Bill Winters, the chief executive of Standard Chartered, is widely considered one of the best bankers of his generation.
But despite all the influential people he has met, he says the best advice he ever received came from his father when he was a teenager.
He told Winters to treat everyone with universal respect.
"Always treat the assistants well. By that he meant if you think you can just suck up to the boss, you're wrong. The boss makes the decision, but is always advised by the people around her or him.
"Make sure that you treat the next level down, whether it's the assistants or the PA, whatever, with just as much respect as you would anyone."
After spending more than 30 years as one of the top figures in the banking world, Winters is still learning and getting advice from those around him.
"Directness and transparency is really key. My advice is to be direct. It's uncomfortable sometimes to be, I'll say brutally transparent - I don't mean disrespectfully transparent or be blunt - but brutally transparent.
"You will establish a relationship of trust with somebody, whether it be a negotiation or a management discussion or whether it's a sales pitch.
"If you're brutally honest, people will trust you more, but you have to do that consistently."
Life Hacks Live is a series produced by CNBC International for Facebook, where tomorrow's leaders get to ask some of the world's biggest influencers for advice. You can watch more episodes here.