Richard Davis on leadership
From Richard Davis | Make-A-Wish America President & CEO · · Andrew Moses
“If you're a good leader I believe this very soundly. Then you start to leave your impact and it starts to look like you like a family. And if you're a really good leader, then you realize that after a while it needs another leader. So the self-actualization that says I shouldn't be running it for my own benefit, but be privileged to run it while I can. So I'm going to say 4 years before we transitioned, I said to the board, we're coming up now to the 10 years I'd like to execute on that plan.”
On , Richard Davis, Former Chairman & Chief Executive Officer at U.S. Bancorp, spoke about leadership during Richard Davis | Make-A-Wish America President & CEO on Andrew Moses.
About Richard Davis
Richard Davis, former chairman and CEO of U.S. Bank, became president and CEO of Make-A-Wish America in 2019. In podcast appearances, Davis said he retired from U.S. Bank "on purpose on time with no plans on where I would go" and described his move to the nonprofit as something he had long wanted to do. He stated he believes "no good CEO should last longer than 10" years, adding that he led the bank for 11 years only because "it took us a little longer." Davis has discussed his leadership philosophy, advising people to "set a direction, never goals" and to "never set a goal just set a direction so that it's not limiting." He said that "putting your hand up to do something demonstrates curiosity" and that doing it well "demonstrates competency." Davis currently serves on the boards of Mastercard, Mayo Clinic, Dow Chemical, Wells Fargo, the Cargill Foundation, the Twin Cities YMCA, and Scholars of Finance.