Integrity is the Foundation of Authentic Leadership
By Richard T. O’Brien, President and CEO, Newmont Mining
December 16, 2011

Introduction

President Scoggins, Board of Trustees, graduates, students, parents, ladies and gentlemen. It is a great honor for me to speak to this graduating class. You have been very kind to ask me here today, and I believe that a big part of the reason you chose me is because the company I have the honor to lead, Newmont Mining Corporation, has a very special relationship with the Colorado School of Mines.

Newmont Mining CEO Richard O'Brien gives the keynote address at Mines' Midyear Degree Convocation on December 16, 2011.

The Colorado School of Mines and Newmont have much in common:

• Our heritage in mining.

• Both have been in existence for decades—CSM, 137 years; Newmont, 90 years.

• We draw many employees and interns from CSM and many of Newmont’s CSM alumni are still active with the school.

• Our support for the Center for Innovation in Earth Resources Science and Engineering (CIERSE), one of the world’s leading mining research centers.

The bond between Newmont and CSM runs deep, not unlike an epithermal gold deposit (I trust that some of you in this audience know what that is).

Just to set proper expectations—many of you in the crowd have high expectations today. Graduates have high expectations that they will be taking the next step in what will be a rewarding career. Parents of the graduates continue to have high—and after today—higher expectations for their daughters and sons who are graduating today. Professors have high expectations that their investment in these graduating students will lead to positive, sustainable, and innovative approaches to the “earth, energy and environment.” Lucky for me, none of you showed up today because you had high expectations for my speech.

Before you prepare to leave this place to begin your careers, I want to share with you some of what I’ve learned over the years about success in business, but more importantly, what I’ve learned about leadership. Leading is not about giving orders; true leaders inspire, innovate and, most importantly, they act with integrity. At a time when people have lost faith in many of our elected officials and business leaders, integrity has become that much more important as a foundational quality for authentic and effective leadership.

Career Path

After receiving my BA in economics from the University of Chicago, I did what every economics major does—I painted and remodeled homes. So, I used my economics degree—initially by working with a hammer—on a project remodeling a warehouse, which led to me somehow to becoming a business manager for the company that had hired me for the remodel job.

Oh, by the way, my parents didn’t attend my college graduation. I don’t hold it against them, though.  Their lack of attendance wasn’t because they didn’t love and support me—they were just really surprised that I was actually going to graduate! I think it’s great to see so many parents in the audience today. Graduates, make sure you acknowledge your parents today—tell them how meaningful their support was to you. Parents—if you haven’t yet bought a graduation gift for your daughter or son, I’ve heard that gold is always a welcome and valuable gift.

Fast forward a few years from my remodeling and I was in accounts payable for a small oil company, and then I did what every accounts payable professional does—I went to Law School at Lewis and Clark College at Northwestern University at night while I worked full time during the day. I worked for a coal company, on the treasury and finance side of the business because I had a knack for understanding how business works. It wasn’t the law degree, per se, that helped me understand how business works; it was painting and remodeling houses and everything else that my particular experiences led to. Regardless of the job I was doing, it was important to me that I do it with integrity—and I think it paid off with advancement in my career.

I’m not saying everyone here should go and paint houses. I am saying that ascending in your career is very much like ascending a mountain—the path to the summit is almost never a straight line and every path offers great opportunity if you embrace it with integrity. And, some of the views along the way are fantastic.

To lead and succeed, you must be willing to work hard, work smart and forge the career path that fits you, not anyone else; you must be willing to think about things differently and incorporate other points of view than just your own; and you must take advantage of every opportunity you are given or earn and every challenge that you face. Finally, you must act to shape the future you want to see and not wait for the future to shape you.

In short, it’s not possible to shape the future if you don’t follow your particular path in life. And, as you follow that path, the one person that you need to stay “true” to, is you. You are and will be defined by what you say, and more importantly, by what you do. Doing what you say—that’s the core of acting with integrity.

We are our word. When we are in integrity with ourselves and others, all of our words, our emotions and our actions are aligned. When you keep your word, people know that they can count on you as a spouse, a friend, an employee, an employer or as a steward of future generations.

Integrity and Leadership

Staying true to yourself, whatever you want to do in life, takes commitment, and that means upholding your commitments to others as well as the commitments you make to yourself. You can’t fake who you are for long—people will find you out. You must be authentic in what you do and say. So, my advice—remember every day, every hour, that how you show up matters.

The 80/20 rule applies here. Numerous studies confirm that when we talk, people hear only a small portion of what we’re saying. And of that small portion where people are truly listening to you, only about 20% of what they hear comes from what you say, the balance comes from your body language and delivery.

