Laura Willes, co-donor of the Willes Center for International Entrepreneurship, opened the BYU–Hawaii Entrepreneur Lecture Series on March 7 by saying, “I want you to know what a deep love we have for this place in Laie. My husband especially loves it here and has served and given much to help to build it and make it better.”
Her husband, Mark Willes, is a businessman, major donor or the Willes Center, former president of General Mills Inc., director of research for the Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank, and director of Bonneville International Corporation. He was also a mission president for the Hawaii Honolulu Mission and worked in the Missionary Training Center for four years.
Speaking on leadership, Mark Willes said, “It doesn’t matter whether we are talking about leadership in a home, in a quorum in a relief society or in a business or any place else. There are certain fundamentals of leadership that can make a huge difference. The first principle of leadership is leaders must lead. It is astounding how many leaders do not lead.”
A need to lead
“Universities are great places for ideas,” Mark Willes said. “We have to have ideas to be successful in whatever we do. It turns out good ideas are not enough. We have to start with good ideas, but how we go about executing those ideas can make all the difference in terms of whether they are successful or not or whether we are successful or not.”
He explained the difference in leadership from visiting the restaurant Olive Garden, while out with his wife. The quality of service and overall delivery was so poor and he explained it was the worst experience he had ever had at a restaurant. Mark Willes explained the experience was entirely different the second time he visited several weeks later.
In discussion with the new general manager, Mark Willes said the general manager had stewardship for about 120 employees. Out of 120 employees, only one was terminated. Mark Willes said, “This is a matter of leadership. It’s a matter of setting expectations, training people to meet those expectations, and then keeping them accountable to keep those expectations.”
Demetrius Demoors, a senior majoring in business management from the country of Georgia, asked how to best learn leadership. “If you’re in a position where you are responsible, it’s not a matter of title, it’s a matter of leadership.” When there is room for doubt, Demoors was encouraged to just do it and learn from mistakes.
Setting high standards
Mark Willes asked the audience, “Have you ever noticed the standard the Savior set for us? Be ye therefore perfect even as your Father in Heaven is perfect. What happens when somebody sets a high standard, we look at where we are supposed to be and where we are and realize we have to change.”
Mark Willes was Demoors’ former teacher at the MTC and said, “Find great leaders and just do what they do. In a mission context I would give some of our missionaries the same training the Savior does. He is the perfect example in leadership. If we take seriously what he did and the way he did it, we have the perfect map to be great leaders.”
Gaining trust
“If leaders cannot be trusted sooner or later, they will lose their moral authority to lead. When someone has lost the moral authority to lead... followers will leave and they will not be successful.
“Therefore, if we are going to be effective leaders, we must in every day and in every way prove we can be trusted,” Mark Willes said. “Have you ever wondered how the brethren (Apostles) are so totally and completely trusted? Because we know we always can [trust them].”
Mark said the Tanners personify every principle of leadership as they have been trusted by the brethren who count on them to lead the student body.
Leaders empower others
According to Mark Willes, nobody is smart enough to make all the decisions on their own. He said, “It doesn’t matter what job you’re in, what you do, or where you live. You have to find a way to trust others because together you can do more than you can ever do.”
As publisher for the Los Angeles Times for two years, Mark said, “We had about a thousand journalists in one newsroom, and a total across the system at times 2,000 journalists. Some of them would risk their lives to get the story because they were so passionate about what they did.”
As a publisher, Mark Willes added, “It’s important to be passionate about what you do. When you can tap into the passion of people, miracles take place.
“It’s one of the wonderful things we love here [at the Willes Center] when we talk to the students, we can feel the passion that they have. It’s no wonder they are not only changing their lives but also changing the lives of others. It’s remarkable,” Mark Willes concluded.
Writer: Geena DeMaio