self-inflicted crisis to another. than a w at the top of a corporate flowchart. go to the root of what is wrong and redefine what we value and what we consider success. there will be many signposts along the path directing you to make money and climb up the ladder. there will be very few signposts reminding you to stay connected to the essence of who you are. to reach out and to pause and to wonder and to connect with the place from which everything is compatriot greek archimedes said, give me a place and i can move the world. find me a place to stand. your place of wisdom of speed and strength.from that place,

lead the third women's revolution and remake the world in your own image and your own definition of so that all of us, women and men, can live our lives with more grace, more joy, more empathy, more gratitude, and yes, more love. class of 2013, congratulations. onward, upward, and inward. thank you. [cheers and applause] >> next, the graduation ceremony at johns hopkins university business school in baltimore. wesley bush is the commencement speaker. this is about 15 minutes. [applause]

>> thank you. congratulations to the graduating class. you should feel very proud. congratulations. congratulations to the parents. as a father of twins in college and a son soon to be in college, i can only imagine how this good -- how good this must feel for all the parents here today. i want to say congratulations to the faculty. it takes a lot of work to produce a graduating class of extraordinary students. we should all join in saying thank you to the faculty for their hard work in contributing to your success. [applause] i want to speak with you a little bit today about leadership and values-based decision-making. as graduates of this outstanding business school, it will be too

-- it won't be too long before you are faced with the opportunities of leadership. leadership in any enterprise is a very demanding, but very fulfilling, role. there are three great strengths. great leaders bring them to their endeavors. there are many different strengths, but three stand out to me. first, a genuine passionate commitment to the enterprise. that influences everyone around you and helps to focus and create the vision and set the path forward. secondly, genuine confidence including knowledge and expertise.much like what you have created a foundation for in your education here. third, a serious focus on ethics and integrity.beyond these fundamentals, leaders give weight in the decision-making to priorities

that are based on deeply held, personal values. it is the value-based priorities that differentiate one later-- one leader from another. let me start with the just to give a bit broader framework and that regard. the first, passion of commitment. a real passion is essential to lead our there's -- others is often said you need to love what you do. we all aspire to that. for leadership, it is essential. it is essential you love what you do. you have to let your enthusiasm show. in order to have others follow and to join in with their leadership and lead as well, that enthusiasm has to be felt. for me, that applies around technology to help make our a place with aure.

great future. , it ish leader different, and it depends on your own experiences and the things that make you tech. -- tick. great leaders personally identify with that mission. in themand excellence performance of the organization. must setundamentally and maintain an organization's course. that does require real knowledge and expertise. it requires a great investment of time. you need to understand how your enterprise gets things done. it sounds obvious, but i've met many who have simply aspired to leadership, but do not recognize investment is necessary to really know how things work. there is an important benefit to that. when you understand how things get done in your enterprise, it

shows those who are doing that work that it matters and that you care. you have to bring real problem solving abilities in order to apply that expertise. you have got a great start. the business school is known for its ability to produce graduates with problem solving abilities. build on this great foundation as you take this step into leadership. third, ethics and integrity. something that is fairly it is not just a near- term perspective. the long-term success of any leader in any enterprise demands a culture of integrity in both relationships that are created thethe leaders and also demonstration of performance of that enterprise. leaders in any organization must epitomize the fleet integrity -- complete integrity.i have a

recommendation. think hard about the places that you choose to associate yourself with, both enterprise in which you will work and the other enterprise of which you work over time. do not associate yourselves with enterprises that lack that core fiber of ethical conduct. it is not worth it. you can do much better. it is these three fundamentals that are universal. there are others as well. what is it that really setsone leadership style from another and what makes a difference over time? i think it is the values that individual leaders bring to make decisions. leaders rely on decision-making on the very important personal input of their value system, things that matter to them.in fact, many leaders go so far as to actually develop guideposts that they use in their decision- making to help them navigate the

