Who is Ken Wright, and what has shaped his unique approach to leadership?

My early family and life experience in Australia was a tremendous help in developing my winning attitude. Setting intentions and gaining the focus necessary for success was difficult, but I have never taken the lessons learned along the way for granted.

Perhaps more than anything, my dedication to absorbing wisdom and religiously applying good advice to my own challenges has been the key to my success. Today I see myself more as a collector and adapter of great ideas than an original thinker. The methods I strive to teach are hard-tested adaptations of what I’ve seen produce great results over the past 25-plus years. Equally important, these principles and methods enable what we can unflinchingly call authentic leadership, in that the constant focus is on developing people for mutual benefit—and feeling good about what we accomplish.

I am the son of a butcher and a seamstress, raised in Horsham, Victoria, Australia. My earliest lessons in business and generosity came from my parents. As both a shop owner and investment property holder, my father showed a generous nature. For example, I observed him “slipping in” steaks or chops for poorer customers who had asked for the very cheapest cuts of meat. On one occasion, a family of renters had triplets and was forced to consider moving out because of the demands on their very limited resources. My father allowed them nine months to recover into a situation where they could meet the rent obligation. Similarly, my mum gave many of the clothes she made away to less fortunate people in our community.

Competitiveness, innovation, and caring all found important places in my character. My father knew that his generosity ultimately paid dividends and always said that the “extras” he provided would certainly generate more business through word of mouth. He always said that treating customers—and all people—with fairness and generosity was good for the business as well as being the right thing to do. My firm commitment to the now-popular concept of “wowing the customer” originated in my father’s interpretation of the Horsham area’s annual celebration: WOW Week, named for the core resources wheat, oats, and wool. He truly believed in the “WOW” factor and utilized this as the core of his customer service philosophy.

At 13, I began putting my father’s principles into practice with customers on my morning and evening paper routes. On cold, wet mornings, I delivered papers to my customers’ verandas (often along with their delivered milk) to save them steps and discomfort. After all, I was already cold and wet! I also sent Christmas cards to customers a week before the holiday. Other paper boys marveled at the generosity of my customers when I received tips three-to-four times what they received, but I knew I had earned those tips through excellent service. I’d wowed my customers knowing it would pay off for me as well.

At that age, I certainly had the attitude necessary to succeed in business. Forming the intentions and finding the focus to make that happen took longer. My true youthful passion was sports: cricket, Australian Rules football, basketball, and other athletic pursuits. At age 16 I left school and began working at a bank as a junior postage clerk, believing it was a short-term role while I fulfilled my dream and goal of becoming a professional athlete.

The next two years taught me valuable lessons. Had I focused intently on a single sport, I might have fulfilled those dreams and goals. What I lacked was not attitude or ability, but a clear intention that combined the resources of my head and my heart. The questions I most ask businesspeople today arise from these long-term, hard-won lessons: “What do you really want to accomplish? How can we work together to make that happen? Are you willing to commit your effort and do whatever it takes to achieve that intention?”