Kenneth Chenault's Top 10 Rules for Success

Leadership isn't about being in charge. It's about being of service. Most people chase titles, but real impact comes with showing up with values, vision, and courage. Play it safe and you stay invisible. In these top 10 rules, Kenneth Chenault shows that true leaders serve first, stay humble, take risks, and bet on the hard path. If you're not willing to serve, you're not ready to lead. Need motivation?

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And if you make it all the way to the end of this video, leave a believe in the comments below and we might feature you here in a future video. Okay, let's kick it off with rule number 1, be willing to serve.

What's most critical about leadership and leading in uncertain times, and I would emphasize that I think anyone at any level can be a leader, their business, civic life, personal life. And what they have to recognize is if you wanna lead, You have to be willing to serve. So you've got to have that servant leadership mentality. But what you have to do is stand for something. And organizations are guided by values and behaviors. That's the way you're creating a culture. And so in a time of uncertainty, What do you need to do? Well, one is you need to give people context. What's happening? You can admit that you're anxious, that there are reasons, in fact, to be nervous. But what's important is you need to emphasize to people the reasons why you think that we can get to the other side.

Rule number 2: Believe in yourself.

I think to be successful in any endeavor, you've got to have a combination of humility, but you also have to have a level of confidence because you have— you need to learn from experiences, you need to acquire those technical skills. So very frankly, the merchandise services experience as a general manager that I was able to turn that business around. What I clearly gained from that experience was a belief that I could manage people, I could take on complex issues, I could make trade-offs, and I think that's important. At the same token, what I also recognized was that I had a lot to learn. And, and I think that's always been an important balance for me, is I think you've got to really have a belief in yourself. There's no substitute for confidence, but you can't let that lead to arrogance.

Rule number 3: Overcome challenges.

Could you tell us and share with us a little bit what you think sets you apart from your peers and caused you to end up where you are today?

I think what's important, and I would say, Dean, what was critical to me that I think set me apart was I believe to be successful in business, you always have to take a little bit of risk. And so I was the type of person who wanted to work in a business that had the toughest challenges, had really difficult issues. And people would say to me, Ken, why do you want to take that risk? Because it may not work. And my view at the time was I can learn a lot from the experience and I'll probably get a level of responsibility that I would not be able to get in a more established business that was doing very well. So that was the first piece that I think was very important. I think the second is that I really was not sure I wanted to be CEO of a company, nor did I necessarily think I'd have the opportunity. And so what I really tried to do was to learn a lot about all aspects of the company because I thought at some point I would go out and try to raise money to form my own company. And so what was critical is I really sought after a range of experiences and a range of skills, and that made a big difference. The third thing that was important is every organization I was involved in, I really was focused on what it took for the team to win rather than just focused on myself.

Rule number 4: Be empathetic and decisive.

So I think in a crisis, you clearly want to define the situation you're in. You want to give people a sense of what your objectives are in that crisis. You want to give them some signposts. You've obviously got to demonstrate a great sense of urgency. And I think you want to be empathetic, but also very decisive. And that's where some leaders get things confused. That they look at being empathetic, that you're being soft, and then they defer making the difficult decisions. You've gotta be very forceful and decisive, but you also have to be very empathetic because you need to have the hearts and minds of your people.

Also, to make sure you're actually taking action after watching this video, I've designed a special free worksheet just for this video. The worksheet will highlight our favorite lessons from the video that will inspire you to remember what you learned today and actually apply them. The worksheet will also give you space to write down what your key takeaways are and your specific plan of action to make sure you're getting results. If you want the worksheet designed specifically for this video, absolutely for free, there's a link in the description below. Go click on it and start building the momentum in your life and your business. I'll see you there. Rule number 5: Recognize your flaws.

I would give you one other that was a learning experience for me on the other side of, of how you need to constantly figure out how you improve yourself. And so you can imagine I was feeling pretty good about the progress I was making, and I had a style where I was a very openly engaged person, but if I thought someone was not saying something that was particularly insightful or intelligent in a nice way, I would just turn off.

And I didn't think people really recognized that at all.

So I went through 360-degree feedback and I got this report back that said, Ken doesn't listen if he's not interested in the issue. And that shows, at the end of the day, that he may not respect me or what I'm saying. And I was saying, geez, I think I'm a nice guy. I really try to avail myself of others. But when I really looked inside myself, what I recognized was that I wasn't actively listening. And that's viewed now as a strength for me, but it was an incredible wake-up call and had a major difference. And if I had not gone through that process and gotten that feedback, it would have certainly had a very negative impact later on in my career.

Rule number 6: Have the right intention.

This idea of really putting people first as you're developing your technology, but it's not just about people. I mean, there's also— you're thinking about responsibility in terms of the environment and responsibilities to communities and Yeah, it's what's critical here.

