The PEP (Procative, Efficient & Persistent) Talk
Dr. Steven Neil Kaplan
In 2008 I celebrated Father’s Day by attending the convocation ceremonies at the University of Chicago Graduate Business School. My son received his MBA. The faculty speaker at the ceremony was Steven Neil Kaplan, Neubauer Family Professor of Entrepreneurship and Finance.
Dr. Kaplan’s research previously has focused on private equity and entrepreneurial finance, corporate governance and finance and mergers and acquisitions. Recently he studied personality traits of CEO that produced the most significant results for their companies.
Previous studies by authors such as Jim Collins (Good to Great and Built to Last) have found character traits that have been universal in good leaders. Character traits such as humility, team players, good listeners and the ability of hire the “right” people, are essentail in transforming companies. Coolins also found that even with these traits some leaders did not achieve the same results.
PEP (Proactive, Efficient & Persistent)
Dr. Kaplan’s research revealed three additional traits that seemed to be pivotal producing success. These character traits are proactive, efficient and persistent, “PEP.” Dr. Kaplan’s research confirmed that these three characteristics were universal in leaders who were able to make a difference. Dr. Kaplan encouraged the graduates to approach their business careers with “PEP.”
As I listened to Dr. Kaplan, I had to agree. In my own personal journey, I find that when I am proactive (Make the choice, Cross the wake, Live your dreams!) in approaching a challenge, attack it in an efficient manner and follow through with persistence to the end, my results are stellar but when I sit back and wait, fail to get to the heart of the matter efficiently or acquiesce to the pressure of those around me, my result are less than adequate. My most remarkable successes have been directly related to my level of “PEP.” To get a little more “PEP” in your group give me a call.
