Discover Your True North. George Bill

skills, more than in business school, where there weren't any leadership courses.”

      Athletics had a significant impact on Kovacevich's development as a leader. He played a team sport several hours every day, becoming team captain in baseball and football. “On the athletic field I learned people can perform so much better as a team than the sum of their individual talents. By trial and error, I learned skills I could apply in business.”

      If you had 11 quarterbacks on the field, you would lose every game. Just as quarterbacks are overrated, CEOs are too. You can't be an all-star quarterback unless you have some great linemen, outstanding receivers, and good running backs. Diversity of skills is an important element of any effective team. There is no way that leaders who surround themselves with people just like them can be effective. We need to recognize our weaknesses, but not amplify them, and then surround ourselves with people whose strengths complement our weaknesses.

      Kovacevich used that principle at Wells Fargo, surrounding himself with talented executives who built the bank's individual businesses. He gave them authority to lead in their own way, while acting as quarterback of the team.

      His life experience growing up in a small town profoundly influenced his banking philosophy. While other banks were using computers to eliminate customer service personnel, Kovacevich endeavored to make Wells Fargo the most client-friendly bank in every community. The primary concern of its employees is helping clients meet their financial needs. Because Kovacevich and his handpicked successor, John Stumpf, surrounded themselves with highly talented executives, Wells Fargo navigated the 2008 financial crisis better than any commercial bank.

      Reatha Clark King: From Cotton Fields to the Boardroom

      Reatha Clark King's roots trace to a rural community, where many encouraged her to become a leader. King acknowledged, “I didn't get here on my own. I am standing on the shoulders of the giants who helped me get launched.”

      King grew up in Georgia in the 1940s, the daughter of farm laborers. Her father left the family when she was young, so her mother worked as a maid to support her three children. Her family was so poor that she often had to leave school to work in the cotton fields for $3 per day so that her mother could pay the bills. “Those were bitter moments in my experience, because white children didn't have to leave school,” she recalled. “That contrast was so clear and so wrong.”

      Her church was a haven amid constant poverty and discrimination. “I have fond memories of going to church every Sunday morning. I can still close my eyes and see my grandmother praying.” The older women of the church identified King's special abilities, noticing her intellectual potential, initiative, work ethic, and dependability. “The sisters, teachers, and people in the community kept an eye on me, and encouraged me to overcome unjust barriers against black people.”

      King credited her grade school teacher and the school librarian with influencing her development. They encouraged her to go to Clark University in Atlanta, where she won a scholarship and worked in the library for 35 cents an hour to pay for room and board. While King studied at Clark, the chair of the chemistry department mentored her, stimulating her interest in becoming a research chemist.

      She applied to the University of Chicago's doctoral program, a bold step for a poor woman from Georgia. After earning her PhD in physical chemistry, she worked at the National Bureau of Standards and taught at York College in New York City. Even there, things were not easy. “One black faculty member called me an Uncle Tom for trying to resolve issues,” she recalled. “That was one of the most hurtful moments of my life.”

      She got her first opportunity to lead when she became president of Metropolitan State University in Minneapolis. Even then she did not see herself as a leader.