The Strengths It Takes to Run a City

Jon Clifton:
[0:06] Today on our strengths-based leadership study, I am with the 58th mayor of Cleveland and former Gallup senior scientist, Justin Bibb. Justin, thank you for joining me today.

Justin Bibb:
[0:18] Good to be back at Gallup HQ, man.

Jon Clifton:
[0:20] Justin, first tell us a little bit about what are your top five?

Justin Bibb:
[0:24] Activator, Arranger, Maximizer, Responsibility, and Self-Assurance.

Jon Clifton:
[0:29] Can you talk a little bit about when did you first get in touch with your strengths? When did you do the assessment? How did you get coached? And what surprised you the most?

Justin Bibb:
[0:39] So I did my first strengths interview when I was interviewing to join Gallup in 2007, I believe, which is a long time ago. And I was studying abroad in London at the time at the London School of Economics. I remember this day vividly. There's never any sun in London. So it was a very dreary November day. I take the assessment and I look at the assessment and I read the definitions of all of my top five strengths and I'm like, man, this all makes sense. These are the inherent superpowers that I've been given, but I had no idea I had them or how to describe them. And it allowed me to not only have confidence, but it allowed me to double down on my why at a time where I was really questioning my future. Do I work at Gallup? Do I go work on then Senator Obama's presidential campaign? Do I go back to Cleveland and run for city council? Do I go to New York or work in finance? So being able to really understand what your superpowers are, what your gifts are early, and how your strengths allow you to execute your gift in a great way, it's just a different tool that gives you confidence to achieve your greatness.

Jon Clifton:
[2:00] So in all your success, you were incredibly young. You're the second youngest mayor in Cleveland's history. What strength did you use or did you rely on in the process of becoming mayor?

Justin Bibb:
[2:13] Without a doubt, Activator. When I decided to run for mayor as a first-time candidate for public office, I had low voter name ID, no donor base. Barely anyone in the city outside of my close friends and family and former colleagues knew who I was. And so the most daunting thing I had to do when I started to run for mayor was identify friends and family and raise money because you can't win a campaign without resources. And I remember the first call I made. I was so nervous because I felt as if I was asking money from people I really cared about in a way that it felt as if I was being greedy. But I was talking to the current council president in Columbus, and I was trying to figure out how do I build more confidence when I'm making calls, dialing for dollars to run my campaign. And he said, Justin, think of it as an investment in Cleveland, not an investment in you. And that really gave me the confidence to get more active and proactive and making calls to really build the foundation I needed to run a successful campaign.

Jon Clifton:
[3:35] Can you tell us more about the individual? You don't have to say their name, but who it was that you approached and what was that moment like? And how did you pull up your Activator in order to close the deal?

Justin Bibb:
[3:44] Actually, the first call I made was to Paul Voinovich. His uncle is the former mayor of Cleveland, George Voinovich. And I went through my pitch, and he says, Justin, you don't have to sell me. I believe in you, and I believe in your vision for Cleveland. And he wrote me a big check. I think he maxed out. And on the memo of the check, he says, now go win this thing. And so getting those early contributions and support really gave me the confidence I needed to win the campaign.

Jon Clifton:
[4:23] Back to pivotal moments in your life. Was there ever something when you were really young and you said, this is what helped inform me that I have a future in politics, that I want to be the mayor of Cleveland?

Justin Bibb:
[4:35] Yeah. I would say there was one moment, you know, I was a senior in high school. And for the early part of high school, I thought I was going to be the number two guard at Duke. I had hoop dreams. It was going to be LeBron James and then Justin Bibb as the basketball legends from Ohio. But I tore my meniscus my sophomore year playing basketball. And my mom had a very hard conversation with me. I'm going to give you the censored version, by the way. She was like, look, you ain't the next LeBron James. You have a 2.4 GPA. Better get in these books and figure out what you're going to do with your life. And then we had a couple conversations. And I remember, I think we were coming back from church one day. And she was like, well, you know all those Easter speeches you used to give? You're kind of good at public speaking. Try out for the mock trial team. So I'm like, okay. So I study all the cases. I memorize all my lines. But I had so much adrenaline that I bombed the mock trial tryout. And I got cut from the mock trial team. I'm devastated.

