Page 91 - Roy W. Rice - CEO Material How to Be a Leader in Any Organization-McGraw-Hill (2009)

72 • CEO Material: How to Be a Leader in Any Organization

■ Respect others.
■ Put people around you at ease regardless of how you feel
yourself.
■ Are talked about by others as sure of yourself, cool, self-reliant,
self-possessed, well-balanced, self-controlled, poised, self-assured,
and sangfroid.

I had that personal confidence early, from my parents, sports, and
my schooling at Rice University as an engineer. One of my first
bosses told me years later that he’d hired me because in the job inter-
view, while I was sitting slightly slouched, with one leg over the arm
of the chair, I disassembled, repaired, and reassembled my cigarette
lighter while answering his questions. I looked like a confident person
to him and that’s what he wanted.

You, I, and everyone else has insecurities; the only difference is in
our ability to camouflage them. The choosing is yours.
Regardless of whether you’re short or tall, black or white, everything
comes down to controlling your own brain—those eight pounds of meat
in your skull. You cannot be a leader in your life if you cannot command
your own mind. No one has control over you like you do. If you abdicate
that self-control, you’re the one who will suffer, as will your family and
coworkers.

We’re all one point away from insecurity. You have to camouflage
your less-than-confident feelings.
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It goes in waves depending on what’s going on.

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I’m always afraid. The earth is shaking as I walk down the hallway. I’ve
been scared the last 10 years. But I don’t succumb to it. I can’t succumb.
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Self-doubt is my demon; I have my dark moments. . . . I carry a little
card around with me; it’s sort of my prayer. It reads, “Fear Nothing.”

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