John Hope Bryant

Huffington Post: On Leadership ~ Just Borrow My Ladder

John Hope Bryant

Bestselling business leadership author and philanthropic entrepreneur

Fear is the ultimate prosperity killer. This was the basic premise of my bestselling business book, LOVE LEADERSHIP: The New Way to Lead In A Fear-Based World (Jossey-Bass).

I went on to say there were two things in the world, "love and fear... and what you don't love, you feared." I concluded by suggestng that "most of our so-called leaders today were actually leading by fear."

What I didn't consider when I wrote this in the book was the possibility that the internal threats of fear, far outweighed the external threats of fear (bosses, government, private sector, societal leaders, etc). What we fear most, is actually ourselves.

Getting over our own sometimes paralyzing fear and insecurities, is key to finding success and long-term stability in our lives. I remember as a child, all my friends just wanted to get rich, but I wanted to become wealthy. At an early age, I knew the difference, but that didn't just 'happen' to me either. It was intentional. My mother told me she loved me every day of my young life, and over time I began to believe it. Today I may have problems and challenges, but basic self esteem is not one of them. I believe in myself, and this along with a vision for myself has proven to be my ultimate strategic advantage in life.

I believed in myself because my mother told me so, and I believed in what I could do and who I could become because my father showed me so. My dad has owned a business for more than 50 years now, and my earliest memory of him was meeting a payroll out of the front door of our home in South Central Los Angeles.

My dad wore a suit two to three times a week growing up. A banker showed up in my inner-city classroom and taught us financial literacy, or what I now call 'the global language of money.' He wore a suit too. And so, of course when I was ten years old, I wanted to wear a suit.

All of this was intentional in my life, so I have a great deal of compassion today for those who did not have the benefit of a loving and supportive mother and father growing up. Half of success in life today I believe is simply self-esteem and self-confidence.

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Fear Quote of the Day

"Our fears are always worse than our reality."


John Hope Bryant is a thought leader, founder, chairman and CEO of Operation HOPE, and author of business bestseller LOVE LEADERSHIP: The New Way to Lead in a Fear-Based World (Jossey-Bass).

John Hope Bryant 'Leadership' Quote of the Day

"Real leaders are in the 'yes' business, but managers in a fear-based world are all too often in the 'no' business. Their (limited) view is, 'well, I don't get in trouble for saying no -- I only get in trouble for saying yes to the wrong thing, so....the answer to your question or proposal is, well, no.' Love Leadership is about empowering people to get to yes, in their organizations and in their lives."

John Hope Bryant


John Hope Bryant is a thought leader, founder, chairman and CEO of Operation HOPE, Bryant Group Companies, Inc. Magazine/CEO READ bestselling business author of LOVE LEADERSHIP: The New Way to Lead in a Fear-Based World (Jossey-Bass) the only African-American bestselling business author in the U.S., and is chairman of the Subcommittee for the Under-Served and Community Empowerment for the U.S. President’s Advisory Council on Financial Capability, for President Barack Obama. Mr. Bryant is the co-founder of the Gallup-HOPE Index, the only national research poll on youth financial dignity and youth economic energy in the U.S. He is also a co-founder of Global Dignity with HRH Crown Prince Haakon of Norway and Professor Pekka Himanen of Finland. Global Dignity is affiliated with the Forum of Young Global Leaders and the World Economic Forum. Mr. Bryant serves on the board of directors of Ares Commercial Real Estate Corporation, an NYSE Euronext publicly traded company, and a division of $54 billion Ares Capital.

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ON LEADERSHIP: Money and the Financial Integrity of Leaders engaged in Community

 

"The money....that's how they will come after you son...."  

This must have been the advice and counsel that Dr. King received from his father and others when he undertook the leadership of the civil rights campaign in the 1960's and 1950's.  "They will attack your integrity around money, they will attack your integrity around your work, and finally, if none of that works, they will attack your personal integrity."  These were likely the words of one known as Daddy King, or Martin Luther King, Sr., to his son Dr. King, as he embarked on a highly visible and highly controversial mission around the civil rights movement.  Whatever Daddy King said to his son, it worked.  

Dr. King and my personal hero Ambassador Andrew Young ran a tight ship, even as they were pursuing the civil rights movement.  Which doesn't mean they were not still attacked.  Dr. King was audited by the IRS and otherwise harassed by others, both within the government and within his own community, but none of it stuck, because once again, he ran a clean shop.  I cannot stress this enough. Dr. King did not just do good works, but he ran a tight organization that could withstand public scrutiny, and an audit.

Daddy King 'Love vs. Hate' Quote of the Day

"There are two men I am supposed to hate. One is a white man, the other is black, and both served time for having committed murder.  James Earl Ray was imprisoned, charged with killing my son.  Marcus Chenault was institutionalized as deranged after shooting my wife to death.  I don't hate either one.  There is no time for that, and no reason, either. Nothing that a man does takes him lower than when he allows himself to fall so far as to hate anyone.  Hatred is not needed to stamp out evil, despite what some people have been taught.

...People can accomplish all things God wills in this world; hate cannot. If we achieved a victory in the South it was over inhamanity. When the evil heart of segregation could beat no more, it was because it had been stopped by people who did not counsel violenve, who did not brutalize and bomb, who never sought to take away any part of anyone else's identity as a human being. These things triumphed over the exagerated power of hatred. And so which path would any man who knew this choose to travel?  Hatred did not win. I prefer to share triumph."

                     Rev. Martin Luther King, Sr., father of civil rights leader Dr. King, from his book DADDY KING.