complexities that you face every day and to make the most difficult challenges -- decisions that go with those challenges. let me share some of the key guideposts that i regularly use. i share these not from the view that they are necessarily the right ones or the ones you should use, but more to encourage you to think about this notion of values based decision-making and to pose the question for yourself.what are my values? what are the things i will use as my guide posted making the decisions that lie before me? my first guidepost is fairly fundamental. i believe in the importance of trust in relationships. i want to make sure the decisions i make can contribute to increasing that trust at both the personal and interpersonal level.-- enterprise-level. to inspire trust, you must communicate very openly and honestly. trust is integral in meeting commitments, getting done what you commit yourself and your

organization to get done. those who depend on you must have confidence in your reliability. this applies to just about any relationship that you have whether it is business or in your personal life.from a business perspective, leaders must build trust with trustple stake holders. the other organizations with which you work. trust across globally diverse teams and trust with public officials and trust with your customers and trust with your shareholders. we all know that we must meet our commitments to continue to build that trust. trust is important in any team environment. this is most likely the leadership opportunity you will have early on. working in a team or leading a team. i have seen a lot of differences between teams that collaborate on the basis of trust and those thosestruggle to do that.

that work on the basis of trust are able to act with higher speeds. they are able to make betters this -- better decisions. perhaps most importantly, they are most able to work through the tough challenges that always come from working on difficult problems. with ar i am faced decision, i worked to de-side, what actions contribute to actually increasing trust across the organization? second guidepost i used arrives from a deep personal commitment to encouraging innovation. innovation takes many forms.it can take the form of technology. it can take the form of business process and improvement in the form of customer service.there are many dimensions to innovation. the interesting thing about innovation is that it brings change. change that builds bigger and excitement in an organization. companies, any enterprise, needs innovators and diverse thinkers.

they can truly exploit the opportunities that go with change. that is not to say innovation is always welcome in every enterprise that you will encounter. simply because innovation means change in inherently attacks the status quo. any time the status quo is attacked, you might expect a response. i have seen some organizations that practically drive good innovators out of their systems because they are not capable of dealing with the change that results. now fortunately, those organizations usually don't last for a long. if you find yourself in one of them, recognize it and get out. innovation is an important process that leads to the creation of the future of any enterprise. my bias in decision making --

favor the innovative ideas. accept the discomfort that comes with that change if you can see a promising potential for a payoff. my third guidepost i will share with you today goes to something that sounds very fundamental but is actually, i think, one of the hardest in any decision-making. that is the commitment that your decisions will drive true value creation. this is directly relevant to the concept of shareholders and what they expect out of a for-profit enterprise. it also applies to nonprofit enterprises and it relates to the values that all enterprises will expect. on the business front, the concept is clear that you want to use the resources of enterprise to get out more than you put in. that is how you create value. and concept, the return on investment that captures this notion pretty well.

you think about what businesses do and if they are returning less than their capital. if they're returning less than the profit capital, they typically do not make it very those that return significantly more than their cost of capital, of course, thrive and grow and create opportunities and encourage innovation and continue to create the future. this guidepost is an important one. i reflect on it from a business perspective and as you are graduating today and taking this next step in your lives, it is also a very important personal perspective. each of us are given a unique amount of human capital and each of us are given a limited time within which to invest that precious resource and do something good with it. if you think about value creation in that context on

personal opportunities, i think it is helpful to guide your own decision-making about the steps that you take going forward and to help bring the basic actions -- help frame the basis for the actions that you choose. on a personal basis, i find the concept of value very helpful. it makes a significant contribution to the confidence i and my the decisions i organization make everyday. let me sum up -- successful leaders rely on the three fundamental strengths -- passionate commitment, knowledge, and expertise in what the organization does and how it does it, and uncompromising focus on ethics and integrity. in addition, most leaders have theyng, personal values.

shape their decision-making priorities. relying on values-based guideposts helps leaders deal with that challenge of making those important decisions. these priorities lay a foundation for continuing long- term success of an enterprise. they help create a vision and help to build an inclusive community and they foster open communications and trust and excitement in the organization. leaders are the builders and the for cultures to be sustainable, they have to be based on values. thank you for the opportunity to share my thoughts with you today. i hope they are helpful as you shape your own leadership approach.again, congratulations on your graduation from this outstanding university.thanks, everyone. [applause]