"Never chase success, attract it."
Bret Packard helps leaders grow leaders, transform cultures and navigate crises. He is the CEO of The Packard Network. His proven concepts often save others years due to his extensive international experience and direct access to a team of professional experts. For nearly 30 years, across 30 countries in international banking and wealth management at Citi, Barclays, and the Australian and New Zealand Banking Group, he has run large, complex, high-growth businesses and an array of product lines while serving as Executive Director on two subsidiary boards.
As a country and regional CEO, he has successfully transformed cultures, reconstructed/strengthened leadership teams, improved diversity, and revamped faltering businesses to sustained profitability in both benign and crisis market conditions. He has grown profitable product lines/teams in complex, multiple regulatory jurisdictions and has extensive experience meeting corporate governance requirements including the build-out of internal risk management detection systems, risk process frameworks, and compliance teams. Bret has built highly-engaged, productive teams that delivered world-class client experiences with efficient cost bases.
More about him: He loves his family and is passionate about learning, growing, and networking. He has an intense focus on inspiring, sharing, and connecting people with the world. He is motivated by creating unique customer experiences and is passionate about developing managers into leaders, building winning teams, and transforming cultures.
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Table of Contents
Let’s learn a little about you and get to experience what makes us tick – starting at our beginnings. Where did your story begin?
Bret Packard: It began after two years of junior college and I had enrolled at a major university with big dreams. After 10 days, I dropped out – just quit – couldn’t deal with any aspect of it. I’d never lived away from home and the only thing I knew to do was quit!
Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?
Bret Packard: I am grateful for Herb Myers, one of my earlier leaders showed the way for me to engage colleagues and mobilize teams for excellence. There are so many stories I could share, but one resonates well today. We had a senior coming to San Francisco for a business review and Herb said to me, “Bret, let me give you some advice for presenting. It’s called the 3 B’s – be quick, be good, be gone.” What a way to get focused and without this advice I likely would have spoken more than necessary – practical advice that carried me for an international career.
Often leaders are asked to share the best advice they received. But let’s reverse the question. What’s the worst advice you received?
Bret Packard: The worst advice I received was in Singapore back in 1998. A peer continued advising me to stick with the norm on every task we were managing. He repeated protocol and whenever I questioned if it could be done a different way, he just said, “Asia doesn’t work this way.” After a short time, I decided not to listen to him and before long he made himself extinct!
Resilience is critical in critical times like the ones we are going through now. How would you define resilience?
Bret Packard: I define resilience in dealing with adversity as a person who doesn’t blame other people themselves, themself and they understand that the turbulence can be dealt with, as it’s limited in time and duration. All of this with a nimble and optimistic mindset is key!
What is most important to your organization—mission, vision, or values?
Bret Packard: For me, it’s values and culture. Culture shapes long-term outcomes and without an optimized culture, nothing works!
Delegating is part of being a great leader, but what have you found helpful to get your managers to become valiant leaders as well?
Bret Packard: Teaching them how to catch fish instead of catching fish for them. Then, we eat together. This concept was learned from Mike Amato, a great
I had in Europe.
How would you define “leadership”?
Bret Packard: Leadership is all about how followers feel during good and difficult times!
Do you think entrepreneurship is something that you’re born with or something that you can learn along the way?
Bret Packard: I think that with a curious mindset entrepreneurship can certainly be learned. Experience, knowledge, wisdom, and a curious mindset can unlock the potential.
What’s your favorite “life lesson” quote and how has it affected your life?
Bret Packard: “Never chase success, attract it,” by Jim Rohn. This concept has impacted everything I have done in my professional career. I’ve never chased money, I’ve attracted it. I’ve never chased a promotion or job, I’ve attracted it.
Jed Morley, VIP Contributor to ValiantCEO and the host of this interview would like to thank Bret Packard for taking the time to do this interview and share his knowledge and experience with our readers.
If you would like to get in touch with Bret Packard or his company, you can do it through his – Linkedin Page
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