“Billy trusted those around him,” David says, “and those
people in turn found people they could trust. That became what
I would call ‘cascading trust.’ It ultimately came from Billy
through the organization, touching my life, and allowing a trust
that empowered me.”
“Interesting phrase, cascading trust,” we said.
“When you have a great leader,” David responded emphati-
cally, “and his character and worldview cascade through the
enterprise, the enterprise can accomplish great things! Billy sur-
rounded himself with people who cared for him, told him the
truth, and got results. He modeled the bonding. In turn, the bond
was extended through Sterling to me and others—simply put,
they took us in.”
“So how has that affected the way you run your own organi-
zation?”
“I look for people who will tell me the truth, who will show
compassion for me and the cause we’re about, people who will
get results. When I find those people, I try to treat them the way
I was treated by Billy Graham. For Billy to trust others, he had to
be trustworthy himself. That meant loving others and telling the
truth. Billy delivered on his promises and got results. All that chal-
lenges me to do the same.”
“So Billy’s DNA.. .”
“You sense it in the people he surrounded himself with,”
David said, and he named nearly a dozen team members. “Most
of them did not have a lot of face time with Billy, but he instilled
in them a strong sense of mission. The DNA was mission focused,
and full of compassion. They always treated me lovingly... ,”
David paused, then added, “if firmly. No one’s perfect; we make
mistakes and have to be corrected. You must work hard. You
won’t be kept if you’re deadwood. But focus was on the cause.
You can’t do that if you don’t see cause and compassion blended
in the leader. We didn’t need to meet personally with Billy on pro-
jects because we could emulate that blend of cause and compas-
sion. Our entire firm’s motivation stayed intense.”
Another aspect of the DNA David told us about was Billy’s
The Leadership Secrets of Billy Graham