Corporate value statements — it seems as though every company has them these days, but far fewer know how to make their values operational or applicable to everyday situations. Values are the principles and boundaries that define corporate and personal behavior. Our values determine how we make decisions and how we relate to one another. [...]

We hear it everywhere. People do not seem to trust large institutions, their leaders, or often others at work. The distrust gap is very significant, and its costs are significant. If there is distrust, we can lose customers. Or if our executive team members don’t trust each other, they may be seriously misaligned on strategy. [...]

As a leader, you know that change is critical to your organization’s success. But resistance, confusion and inertia may be slowing your change efforts. To counteract inertia, leaders need to instill a sense of urgency. According to Harvard professor and change expert John Kotter, urgency is a sense of pressing importance. Kotter writes, “A real [...]

Across our city, our region and our country, leaders are in crisis. They — we­ — struggle with practical fiscal and policy issues while wrestling with deep, values-based questions: Who and what do I represent? What do we need to do and how do we need to behave as an organization? How do we survive [...]

Jason sat there with the 360 feedback front of him, a bit in shock. There were multiple instruments, and multiple interpretations of the data. Some of it was great news, and some of it was news he would rather not hear. Was it true? Was it accurate? What to make of it all? At the [...]

As a leader, you know that you should be giving feedback. Yet, because feedback can be difficult to give and receive, chances are high that you delay and avoid feedback conversations. While you know that feedback is a vital ingredient for success at work, it is also complex and fraught with contradictions, such as: Your [...]