days a month and they needed approval to do that. But nobody knew if that was the right thing to do. Pride was involved in making that decision. Pride demanded an immediate answer. Our boss was humble enough to realize he didn’t know enough to make a quick decision, so he humbly said he needed to know more. Most people in that position wouldn’t have been confident enough to say they didn’t know enough to make that decision yet. And most people would have been wrong. He brought in the experts and together they dismantled one of those pumps, learned all they could together, and discovered that a different and better maintenance schedule would be more appropriate. Then, and only then, was he confident enough to make the right decision. We learned a valuable lesson from how he handled that complex question: never be too proud to do what it takes to be right. Be humble enough to learn what’s right today.
Ezra Taft Benson (1899-1994): American Political (US Secretary of Agriculture) and Religious Leader (President of the LDS Church)
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