Transcript 0:00 Talk to me. Information, news, and entertainment on demand. WUS radio.com. 0:10 [on-hold music] Welcome to The Peggy Smedley Show, the voice of IoT in our connected world, with your host, Peggy Smedley. [on-hold music] Hello, listeners, and welcome back to The Peggy Smedley Show. 0:26 My final guest today advocates for virtuous practices in the workplace. In his new book, he demonstrates principles and profits are not mutually exclusive. 0:36 Please welcome Donald Lee Shepard, author of The Dividends of Decency: How Values-Based Leadership Will Help Business Flourish in Trump's America. Donald, welcome to the show. Peggy, thank you for having me. 0:50 I'm delighted to be here. Well, I appreciate you joining us today. So I, I've got a copy of your book right here, and I've had a chance to look- Mm-hmm... at some of the pages. 0:58 Unfortunately, it just came, so I haven't had a chance to read all of it. [laughs] But tell us a little bit about this book and, you know, what inspired you to write it. I'm really curious about it. 1:08 Well, that part is easy. Um, for years, I'd been thinking of writing a book about my life, uh, story and, and trying to come at it from different angles, but I'll shorten the answer. 1:19 Uh, when Donald Trump got elected in November of '16, I was pretty disturbed. 1:26 Um, and, uh, uh, it inspired me, uh, in fact, to, uh, invest the time and energy to write the book on the importance of business ethics and values-based leadership because they're clearly lacking in Trump's world. 1:40 And, uh, I was so concerned that people would think, uh, of him as a successful business person and, and as a role model and, uh, it's just not the case. So that's why I wrote the book. 1:51 Uh, the, uh, Trump election spurred me to be-- to, uh, get out and tell the true story. So you're clearly not a Trump fan. You're not liking our president. 2:02 But I, I was noting in some of the pages that I was g-going, and you, you talk about cheating. You, you were... 2:08 And you picked on Lance Armstrong in here, and you talk about that that's a big thing, you know, and that's a representative of some of those things. 2:16 So, you know, there's a lot of things that you, you, you highlight in this. And in the book you, you talk about a win-win transaction and what is it- Yep... and where does it play a role. 2:25 So you have a lot of strong opinions on that. [laughs] Let's, let's talk about that a little bit. [laughs] I would love to. You certainly covered the ground. Yeah, there's certainly no advantage in cheating. 2:35 I talk about ethics. Uh, and, uh, uh, George, uh, Bernard Shaw talked about ethics is what you do when no one is looking. And, uh, uh, it's the same issue of having integrity. There aren't degrees of integrity. 2:48 And, um, uh, uh, it's who you are as a person will end up being reflected in what you do, what you accomplish. And, uh, there isn't any shortcut to it. 3:01 Uh, it's a, uh, uh, an issue of, um, uh, ch-cheating. [laughs] It's just so obvious whether it's, uh, Rosie Ruiz or, or Lance Armstrong, and I happen to be a biker, so that one was, uh, warm, uh, close to my heart. 3:16 Um, there aren't shortcuts. Uh, and you'll always get caught. You can't fake, uh, uh, honesty, integrity, values, ethics. You can't fake them very long. Um, so that's where I was going with the, the cheating aspect. 3:32 What- But you also- Is the- You also comment about- Yes, go ahead... you know, that, you know, not... You, you made a comment about breaking news. Not everyone thinks like an entrepreneur, you know. 3:41 So in this book- Right... you're making that point. I mean, you know, the president, his mind is an entrepreneur. He's a go-get-em. 3:47 But there's, you know, there's other people who don't wanna be chiefs, they wanna be Indians. So I mean, you're, you're picking on someone who wants to be a leader. He wants to... He's a hardcore- Yeah. 3:56 He, he, he, he, he rules with a, a heavy hammer, right? And there's other people who are just a little bit more mild-mannered. I mean, so, I mean, is your emphasis on leaders to focus on values-based? Is that way? 4:09 I mean, there's a difference the way people lead versus people are a little bit more calm, timid. I mean, I, I guess what, what, what's your foc- [laughs] What's the bottom line in that in your mind? [laughs] Uh, uh, 4:22 it's, um, um, there are a variety type of leaders, but here's the first point, and then I'll, I'll wander through what I think, uh, uh, young people should be looking to or modeling themselves after in terms of a leader. 4:34 Um, uh, having values, ethics, values, standards, morals, is a powerful business tool. Um, it focuses, uh, on achieving great success, profits in the case of corporations. It's a powerful tool. 4:51 Um, and, uh, it's, uh, it's not something that you can learn. You can't, uh, uh, decide to be, uh, ethical at times and not. 5:03 Uh, so the first point of, of, of leaders is, um, uh, it, it's not a, a part-time. Uh, uh, being-- ha-having values-based leadership is a powerful business tool. It leads into something that you, uh, alluded to earlier, 5:21 and that's the win-win-win model. And, um, maybe if I explain that, the rest will sort of fit in. Successful leaders understand that the primary goal of any organization, um, uh, uh, is not profits, 5:37 uh, is not shareholders. They're not the primary audience. They're, they're shouldn't even be considered in the first round. 