A Great Teammate Is a Great Listener

A Great Teammate Is a Great Listener

FEB. 15, 2014

By ADAM BRYANT

This interview with John W. Rogers Jr., chairman, chief executive and chief investment officer of Ariel Investments, based in Chicago, was conducted and condensed by Adam Bryant.

Q. Were you in leadership roles early on?

A. Sports were a big part of my life. I was the captain of the basketball team in high school, and captain of the basketball team at Princeton. I had some informal roles, too. I was a vendor at Wrigley Field and White Sox Park from the age of 16 to 22. I sold Cokes, beer, peanuts and popcorn. Ultimately, I got a lot of my friends to come along and work as vendors.

Tell me about your parents.

My father was a Tuskegee Airmen captain in the Air Force and a very strong personality. He believed in fairness and ethics and living up to the commitments you make to others. He ultimately became a judge, and he would talk to me over and over about how important it is to be fair.

My mom was the first African-American woman to graduate from the University of Chicago Law School, in 1946. She had leadership roles in the law, in government and the corporate world. She was a great role model in that she felt anything was possible.

What were some lessons you learned playing basketball at Princeton?

I was not a great player, so I don’t want to give any false impressions. I was fortunate to be on the team, and the coach, Pete Carril, said he kept me around because I worked so hard. I spent most of the time on the bench, but senior year, he asked me if I would be captain.

And Coach Carril taught two things better than anyone. The first lesson was about teamwork and caring about your teammates first. He pounded it home and eventually it became such a freeing and fun way to play. There was a transformation. He no longer had to push the idea; the team fully embraced it. You’re not thinking about who scores the points or who gets the credit; you’re thinking instead about how you can help your teammate succeed on the court. Coaches talk about it, but they don’t always get it through to the kids. Many kids still play selfishly. Princeton basketball is all about the team. It was just transformative. It changed my life.

The other key thing is that he was very demanding about precision. The angle of the cut mattered; the footwork mattered. If the pass was off just a few inches, it mattered. Every detail mattered for the ultimate success of the team. He’d always say, “Do you want me not to notice?” He would stop you and constantly show you what you needed to see and what you needed to understand.

How are you a different leader today than when you started out?

I constantly make sure we’ve created an environment that encourages people on the team to really say what they think, to get their ideas out on the table and to give them the opportunity to argue those perspectives and make sure they’re not holding them inside and going home and talking to their family about the idea. That’s something I’m constantly working at — how can I create that environment, how can I ask the right questions, how do I go around and make sure people tell you what they really think? That takes patience, but it’s the right thing to do.

Early on, I was impatient. I’d think, “I’ve got the answer here and I don’t want to take the time to hear everyone’s perspective.” It’s so critical to keep reminding people that you really do want to listen, then letting people know how much you’ve heard them, and that you respect their ideas. If you’re going to be an ultimate teammate, you’ve got to be a great listener.

How do you hire?

What we’re looking for in up-and-coming people is how independent a thinker they are. That’s the key thing for us. You want people who are comfortable standing alone and having an independent point of view and independent ideas. We’ll get better decisions if people bring different perspectives to the table. So you’re trying to find ways through your questioning whether this person has the DNA that allows them to feel comfortable standing alone and being independent in their thinking.

So I might ask a series of questions around a commonly held view of an issue facing America. What do they think about it? Then I’ll ask questions to see whether their perspective comes from what they’ve read or whether they’ve thought about the issue independently. I’m not saying there’s a right or a wrong answer, but you’re trying to get at whether they have come to an answer by just naturally falling into the groupthink of the moment.

The second thing we’re looking for is a sense of teamwork, that these are people who like to help others succeed. You ask questions and listen for whether it’s all about them and whether they have to be the center of attention all the time.

The final thing is that we want people who are going to be working extremely hard. They’re willing to be here on weekends, be here late at night, and to do it comfortably so that it’s not like you feel you’re having to beg them to be here but that they want to do it because they enjoy being part of the team, and enjoy the work.

What advice do you give to graduating college students?

I try to get them to focus on a few things. One is the importance of hard work and really putting in the extra effort from Day 1, when they start their careers. Surprise your boss that you’re there on a Saturday or a Sunday or late in the evening. It shows people you’re committed.

The second thing is to always look for ways to help your teammates. And the third thing is to make sure you live up to the commitments that you make to your teammates. Become that rare person where people know that your word is your bond and you’re going to do exactly what you say you’re going to do.

Twice a week, Adam Bryant talks with top executives about the challenges of leading and managing.