I love hearing CEOs or former CEOs talk. There’s a referent power with their title, so I figure they each have something unique to teach me. So was the case last week when Cass Wheeler, the former CEO of the American Heart Association, spoke at the Fifth Annual LIVESTRONG Young Adult Alliance meeting in Austin, Texas.

He spoke about setting bold golds, something I think about often and have blogged about recently. Because he was talking largely to nonprofit directors and board members, he spoke from a programmatic view rather than a personal goal-setting view, but several of his thoughts can be extrapolated to the personal level.

Mr. Wheeler’s PowerPoint-less, 40-minute talk encompassed his nine years of experience at the Heart Association. It was riveting. He spoke with such confidence. He had the experience of setting (SMART) bold goals for one of the largest U.S. nonprofits and succeeding. He mentioned bold goals will drive the development of organizational strategic and tactical plans, propel you along a continuum of success, help you escape “business as usual,” help everyone in the organization “sing from the same sheet of music,” and cause you to focus on systems, which can save thousands – rather than tens – of lives at a time.

He also spoke about the value of collaboration and deciding what you will and will not do with another organization before starting the new partnership. While I’ve heard it many times, his reminder to under-promise and over-deliver made me pick up my pen and think about my current promises and deliverables. One of his last points was noble – even among a room full of non-profiteers: don’t worry about who gets the credit.

Sage advice. I hope I can remember it.