5:44 Literally, successful leaders know who the most important parties are in their life that would help them achieve great profits. And the first, uh, are, uh, customers, of course, customers or clients. 5:57 They're incredibly important, um, uh, to the, uh, organization, to the leader. Next are employees or associates.Terribly. You can't achieve anything on your own. You need the team. You need the supportive people. 6:10 So employees and/or associates, whatever they're called. And then comes the vendors, outside parties who, uh, uh, support an organization, provide part of it. They're important. 6:22 And, and the, and the point of that overall story is the win-win-win model is that everyone has to win for success to, uh, be the result or for profits to occur. And, uh, it's, uh, it's, uh... 6:37 Customers need to feel a win, employees, uh, vendors, and, and in some cases, the community as well, to achieve the profits. Does that make sense? Absolutely. 6:48 So do you think our new generation understands or any generation understands to be more valuable to the employer than maybe they s- are to themselves or whoever? 7:00 That they might not understand, and that's a, a different component, uh, uh, uh, that you're bringing up. But it's, um, uh, uh, what- Because you- I think- The reason I ask that- Yeah. Hold on. 7:10 Let me ask you this question, though. Because you ask that- Yeah, please. You say customers, clients, employees, vendors. Yep. Yep. Yep. 7:15 And, you know, you're talking about that, and so sometimes when you're a CEO, you think you're at the top. You're the most important. 7:22 So that's why I asked that question, is who's, who's the most important in that, that tree that you're talking about? 7:29 Peggy, the CEO that's successful, the real leader knows that he or she is not the most important, that all of these other constituencies are equally important. You can't do it on your own. 7:44 You can be a leader, and there are special traits of, of, of, uh, successful leaders, uh, but you don't... The first thing you do [laughs] is you don't think that you're the most important part of the equation. 7:56 You know that it takes a team, and it takes the, obviously, uh, uh, clients that, uh, uh, uh, win, employees, associates, vendors. So th-that's, that's my response to that. 8:08 I don't think there is a successful, um, uh, boss, employer, Michael Bloomberg, Mark Cuban, Bill Gates, uh, Warren Buffett. They don't think they're the most important, uh, uh, uh, part of the organization. 8:22 They think they're the visionary, the leader, uh, but they know that to have real success, it takes a, a, a win-win environment, uh, uh, uh, to get there. They don't think they're the most important. 8:35 They value and respect all people. Maybe that's why Steve Jobs got fired, 'cause he wasn't very good- [laughs] At the beginning. [laughs] That's, that's- So I don't know. Just throwing that out there. Excellent point. 8:44 Excellent point. But, but, but think of it. I mean, uh, uh, uh, it's, it's not ha- lacking confidence. It's not lacking leadership skills. It's not lacking vision. It's simply saying, "I'm not the most important. 8:59 I don't have the answers for everything. I need the support. I need..." And, and so on. I'm, I'm repeating myself, which I shouldn't do. Um, uh, uh, 9:07 that's, um- Hey- How I feel about the, the, the CEO or the, or the top guy. They don't think they're the most important. Hey, Donald, we're out of time, but I hope you'll come back and tell us more. 9:18 But we're out of time for this one. But I appreciate you spending time with us. [laughs] Thank you for the chance. I hope I didn't go on too quick, too much on some of the aspects. Thank you for the opportunity. 9:27 No worries. We can get your book on Amazon? Yes, you can. It's available on Amazon. Dividends of Decency. [outro jingle] All right. Thank you. All right, listeners. Thank you both so much. 9:37 There it is, The Dividends of Decency by Donald Lee Shepard. All right, we're out of time. Remember, The Peggy Smedley Show is broadcast noon every Tuesday. Thanks for listening. 9:46 This is always The Peggy Smedley Show, the podcasting voice of IoT and relevant technology. Remember, with great technology comes great responsibility. Have a great week. 9:59 [outro jingle] With great technology comes great responsibility. Follow Internet of Things tech expert and futurist Peggy Smedley, repeatedly ranked as a top IoT and M2M influencer. 10:13 Go to peggy_smedley on Twitter for her take on the latest tech news and lively interviews with other industry insiders on her weekly radio show. Visit twitter.com and search for peggy_smedley to follow her today. 10:27 [outro jingle] [upbeat music] Video consumption is on the rise. 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