Bryant on Leadership: Hate Doesn't Kill, But 'Radical Indifference' Will

"The issue today is not love over hate, as it was during the civil rights movement of the 1960's.  In many ways, some could say that Dr. King had it better, in the sense that individuals let him know precisely where they stood; making it plain that they loved and backed him, or they hated and rejected him.  ...Today, increasingly, people do not care enough about you to hate you. I call this radical indifference. When someone does not care enought about you, to hate you."

A few years back, a young black man approached me, knowing that I had a minor relationship with the late and former U.S. President Ronald Reagan, saying "hey John, that man -- former President Reagan -- he was a racist man...."  I had to reject what this young man had to say, while embracing the young man and his pain, and understandable frustrations.  To this man, President Reagan didn't care about him and his plight, and thus, he simply 'must be' a racist.  I had a different take on the problem.  I also saw a possible opportunity within this same problem, and decided to try to enroll this young man up in my vision, for what 'could be.'

I explained to the young man that I knew then President Reagan, though admittedly not that well. Enough to say I respectd him. I was a young man myself, like the one I was speaking with, when I was acquainted with this Administration. I explained that Reagan and I were actually born on the same day, and as such, I especially appreciated his ability to inspire, even while many listening to him might actually disagree with what he was talking 'about.'  

I went on to say that I thought that then President Reagan was basicallty 'a nice man.'  I don't think that anyone becomes President of the United States of America, wakes up the next morning and then says to himself, "now, how can I screw up America and hurt her people?"  They may screw up, and they may make incredibly damaging decisions and mistakes, but we have to beleive that they do basically mean well. If we don't, if we stop trusting the basic intent of our national leaders, then well all bets are off anyway.

I went on to explain that I was not at all crazy about most of Reagan's social policy framework for the least of these God's children (and there was no real economic policy framework to even be insulted by). I explained that in most cases I simply respectfully disagreed with the Administration.  I learned long ago from my pastor, friend and spiritual father, Reverend Dr. Cecil "Chip" Murray, "you can disagree, without being disagreeable."  

From the archives: Civil rights icon Ambassador Andrew Young and John Hope Bryant talking to youth at B.E.S.T Academy

 

JOHN HOPE BRYANT ON THE 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 1992 RODNEY KING RIOTS

Say It Loud, I Am Black And I Am Proud.  Yes, But We Also Cannot Be Black For A Living.

 

Today is the 20th anniversary of the worst urban riot or urban civil unrest in American history. Yet, 20 years later it is somewhat stunning to me how little some things have changed -- and I am not talking about 'the majority of minority America.'   

I am also not talking so much about America's inner cities, where many of these majority of minorities live -- places where over the past 20 years or so, those who lived and often worked there were forced to effectively 'save themselves.'  

What these communities were dealing with was not so much a sense of 'love' or 'hate,' the latter representing the active racism that marked most of the civil rights movement of the 1950's and 1960's -- but rather what I increasingly call 'radical indifference.' When some people do not care enough about you to hate you. 'Whatever...' is increasingly their response to the cries and challenges of the poor.

What I am mostly talking about here is the little change that has occurred, respectfully stated  --  in many mainstream circles.  

Bryant on Love Leadership: We Are All A Little Crazy

In recent weeks I have had several friends who, even though they were in serious and fairly obvious emotional pain, have been extremely hesitant to speak with a counselor -- meaning a shrink (a psychologist or psychiatrist) -- about it.  On some level, they were afraid to admit or to have someone else suggest that they were a little, well, crazy.  Well, they are!  We all are a little crazy.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), over a third of people in most countries report problems at some time in their life which meet criteria for diagnosis of one or more of the common types of mental disorder.  And according to the National Institute of Mental Illness, fully a quarter of all adults in the U.S., and 15% of all youth in the U.S. (13-18 years old) suffer from some form of mental illness. Frankly, I believe the number is much higher.  There is a 46.3% lifetime prevalence of children 13-18 year old to have some mental illness.  

With Black America, based on what we have gone through and dealt with over the past 300 some odd years, I would argue that the percentage of (most undiagnosed and mostly untreated) mental illness of some sort is well above 50%.  More like 65% or more.  In other words, folks are in a lot of emotional, psychological and spiritual pain --- but they are simply not talking about it, other than talking to themselves. Not good.

On Fear-Based Leadership, and an Example of When Capitalism Works for All ~ the Pushback on Rush Limbaugh

I don't want to give Mr. Rush Limbaugh more credit, time or attention than he already garners, but this week he is my example of Fear-Based Leadership.  He also gives me an opportunity to show a positive example of when and where capitalism and free enterprise works for all.

Let's put aside the unhidden racial undertones surrounding Mr. Limbaugh's selection of a young black women, in college no doubt, and calling her out as a "slut," simply because she had a view different from his own.  

Let's put aside the simultaneous slap in the face Mr. Limbaugh delivered in one movement to a great majority of women in this country who consider their decisions and views, about their body and their God, important too.  

Let's put aside that Mr. Limbaugh is somehow able to spread this hate, anger and fear-based leadership in the mainstream of American society. 

Mr. Limbaugh's comments -- no his slur of a decent human being, and in the 21st century no less -- demeaned us all.

It speaks to the decaying of virtues and values in our society, and the erosion of basic decency in our public discourse.

In short, while we know that some people say these things in private, most Americans and citizens around the world are stunned (and like me embarrassed) to hear a so-called celebrity spew this hatred and fear in a credible public space.  And for a moment at least, seemingly geting away with it also.  No more.