At the time of publication, the fresh-faced Harvard MBA had just been promoted to vice president—climbing the ranks from his position as Weill’s assistant in as little as two years—when he shared the career tip.
Before then, he’d already helped analyze multimillion-dollar deals and negotiated major acquisitions. Yet his instinct was still to earn the right to speak.
And it paid off: One year later, he went on to follow his former boss Weill to Commercial Credit, where he became its CFO at just 30 years old.
Dimon has since led JPMorgan as CEO for 20 years—and although in that time the world of work has grown louder, always on and increasingly online, he’s still telling young people to listen more.
This simple advice may seem counterintuitive in an age when young workers are being coached to build personal brands from day one and contribute constantly.
And Dimon’s rule—listen first, be loud later—is one that many other leaders have recommended, too.
Instead of making you look junior, she noted, it gets you access to rooms with senior leaders where you can watch and learn how they operate.
“If you’re the one that is going to capture the actions from the meeting and the next steps, and you’re listening and you’re observing, that isn’t necessarily a negative,” L’Oréal‘s Stephanie Kramer explained. “You are in the room, and you are absorbing how those points are coming to be. You’re developing the skills of inference.”
Jony Ive worked alongside the cofounder for nearly 15 years, designing iconic products like the iMac, iPod, iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch.
Reflecting on their partnership in a newly released letter, he wrote that they would spend most days eating lunch together and then brainstorming ideas in the afternoon.
“For Steve, wanting to learn was far more important than wanting to be right.”
