Originally posted on Linkedin Pulse. 

I was honored to speak at Stanford Graduate School of Business' commencement on Saturday. When I went to Stanford in the late 1980s, I quickly learned that I didn’t know what I didn’t know. I was 26 years old. I had lived in southeast Michigan my entire life. I had worked for General Motors since I was 18.

From accounting to corporate culture to entrepreneurship, my eyes were opened and I learned to see the world from a different perspective. My experiences on campus changed my life and accelerated my career. They prepared me to manage and, ultimately, to lead.

Allow me to share four leadership lessons that I have learned since my graduation – lessons that have been important to me.

Number one:  Leaders listen.

Success is always a team effort. It’s ok to admit what you don’t know.  It’s ok to ask for help.  It’s more-than-ok to listen to the people you lead.  In fact, it’s essential.

Some years ago, I was asked to lead GM’s Global Human Resources function during a critical time for the company.  I had never worked in HR before, but I was confident I could make a difference.  I accepted the position and immediately began identifying areas where I believed we could improve the company’s performance.

Pretty quickly, I came to the conclusion that the company’s vacation policy was too generous. They told me it was a bad idea. I argued that the program had outlived its usefulness and no longer had a place in our leaner, more nimble, more competitive company.  So I eliminated the program. Next day, the employees nearly eliminated me.

What I did not fully understand – because I did not listen closely to my team – was that employees purchased their additional vacation days to provide flexibility as they managed work and life.

Long story short, I reinstated the policy – fast – and vowed to listen much more carefully in the future.

I learned how important it is to surround yourself with people who will challenge you and tell you when and why you are wrong.

I learned that the need to listen doesn’t diminish when you become general manager or CEO – it increases.

Lesson two:  Leaders care.

I was a student at Stanford in the late 1980’s, when MBAs were frequently compared to Gordon Gekko, the character played by Michael Douglas in the 1987 film “Wall Street.”  Gordon Gekko’s mantra was simple:  “Greed is good.”

Unfortunately, despite the fact that business leaders have come a long way since the stereotype of Gordon Gekko, many people continue to view the business world with considerable disdain.

As leaders in business, government, non-profits, NGOs or wherever your career takes you, you have a responsibility to help change the relationship and the reputation our institutions have with society.

Where do we start?  For me, at GM, it starts with customers.

You and your company will likely make mistakes.  How you deal with those mistakes will largely determine how you’ll be judged.

And no matter what business you go into, you only win when your customer says you win.

Lesson three:  Leaders inspire.

As I said, a company’s success depends on how well you satisfy your customers.  But “changing the world” goes well beyond serving customers – it’s also about serving society.

As a visionary leader, you should be thinking about more than just the next quarter.  You should also be thinking about the next decade… and what your company’s reputation and place in the world will be after 40 quarterly results.

More and more, today’s employees want to be connected to a broader purpose, a higher calling.  They want their companies and institutions to make the world a better place.

I believe we can do both.  I believe we are required to do both.  I believe it’s up to leaders to set the tone, create the vision, and inspire the behaviors that allow our organizations to best serve society.

As leaders, we have an obligation to act responsibly and courageously for people and the planet, because our actions have long-term effects on the generations that come after us.

It means creating workplaces where every employee is empowered to contribute to his or her full potential.

It means working to improve the communities where we live and work by, for example, supporting and improving STEM education.

It means changing the way we build our products – using renewable energy, creating landfill-free facilities, and working to address climate change.

At GM, it means working to reduce and, one day, eliminate the effect our cars have on the environment.

At the end of the day, all businesses are about people first – because the only way we can build genuinely successful businesses is to build lasting relationships inside and outside the company.  We do that by holding ourselves accountable, by doing what we say we are going to do, and by inspiring others to strive for something bigger than themselves.

My final lesson:  Leaders work.

If you truly want to “change the world,” you need more than talent.  You also need to do the work… because hard work beats talent, if talent doesn’t work hard.

I think about my mom and dad.

My parents grew up during the Great Depression.  My Mom grew up on a farm in Northern Michigan.  My dad grew up in an iron-mining area of upper Minnesota. They didn’t have many advantages.  They each had only high school degrees.  But they believed in the American Dream, and they worked hard to achieve it. They taught my brother and me that there is no substitute for hard work.

Education will open doors. Talent will open worlds.  But it is hard work that will enable you to accomplish more than you ever imagined.

So, a lot has changed in the years since I left Stanford, but the responsibilities of leadership have stayed the same.

We are alive at an extraordinary time in human history – when technology is changing our lives faster and more profoundly than ever before.

In this world of unbounded opportunity, we all have the opportunity to be successful.  My question to you: how will you define success?