How you “show up” matters. If you believe what you’re saying, others will, too. If you’re a fake, people will discover that. And, in our quickly evolving digital world, people will discover that a lot faster. You can’t be a leader if there’s no one following you and people won’t follow someone who they don’t believe—someone who lacks integrity.

We are living in a time of great uncertainty and in uncertain times people crave leaders they can trust. We see it around the world, whether it’s the Arab Spring, Occupy Wall Street or the general angst around the future of the global economy. People have lost faith in our leaders because they believe a number of our leaders have lost their integrity. Those leaders have held out false promises, they think of themselves first, their actions don’t match their words, they take great risks without being truthful about those risks, etc.

While this may sound depressing, it also signals a great opportunity for the graduates in this class. Those of you who want to make a difference and who want to be leaders yourselves can step up to lead with integrity—imagine the rewards for you and for our world when integrity becomes THE greatest measure of our leaders.

It’s well known that if you want to succeed in business, you have to make yourself valuable, and what better way to provide value than offering leadership based on integrity in a world where integrity seems to be lacking?

The Future

Across the world, decision-makers are struggling to take action on critical economic, political and societal issues. And, it is apparent that the speed of change continues to accelerate worldwide, fueled not only by globalization but also by increasingly sophisticated technology.

One of the things contributing to uncertainty in the world today is the shifting center of economic and political gravity away from the west and toward the east. In Asia, we are witnessing the greatest migration in human history of people moving from the countryside to the city. The migration will lead to Asia resuming its historical contribution of 50% of the world’s GDP, while creating a staggering demand for natural resources. In fact, by 2025, China alone will consume more copper in one year than all the copper that is currently produced in the world today. Also, by 2025, China will have 220 cities with 1 million people or more—six times what Europe has today. This means there is going to be an incredible amount of pressure to supply Asia with the raw materials necessary to provide all those new urban inhabitants with the trappings of modern living. This means for you that there is going to be a demand for people like you, who have the skills to responsibly develop and deliver those resources—you made the right choice with your education.

While skills are critical, skills and a degree are not enough in a world where resource development is increasingly more about stakeholder engagement, transparency, living up to high environmental and social standards—in short, operating with integrity. As the world prepares to pass the 7 billion population mark in 2013 and becomes even more interdependent and interconnected, social values, resource needs and technological advances will occur as never before. And, while the world is changing, one thing will persist. People want their leaders—whether those are government leaders, company leaders, university leaders, football coaches, or even their own family leaders—to demonstrate integrity. If you can get that right, you’ll earn the right to lead. This requires bold ideas and successful collaboration among diverse nations and people. And, importantly, none of that will happen without great leaders—leaders with integrity.

Closing

As I look back to the time when I was seated like you in a place like this one, I didn’t imagine that I would one day have the honor of leading one of the world’s largest gold producers. But as I said earlier, you never really know the path your life will take and why—but if you are true to yourself and act with integrity at every step along the journey, you will be attracted to those places and people you were meant to be with.

For me and the thousands of others who work for Newmont, we were attracted to the company and each other because we value working for a company that can make a positive difference in the world and one that operates with integrity. Newmont’s not just a mining company, it’s a place where people who care about doing mining the right way come to flourish. While Newmont isn’t the Peace Corps, we do create a way for our employees and their talents to make a difference in people’s lives—particularly in developing economies.

I’m proud of our company. And, that doesn’t mean that we don’t ever make mistakes. We are not perfect. But because we have integrity, we stand up. We accept responsibility for our mistakes or omissions, we try to understand how our actions impacted those to whom we made promises, and we engage more with those people rather than avoiding them. In short, when we get off track, we get back on track and we create new possibilities for improving our future performance.

And for any company to remain an industry leader, we know that employees aren’t satisfied to have just a good compensation package in a growing company. Those employees also want managers with integrity, challenging work and opportunities to grow personally and professionally. The most enthusiastic employees are those who are climbing a steep learning curve. That’s why I love my job—I still learn something powerful every single day.

Finally, I’ll close by leaving you with these thoughts:

• Integrity forms the basis upon which everything else we do depends—without integrity, life is a mess. With it, we have a world of possibilities.

• Embrace lifelong learning and, maybe after today, your employers will pay you to learn and you won’t have to pay CSM for the opportunity. But, you need to embrace those opportunities. Stop learning, your career will be at peril.

• Team first, you second. Learn first how to identify good leaders who model authentic, engaging leadership based on integrity. Then, follow those leaders and learn from them. Then, develop your own personal leadership style and skills along the way—be authentic. Own your “stuff”—accomplishments, triumphs and failures.

• Your relationship with other people should always be a priority.

Thank you again for this opportunity to be with you today, and congratulations on your significant accomplishment.

Ed: Watch the video of the 2011 Midyear Degree Convocation