Fundamentally, what I have always believed and certainly have articulated over the last 30 years is companies exist because society allows us to exist. And so we have a responsibility to society when we're developing products and services. Shouldn't we think about Who is in? Who are we serving? And who might be negatively impacted by a product or service that we're offering? As we're building companies, let's start in the beginning and say, how do we build a more diverse workforce in that company? How are we thinking about the environment? So what's very important is we can do a form, if you will, of social due diligence side by side with the financial due diligence. But what's important is, as we're building companies today, let's have a broader mindset. Let's have a higher level of intentionality.

And no one—

I think most people, obviously there's some exceptions— start off building a company saying, I want to build a company that will hurt people.

Right.

But that's not enough. What you've got to say is, My intention is to build a company that will address the following set of issues. And actually, I want to, from the beginning, build a company that will have a positive impact on society as well as generate attractive economics. Now, that's simple, but it is hard. And people need guidance. People need the tools. And that's what we're trying to do with responsible innovation.

Rule number 7: Define reality and hope.

You lead one of the most impressive commercial organizations in the history today. How do you define leadership and how do you try to apply that definition at American Express?

I think what's important for me about leadership, and I'm really passionate about leadership because I think it's critical no matter what you do, is I follow a quote from Napoleon. And I always preface this that I don't want to wind up like Napoleon. But it's a quote, frankly, that I think about every day because I think it's what a leader has to do. And the way I paraphrase the quote is, the role of a leader is to define reality and give hope. And when you think about that quote, it's very simple, but if you put it in a leadership context, what's very difficult about leadership is you'll have very well-meaning people who will try to sometimes distort reality. Not intentionally, but they may just want to tell you what you want to hear. And part of your job as a leader is really to find out what the real deal is.

But that's not enough.

Then you've got to put together a strategy that galvanizes people, that gives them hope that they can overcome the obstacles or achieve something that they didn't think was possible. So define reality and give hope. Is really what I believe is most important for a leader.

People sometimes shoot the messenger, though.

That's right, and I think that's a real problem because at the end of the day, one of the things I encourage in our company is a term I use, constructive confrontation. At any level of the organization, I want people to have the ability to speak up and to speak out. Because that's how we're going to understand what reality is all about. That's how, that's how we're going to get different perspectives. So I think it's important to have that level of constructive confrontation. However, once we decide on a course of action, I want everyone on the train. It is not the time after we have decided on the course of action to say, I'm not going to go along.

That's a problem.

Rule number 8: Adapt your leadership style.

I have a two-part question related to sort of those very tough decisions that you were talking about, you know, going into the deposits business, etc. One, when you make those tough decisions, would you say it's more of an intuition, gut feeling that you have, or more consensus-driven from the people and your really senior advisors? And the second part of that is, it is more gut and what you think is the right decision, decision, then what is your process for bringing people on board and really rallying people behind really tough decisions?

Yeah, it's a good question. I think, one, what I'm a firm believer in is that you have to apply what I call situational leadership, that you can't just follow one style. Sometimes you have to have a directive style. Sometimes you have to have a consensus-building style. There have to be some attributes from a leadership standpoint. One of those that I talk a lot about is integrity, because that's the only way you're going to build trust. And that's, for me, the consistency of words and actions. But in some cases, I have relied on my gut, but backed up with some analysis. I think it's very, very rare. Sometimes on creative issues, I'll look at a piece of advertising and you sort of know this is it. And you can't totally explain why. But in a lot of situations, I think you can analyze and you should, but then judgment is really important, but judgment should be based on what's the criteria that you're using to make that judgment. What are the values that you're applying to make that judgment? So what I don't believe in is making blind judgments. I think you always need to have some criteria and you always need to have that balanced by what values are important. From a consensus standpoint, there are some issues that I know where I want to go, but I know that I've got to get everyone involved. And I'll give you one example. When I took over as CEO, I said I want to change actually some of the core attributes of our culture. I didn't think we were focused explicitly enough on winning in the marketplace. I didn't think we engaged enough in constructive confrontation. So I literally put, here are the values I'd like for the company on a piece of paper for myself. And then I said, in fact, what we're going to do is we're going to do sessions all around the world. And I want teams to come up with the values. And I'd say very honestly, I don't know what I would have done if the values hadn't pretty much matched what I had on the sheet of paper. But fortunately they did. The benefit of that was the buy-in was almost instant because people knew it was a consensus-driven process. It wasn't me mandating that. So I think there's certain issues where you mandate. I'll give you an example where from a, the standpoint of having to decide was, and this goes back to 9/11, I decided that we were going to return to our headquarters. The majority of the organization would have voted against it for very understandable reasons. I thought it was important for us to go back. Explain the reasons why. And it was accepted. So there's some things that you can't do by consensus. And that was more of a gut belief feeling, but it was based on a set of values, beliefs of why we should go back. So I think you want to make sure that you adapt your leadership style to the situation, which means you've got to assess In the lingo that we use at our company, you've got to assess the readiness of your group to accept certain leadership. So there's some situations where you know you've got to be very directive. There are other situations where you're going to be more consensus-driven.

Rule number 9, take risks.

