American Express Chairman and CEO Steve Squeri joined the Leadership Academy in New York to discuss purposeful leadership and resiliency. He spoke about how great leaders put service at the center - turning challenges into opportunities to grow and make a lasting impact. “Inconveniencing yourself is a critical leadership trait that will get passed on to others,” Steve said. “Inconvenience yourself to convenience the many. Realize that you’re there to help others, they’re not there to help you.” Read more about his conversation with Chief Corporate Affairs Officer, Jennifer Skyler: https://go.amex/FC4g7z
Hola señorita yo busco trabajo en la empresa de América Express ser empleado nesito una capacitación profesional para poder trabajar laboral de América Express
A truly inspiring message from American Express Chairman and CEO Steve Squeri. His reflection on purposeful #Leadership and resiliency captures the essence of what great leaders are called to do: serve first, lead with humility, and turn challenges into opportunities for collective growth. “Inconvenience yourself to convenience the many” is a powerful reminder that real leadership is not about position, but about commitment to others. When leaders choose service over comfort, they build cultures of trust, ownership, and long-lasting impact. Thank you for sharing this insight — it reinforces the kind of leadership our industry, and the world, needs today.
“‘Inconvenience yourself to convenience the many’ that’s real leadership. It’s the mindset that builds trust, culture, and high-performance teams. Love this.”
Nice read and well said. The conventional leadership model optimizes for executive efficiency: leverage your team’s time, delegate liberally, protect your calendar, focus on high-value activities. But this creates organizations where inconvenience flows downward junior employees absorb complexity so senior leaders can move faster. That’s extraction, not leadership. True leadership isn’t about accumulating privilege it’s about strategically deploying your position to create leverage for others. That often means making your own work harder so theirs becomes easier.
Servant leadership is what makes teams grow towards their fullest potential because they are investing time and energy into their people.
American Express This aligns closely with selfless leadership. True leadership is not about comfort or personal gain -it’s about serving others, even when it requires personal sacrifice. By “inconveniencing yourself to convenience the many,” a leader models service, responsibility, and integrity, creating a culture where impact and growth are shared. Selfless leadership transforms challenges into opportunities to uplift those around you.
He looks tired.
I once worked with a small travel team where the senior manager would always take the tougher tasks himself, late client calls, airport runs, and last-minute fixes. No big speeches, just action. It changed how the whole team operated. Steve’s point is simple but true: real leadership shows up in the small, inconvenient moments.
The call for purposeful and resilient leadership cannot be overemphasized.. there certainly will be many inconveniences to achieve that purpose! That's where resilience comes in to help the leader stay true to the cause!
AI Product Manager ✦ Platform & Data Strategy ✦ MLOps-aware Technical PM ✦ Teaching Machines and Occasionally Myself How to Decide
1w‘Inconvenience yourself to convenience the many’ works only if you’ve got some oxygen left. Even airplanes tell you to put your own mask on first, otherwise you help no one. Good leadership isn’t self-sacrifice, it’s staying functional enough to actually support people.