Writing Boots

On communication, professional and otherwise.

CEO, and the ‘e’ stands for ‘ebullient’

05.08.2009 by David Murray // Leave a Comment

Yesterday Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf issued an all-employee message trumpeting Wells Fargo's passing of the regulatory "stress test." The message is as close to a joyful shout from the rooftops as you'll ever hear from the c-suite, and for that reason the whole thing is worth reading.

But the concluding paragraphs are especially good:

I have no doubt our company has emerged from these stress test results
just fine and that we'll be even stronger, even more secure, even more
dependable and reliable for our customers and communities. Let me
repeat that. I have no doubt. …

I want to thank the hundreds of team members who worked such long hours
the past several months to prepare our submissions for these tests to
our regulators, who were highly complimentary of the thoroughness and
thoughtfulness of our presentations. These team members gave so
unselfishly of their time-sacrificed so many evenings and week-ends
away from their family and friends—we can never thank them enough for
what they've done for our company.

I also want to thank all our team members for enduring all the anxiety
and uncertainty that we've all had to live with the past few months as
every day brought new rumors and more speculation from the media and
analysts about this very public process. There were many times when I
wanted to communicate to reassure you throughout this process but we
had to respect the confidentiality of our relationship with our
regulators. Now we can channel all that energy we wasted on worry and
anxiety about the outcome of this process into actions and behaviors
that really matter—satisfying all our customers' financial needs and
helping them succeed financially.

This is the kind of emotion and most execs are afraid to show.

Good Stumpf.

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