Let's start with some questions about leadership. Tell us about some early experiences in your career that were really learning moments for you that you carry with you today?

I guess there were 2 or 3. I mean, hundreds of learning moments, but 2 or 3 would stand out for me. The first one was that I was a director of strategic planning in our company, and that in our hierarchy was a lower middle management job. And one of the consulting assignments I had was to work on a small business called Merchandise Services that was not doing very well. It was losing money. And I went to the president of the company at that time, Lou Gerstner, and had analyzed the company. He'd asked me to take a look at it. And I said I thought the business could be turned around. And Lou said, uh— It probably maybe can be turned around, but I think it's very, very high risk.

And Ken, you're off to a good start, and I wouldn't take that risk.

And I said, I'd really like to do it. And I asked a few other people in the company, and they all advised me not to do it. And I said, well, I'm still going to do it if you'll allow me to. And it was a fantastic experience because What I had the opportunity was to really try to motivate a group that was demoralized to put together a strategy, to work in every aspect of the business. And it was a turnaround situation. And so for a really young person, you felt you were against the world.

And in fact, we were against a lot of people in the company who wanted us to go out of business, who really didn't I don't think that we should be part of the company.

And that taught me a lot about, one, to take risks. And my view and my calculus at the time was I'm in business to really take on challenges and to learn. And if the company won't accept that, then I should go somewhere else and do something else. And it wasn't being arrogant. But was really saying this was a stage where I wanted to take more risk. And so it was a great learning experience. And I often emphasize to people that some of the best opportunities come from the biggest challenges.

I remember, 10, the last one before a very special bonus clip, is focus on innovation.

What's been your greatest accomplishment?

I think it's, you know, it's hard to pin one thing down. And I would say What's most important to me from an achievement standpoint is I've really focused on reinvention of the company constantly and transformation. And I believe the enemy of success is the status quo. And what is most dangerous is sometimes when you're successful, you get comfortable. And that is a big problem in business. You've got to constantly focus on innovation. So some of the things that we've done early on in my career, we put together a program called Membership Rewards, which has become the largest and most successful loyalty program in the world. That's something I'm excited about because I believe part of what you do in business is you create products and services. But I would say the thing that I'm most excited about and most proud about are the leaders that I've developed over the years and to see what they've accomplished, not only at our company but at other companies, because I think that is the ultimate compliment to a leader, are the leaders that you've developed.

When I think about American Express, I think it's the gold standard of service. And in fact, you've taken a really boring piece of plastic and turned it into a club that has a cult following. This room is full of aspiring entrepreneurs or managers who want to build equally great brands, equally great service cultures. How did American Express do it, and what would you— what knowledge or advice would you provide to them?

Yeah, here's what I think is very, very important in building a brand is if you think about what are the attributes of the most powerful brands. Brands are really about bringing a rational and emotional connection, because the best brands have a personal engagement. And the best brands and the brands that are really long-term are those brands that in fact have what I call a higher purpose, that it's more more than just selling a product, that you're changing people's lives, you're impacting people's lives, you're allowing people to have fun. And when you have a brand that combines that rational value proposition with an emotional connection, it's really powerful. What people forget, because the card has been so successful, is the company started off as a freight forwarding company. And what's critical is the reinvention of the company over 163 years. One was that commitment to service was really critical. The point I make about our traveler's check business is that it had no income requirement. Anyone could get it. It was used all over the world. That helped build the brand, allowing us to offer a card Right now, part of what I do, particularly with the partnerships that we have with a number of digital companies, I say the form factor is irrelevant. The reality is, think about the card as a platform to deliver service. So what's important is that you've got to understand, to create a brand, you need a core mission. For us, we want to be the most respected service brand. Trust of the brand is very critical. Service is very critical. Security is very critical. And then what you've got to do is constantly innovate. Because if you want to be a leading brand, you've got to innovate in the marketplace all the time. And what I would also emphasize with respect to service is what I found is, and I say this publicly, and certainly I'm very competitive, I want to win, so I don't foolishly give out secrets, but the reality is that most companies don't want to make a commitment to service. One is because it's a long-term investment. Two is they don't have the right metrics in place to know they're getting the returns. We in fact know what service interactions will generate levels of spending. We know what will drive retention and loyalty of our customers. And one of the things that we did in our service, despite the fact that for years we had great service, Around 10 years ago, we said we're going to revamp it. We're going to reinvent the way we do service. We think people are too robotic. We think we're too rule-focused. And we want to empower the people who are serving our customers, whether that's online or offline. And we literally changed fundamental aspects of our service. And that leads to a very important point, which I believe in strongly, is you always want to create the company that will put yourself out of business. That's the way you constantly need to think. And if you believe that you're successful and you get arrogant about that success, that success becomes a rut.

For 10 more amazing rules from Tony Elumelu, check the video right there next to me. I think you'll love it. Continue to believe, and I'll see you there.

I was privileged, lucky, blessed to have been mentored in this journey of entrepreneurship. First,