Leadership and Stewardship
By Hon. David M. Walker, President and CEO of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation
and Former U.S. Comptroller General
University of Arizona
December 19, 2009
Thank you President Shelton for that kind introduction and for the invitation to speak today. It's great to be in Tucson at the University of Arizona, especially in December when you live on the cold East Coast. I live in Mt. Vernon, Virginia. My wife Mary tells me that the Washington area will get 12-24 inches of snow today. Therefore, I'll either be in warm Arizona or in Mt. Vernon shoveling snow tomorrow morning depending on the airlines. One thing is for sure, I'll either be shoveling snow tomorrow or on Monday!
My wife Mary and I are fortunate to live on land once owned by General George Washington. He preferred the title General to President. Believe it or not, George Washington never graduated from college. He also never fathered any children.
As Ronald Reagan once said about our nation's capital, “Washington is an island surrounded by a sea of reality." He was right and that island is bounded by Washington's so-called Beltway. For the record, Mt. Vernon is outside of Washington's Beltway and in the real world!
President Reagan also said that "politics is the world's second oldest profession, and it bears a strong resemblance to the first." Based on my many years of experience on the front lines in Washington, he was right about that too!
After serving in three Presidential appointee positions requiring Senate confirmation, I have found that many of the words that are used in Washington don't mean the same thing as the definitions you and I would find in Webster's dictionary. For example, words like "trust funds". The ones they have in Washington can't be trusted and they aren't funded. They're "trust the government funds". In fact, if the government's trust funds were subject to the same rules that apply to private sector pension and employee benefit plans, a number of people would be in jail!
The latest example of strange Washington words is "down payment". What does that mean in Washington? Well, one of the President's top economic policy advisors referred to the federal government's $787 billion federal stimulus program, a spending program that was 100 percent debt financed, as a "down payment." Isn't that the kind of sub-prime prime financing that caused the housing bubble to burst? And as we all know, when that bubble burst it was felt around the country, especially in Arizona, and even within my own family because our son Andy and his wife owned a home in Phoenix.
Let me now turn to the great occasion that we are celebrating today. Congratulations to all of today's graduates on earning your degree from the University of Arizona! You and your families should be rightfully proud of and thankful for this significant accomplishment. I know because I am only the second person in my direct Walker line to graduate from college. And my family has been in this country since the 1680s.
As the commencement speaker, I have been asked to share a few thoughts with you based on my over 36 years of leadership experience in the private, public and not-for-profit sectors. To do so, I am going to focus my remarks on two key words - leadership and stewardship. I promise you that I will be brief and hopefully you will remember a little of what I have to say even if you don't remember my name years from now. By the way, my undergraduate commencement speaker in 1973 was the Reverend Billy Graham.
As you look to the future and contemplate what you want to do with your life, I suggest that you keep several key thoughts in the forefront of your mind. First, at some point in life, do what you enjoy. Most people tend to excel at things they enjoy doing. Sometimes you have to do that as an avocation or later in life because it may not be financially sustaining, but life is about more than money. In the final analysis, you should ultimately seek to maximize your self-worth rather than your net worth. In doing so, you need to learn the meaning of the word "enough".
Second, those of you who are Americans are truly blessed. In America, individuals have the opportunity to be all they can be and to achieve their full potential based on their God given abilities. That is part of what The American Dream is all about.
The truth is, in America, a person with a good education, a positive attitude, a strong work ethic and solid moral and ethical values has virtually unlimited potential. Yes, you can achieve your own American Dream. Your degree from the University of Arizona gives you a good start. The rest is up to you!
As you look to your future, I encourage you to be a leader in whatever you decide to do. To do so, it is important to understand what a true leader is. In my view, "leadership" is about achieving real outcome-based results with and through others. Importantly, real leadership is about doing what is right, even if it is not popular.
To be successful, leaders must be strategic and future focused. They must look ahead to identify key trends, challenges and opportunities. They must take affirmative steps to capitalize on opportunities, mitigate risks and avoid crises. In today's world, leaders must also partner for progress both domestically, internationally and across all sectors of our economy to be successful.
In my view, in order to help guide their actions and facilitate timely, sound and consistent decision making, leaders should seek to adopt a set of principles and values that can guide their actions while also uniting people and an organization's overall efforts. Such principles and values represent a higher calling that can stand the test of time. They can help you make tough choices quickly and with a much higher degree of confidence.
America was founded on a number of key principles like liberty, opportunity, personal responsibility, thrift, savings, and stewardship. And many Americans and organizations have adopted their own core values like honor, courage, commitment, integrity, innovation and accountability.
True leaders understand that the law represents the floor of acceptable behavior. As a result, they use their principles and values to reach for the ceiling rather than crawl on the floor. They understand that their job is to maximize value and mitigate risk within current and expected resource levels. They know that you can't maximize value and minimize risk at the same time. Some calculated risks are both necessary and appropriate in order to innovate, grow and prosper.
Real leaders don't just focus on today; they also take steps to help create a better tomorrow, not just for themselves, but also for their organization and for others. And that brings me to the second and final key word, and that word is "stewardship".
What is stewardship? In my view, stewardship is about "leaving things better off and better positioned for the future when you leave a position or pass on." It is about taking care of others and mother earth.
True leaders look beyond narrow self-interests to focus on the greater good. They act based on what is in the collective best interests of all rather than the narrow interests of a few.
Unfortunately, today, too many leaders in our country in all sectors of the economy, especially political leaders on both sides of the political aisle in Washington, suffer from three maladies. These maladies are - myopia (or short-sightedness), tunnel vision and self-interest. In combination these maladies create a toxic mix that serve to threaten our collective future. We must aggressively treat these maladies if we want our future to be better than our past.
Today, my generation, the "baby boom generation" is not properly discharging its stewardship obligation in connection with fiscal, environmental and other key matters. This must change and I am doing my best to correct this situation through partnering with Pete Peterson and others at our Foundation, but we need your help.
Yes we can turn things around and take steps to help ensure that our future is better than the past. However, to do so, the first three words in the Constitution will have to come alive - "We the People". We the People are responsible and accountable for what does or doesn't happen in Washington, DC.
Young people in particular should join the fight for America's future because your future is being mortgaged at record rates, while are the same time, relative investments in your future are being cut. All this, at a time when you will face increasing competition in a global marketplace. We call that a "triple whammy" in the South!
Let me assure you. I will continue to fight the good fight for America's future for as long as I am able to do so. I strongly encourage you to do your part in exercising your individual citizenship and generational stewardship responsibilities. It is in your individual interest and our collective interest for all of you to do so.
From a personal standpoint, I have tried to take to heart these simple leadership and stewardship concepts seriously. I have tried to practice what I preach and to "lead by example". I encourage you to do the same and to do the best at whatever you decide to do in life. You should never do less and no one can ask you to do more.
Congratulations again on your degree. May you reach your full potential and may you achieve your own American Dream. May God bless you and your families. And may God bless the University of Arizona and the United States of America.
In closing, Go Wildcats!