So I get the news that I didn't make the mock trial team. I go to my locker and I see my classmate, his name was Hunter Ferris, and he had a Wes Clark for President t-shirt on. I'm like, what is this? He's like, oh, Wes Clark was the commander of NATO, Rhodes Scholar, he's running for president, come volunteer on the campaign. I said, okay, great. Volunteered on the campaign. I was organizing phone banks, canvasses, giving many stump speeches on why Wes Clark should win the Democratic nomination for president. Obviously, I wasn't successful because Wes Clark didn't become president. John Kerry got the nomination that year. But seeing my ability to understand a campaign plan, execute a campaign plan, I felt as if I had a gift to be in politics. And I took those same skills to organize a town hall for young people about how to get involved in government at City Hall as a senior. So when I gave my speech in city council chambers in Cleveland, that's when I realized that I could be mayor one day.

Jon Clifton:
[6:56] Did you feel like you had a different set of strengths that you were pulling on during the campaign compared to now that you're serving as mayor?

Justin Bibb:
[7:04] Yeah, absolutely.

Jon Clifton:
[7:05] What's the difference?

Justin Bibb:
[7:06] There's a big difference because in my first year as mayor, I had to learn how to go from candidate to an executive leading a large enterprise. Obviously, you want to keep the momentum of the campaign going. You want to continue to engage with your base and the folks you're serving across the community. But how you make decisions has to change. I'll give you an example. You know, when we were running for mayor, we wanted to make sure we were on the news every single day or doing something every day to drive the news cycle. When you're governing, that's not necessarily a good thing, because if you're always focused on driving the message, sometimes that distracts you from the hard work that you have to do to really turn around a large bureaucracy. My job is trying to figure out how do I turn around this large Great Lakes steamboat around as quickly as I possibly can. And while I have the same sense of urgency that I had when I was running for mayor, I have to apply that sense of urgency very differently now that I am the mayor. While it was important to make very quick decisions on the campaign, now as mayor, as a chief executive, I need to make thoughtful, deliberate decisions in a way that I get shared buy-in, that I have the right information and data, and that I know that I'm confident and I can defend the decision that I made.

Jon Clifton:
[8:39] Now, you have Self-Assurance top five. Can you tell us a little bit more about how you use your Self-Assurance?

Justin Bibb:
[8:44] Well, no one's going to vote for you or invest in your campaign if you're not confident and you don't believe in your vision. And in those early days when I was raising money, knocking on doors, doing meet and greets all across the city, even on Zoom, I had to show the confidence, the determination, and the boldness that I was the right leader for the right time to lead Cleveland in this moment. But I think my upbringing in the city from my parents really also gave me the self-assurance I needed to be successful. And that's something that I've taken with me throughout my career. You know, I started here at Gallup as a senior in college, working first as an intern here. I remember when the current chairman and then CEO, Jim Clifton, told me to figure out how to build a million dollar business. Go figure it out. In those early meetings, I had to show confidence that I knew the business, I knew the products we were selling, and that I was capable of delivering for our clients. And so that's a skill and a strength that I use every single day now in my role as mayor.

Jon Clifton:
[10:02] Now, you had mentioned something in your childhood, being raised by your parents was one of the things that helped you with your self-assurance. Can you tell us a little bit more about that. As you know, at Gallup, we are really passionate about strengths-based parenting. Is there anything that parents can learn about how to raise a successful son with Self-Assurance?

Justin Bibb:
[10:23] You know, my parents divorced when I was four, but that didn't stop them from pouring love into me and showing me that I could succeed at anything I do. And it was important for them to do that because at the time when I was growing up in Cleveland, the street I grew up in had some of the highest rates of poverty, some of the highest rates of drug addiction in the entire city. And my mom specifically was very focused on making sure that, number one, that I was destined for greatness early. But number two, exposing me to my capabilities as a leader. That went from singing solos in the church choir to giving the big Easter speech at my church during Easter to joining speech meet and memorizing the I Have a Dream speech and giving those speeches at churches across the city. She always wanted me to have confidence in my abilities, but the biggest thing that she taught me as a leader was you have to stick by your word and follow through and do what you said you were going to do.

And whether it's my Activator or my Responsibility or Self-Assurance, I think all of those attributes really are aligned to that commitment my mother gave to me early on as a kid. You know, well done is better than well said. And use these gifts to achieve your own greatness.

