JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon says he learned one of the greatest leadership lessons from the former CEO of a $35 billion fast food company
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
"There's this thought out there that in business, you have to crawl over broken glass to succeed — you've got to kill the other guy," JPMorgan Chase chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon said during an interview on CNBC’s "Squawk Box" Wednesday.
But the reality, he says, is that "people have to learn to work together. Sometimes it's more about heart than it is mind."
Dimon, an investor in KFC and Taco Bell parent company Yum! Brands — which has a market cap of $34.6 billion, according to Forbes — said he learned the key to working well with others from former Yum! Brands CEO David Novak, who Dimon considers one of the greatest business leaders of the last 40 years. Novak also appeared on "Squawk Box" Wednesday to talk about this "secret weapon:" recognition.
"People are starved for recognition all around the world," Novak told CNBC, citing recent research that shows more than 80% of people feel they are not recognized by their supervisor for what they do, and 60% say they value recognition as much as money.
"Recognition is a secret weapon that every leader really needs to use," Novak said.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty ImagesDimon said he didn't fully understand what "recognition" meant until he saw Novak practicing it.
"It's not just that you are recognizing other people," Dimon said. "At the heart of recognition is, you're acknowledging you don't know it all. You're acknowledging other people are really good. You're applauding other people for their contributions. You're telling them that you want to hear what they have to say."
If done right, Dimon said recognizing people "opens up a whole other door of management."
"Good management is about the heart," he said. "It's about people trusting you and people knowing you give a damn."
Listen to Dimon's interview here.
Watch Novak's interview here.
NOW WATCH: Here’s the one affordable habit ultra-successful people share