Speak Boldly, Lead Diplomatically: Winning Trust Without Offense

A note to young leaders.

State your view, state it boldly – but always diplomatically.

The late, great John Caldon – former Deputy MD at Macquarie – was a master of diplomacy.

If, in the course of our business meetings, we met someone who expressed a view that was diametrically opposed to ours, John would smile wistfully and say:

“That’s a very legitimate way to look at it. We could be completely wrong of course, but we have a slightly different view, don’t we Adam?”

He would then proceed to express our view in a non-confrontational way. John never shied away from letting people know that he held an opposing view but was always careful not to offend.

He won the trust of many an adversary in this way.

Play the ball and not the man, you’ll score a lot more goals that way.