Jon Clifton:
[11:55] What you just described right then, which is follow through on your word, almost perfectly describes Responsibility. Can you talk a little bit more about how you use Responsibility every day in your job?

Justin Bibb:
[12:06] Well, obviously, as the mayor and the CEO of the city, I have a responsibility to our 8,000 employees. I have a responsibility to the roughly 390,000 residents I serve every single day. But I think more than anything, my parents taught me that I have a responsibility to give back. You know, I really believe in that old saying, to whom much is given, much is required. And it's easy, especially in the society, to get comfortable when you pull yourself up by your bootstraps, you build your nice home in the suburbs, your kids are going to great schools, you think you've achieved the American dream. But what if you don't pull anyone up with you? Right. What about them? And I believe that if the American dream isn't possible for everyone, then we haven't achieved our potential as a nation. And so I've always felt a calling that if I was lucky to make it out of my situation in Cleveland, I have a responsibility to make sure that the next Justin or Jasmine has the same shot at life to achieve their God-given potential that I have.

Jon Clifton:
[13:23] Now, when you said that you had that pivotal moment when you were young and you went up and tried out for this mock trial team and failed, you know, a lot of times when people have setbacks in life, they let it consume them and they never try it again. Had you never tried that again, the world may have been very different because there wouldn't have been this great orator who actually is good at speaking. What strength did you draw upon to overcome that setback?

Justin Bibb:
[13:57] I'd say Responsibility in a couple of ways. One, I had a responsibility to myself to make something of myself, because if I continued on the path I was going, I probably wouldn't have gotten to a good college and I probably wouldn't be sitting before you today as the 58th mayor of Cleveland. But the second thing I had to focus on was a responsibility to my community. I think about all the challenges that we faced in the city that I've experienced firsthand as a son of Cleveland. Whether it be losing a family member to violent crime, whether it be seeing my uncles struggle to get back on their feet after being in prison, whether it be seeing my mom, who has struggled to get a good education in Cleveland and who had to barely make ends meet before she was able to go to college and graduate from college and get her master's, and now she's a social worker.

Having experienced all that, if I didn't give back and make my city better, who would? Who would? And, you know, every generation, we've always had this promise that it's up to us to make sure that the next generation is better than ours. To me, that's the social compact, right? And that's what makes this country great. And I think if we focus on that and we all find a way to tap into our greatness by using our strengths, our nation's potential is boundless.

Jon Clifton:
[15:37] Now, let's go back to your campaign because when you first ran for mayor, it was a very crowded field. And you also knocked on an incredible amount of doors, yourself personally. What strength was it that caused you to do that and inspired you to do that?

Justin Bibb:
[15:55] I would say Maximizer because anyone would tell you, especially as a first-time candidate, you can't waste a day. You can't waste a day not to call that donor. You can't waste a day to not knock on that door. You can't waste a day not to do that postcard party to get your name out there in the community. And so I wanted to build a campaign team and a campaign strategy that maximized every opportunity to engage with voters. And I think that's what led to our success. I mean, I may have worked at Gallup, but I'm not an expert at polling. But I was polling at 0.0005 percent probably in the polls when I announced my campaign in January of 2021. And I think one of the greatest advantages I had was no one thought I could win. So no one paid me any attention for five months, five months. So we had five months of free runway to tell our story of why Cleveland couldn't wait, to introduce our campaign and vision for the city to the voters of Cleveland, and to really have very focused, intentional conversations with the voters of the city. And that gave us a strong foundation and allowed us to really have the right momentum through the primary and then to the general election in November.

Jon Clifton:
[17:21] Now, a lot of times when people have Maximizer top five, they excel at taking things from good to great. But sometimes when things are broken or when they're in a state or they're really struggling, it's hard for them to see those particular problems and thrive in those environments. How do you overcome that with Maximizer in your top five?

Justin Bibb:
[17:42] You know, I think it's important that you find a way to see the forest among the trees. And this is a hard thing for me because I'm very impatient. And I want to see success immediately overnight for my city. But one of the things that I'm trying to do a better job of is to give myself more grace as a leader, but also give my team more grace as well. And one thing we've tried to do to really show people that we're making progress is in our cabinet meeting. We end every cabinet meeting with my leadership team, with going around the room and each of us talking about one small victory we had the week before. Moments of recognition. And I think talking about those moments of recognition allows us to say, you know what? We digitized that permit. That's progress. We created that bike lane. That's progress. We saw a decrease in homicides. That's progress. All those singles become doubles, become triples, and become home runs. Now, it's hard to execute like that every single day when you have the press on your back, city council on your back. The voters want to see change immediately. So communicating and over-communicating those small wins is also a big part of my job.

