LESSONS IN LEADERSHIP.

Retired Truist CEO Kelly King joined High Point University President Nido Qubein in the Power List Interview, a partnership for discussions with some of the state's most influential leaders. Interview videos are available at www.businessnc.com.

Kelly King, 74, is a legend in North Carolina banking. A Raleigh native who grew up in a family of modest means, he paid his way through East Carolina University and joined Branch Banking and Trust in 1972. King succeeded John Allison as CEO in 2009, then led acquisitions of banks in Kentucky and Pennsylvania and the 2019 merger of equals with Atlanta-based SunTrust. King retired as CEO in September 2021. He works with his son, Ken, at KSK Investors in Charlotte.

This story includes excerpts from King's interview and was edited for clarity.

Kelly King, your life has been a phenomenal story. You grew up on a tobacco farm in Eastern North Carolina and you traveled a path to become chairman and CEO of the sixth-largest financial institution in America: 55,000 employees and assets of $550 billion. You have been a major architect of the largest bank merger since the Great Recession. Along the way, things like service and leadership filled your heart and nurtured your mind. I want to ask you about the ingredients that make for a good leader?

I've tried to learn along and figure out how to take complex subjects and make them simple. So, I sat down one day and asked, "What are the characteristics of an outstanding leader?" And there are three. No. 1, they are honest about the reality they face.

What does that mean?

Leaders will face difficult circumstances, and they'll say, 'Oh, it's not that bad.' You see company leaders talking to their boards and saying, "Well, we're having a little tough patch, but it'll go away," when it's really fundamental structural tough issues. They're not talking about the real, tough reality issues.

How do you define "reality"?

Reality is the circumstances that you are facing that are within and without your control that are going to exist whether you like it or not.

What if you and I look at the same challenge and define it in two different ways?

In the pursuit of reality, you have to add objectivity. You might think the sun rises in the west and sets in the east. I'd say well, I appreciate your perspective, but you happen to be wrong. As effective leaders, we have to apply objective analysis to perspectives.

How does one learn how to be objective?

Reasoning and reality go hand...