Jon Clifton:
[19:06] You are quite the orator. I've seen you give speeches, I think, on a number of continents, even in your roles here at Gallup.

Justin Bibb:
[19:14] That's right.

Jon Clifton:
[19:16] What strength do you draw on or strengths when you're giving speeches?

Justin Bibb:
[19:21] I would say a couple. The first being Self-Assurance. You got to be confident when you're on stage or else no one's going to believe anything you're saying. And if you show confidence and exude confidence when you're giving a talk and connect with the audience, you're going to do a really good job, I think, of inspiring people when you're giving a speech. I would say the second thing would be Activator. Got to take reps. It's like shooting free throws, right? Or taking a thousand shots a day. And so when I was campaigning for mayor I learned quickly that you know being a consultant working in banking allows you to build good public speaking skills, but it's a different kind of public speaking when you're in a town hall with 100 voters trying to get their vote, asking hard questions. And I had to really learn how to take what I really learned well in the private sector and apply that to what it means to be a candidate for public office. And so I think those skills, you know, getting out, getting reps, being an Activator, but also having the confidence to get on stage and take the risk to give that speech or talk has allowed me to be successful.

Jon Clifton:
[20:41] Now, one of the themes we haven't talked a great deal about is your Arranger. Talk more about how you use that in the campaign, how you use it as mayor, how to use that strength every day.

Justin Bibb:
[20:51] Well, both as a candidate and now as mayor, I think one of my gifts is really finding the inherent talents and strengths people have and finding a way to marry those strengths together in a beautiful mosaic to affect change. You know, my campaign was filled with folks who had never run a campaign before to folks who were seasoned veterans of running campaigns. My management team at City Hall, folks who have never worked in government, to folks who have spent decades working in government, both old and new. I love that diversity because that challenges me as mayor, it challenges our leadership team, but it also allows everyone to bring their best self to work every single day. And I think it's one of the beauties of strengths, really being able to say, well, this person has Woo. But they're terrible at communicating, but this person's great at communicating, but no Woo. How do we put them together to come up with a new economic development vision for the city? One person's going to pitch, other one may inform the pitch. And you have to figure out, like playing golf, what strength to use, what club to use, depending on where you are in the game.

Jon Clifton:
[22:11] When you're using your Futuristic, how far are you thinking into the future?

Justin Bibb:
[22:15] 30, 40 years.

Jon Clifton:
[22:17] And why is that?

Justin Bibb:
[22:19] Because you have to make big, bold bets. You know, it's the same bet that Carl B. Stokes made when he ran for mayor to become the first black mayor of a major American city that made my race possible. It's the same bet that Dr. King made when he organized the Montgomery boycott to make sure that voting rights was possible. It's the same bet that John D. Rockefeller made to make sure that Cleveland was at the height of America's industrial revolution. And so if we're not making bets, Jon, for the next generation, then we're not doing our job. And I think that's what the founding fathers and mothers of our nation will want from us.

Jon Clifton:
[23:04] I think a lot of times here at Gallup we see people's top five strengths, but we don't necessarily display their six through ten. Are there any of your six through ten strengths that you, that stand out, that you draw on a lot more than is necessarily present in your top five?

Justin Bibb:
[23:21] I would say number nine, Belief. Belief. I love that word. You know, I'm really big in my faith. And my faith teaches me that, you know, when the sun comes up tomorrow, there's a promise of a better day, regardless of how bad the day before was. And I've always had this inherent belief that if we focus, if you have a strong vision, if you believe you can be a great teacher or a good firefighter or a good mayor, that change is possible. And it really makes me an inherent optimist. Sometimes that gets me in trouble. But it's that belief that, you know, Cleveland can be a great American city once again. It's this belief that we can, as a nation in our cities, if we close a racial wealth gap, if we fix public education, if we show the country how to solve violent crime, America's mayors are going to show America that we can live up to our potential. So it's that belief that I think drives a lot of my work as mayor.

Transcript autogenerated using AI.