Surviving today while securing a prosperous tomorrow will not happen using

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CEOs do not create an organization’s values.  They do however clarify

Corporate values and their future tense (vision) serve as a powerful catalyst for the generation of corporate energy.  They also provide a platform for delivering on the organization’s brand promise—they align employees.  CEO  signals of cultural values, delivered by consistent words and deed,  will inspire customers, suppliers, and employees...

They hang prominently on lobby walls, get published in annual reports,

and appear on most corporate websites.  When asked to recite their lofty declarations, too many managers have to extract them from desk drawers.   Corporate values…publishing them just seems like the right thing to do so PR firms rake in millions of dollars each year creating...

Core values are personal distillations of what you’ve learned to date

.  They form a perceptual screen through which you view and make sense of the world.  A huge challenge for athletic coaches, orchestra leaders, and last but not least, business owners, is to develop a solid foundation of ‘cultural-values’ that will support a peak performance...

Leadership is about what goes on within and between people whereas management

The “I” of life’s hurricanes are your core values.  When blown off course, leaders turn to what they believe to get centered.  They understand that vision represents values in the future tense —what people believe influences what they can and cannot see.  Leaders help followers clarify a set of cultural-values for the group—then meld them...

Organizations achieve dominance by introducing unique ways of doing business

that the market perceives as adding value. A timely innovation often changes the rules of the game.  But success can be a precursor to failure.  Many innovators find themselves wedded to ideology that blinds them to changing market conditions or competitors making inroads...

Businesses that survived our prolonged recession deserve respect—but

To prosper in recovery, CEOs may have to shake off “hunker down” behaviors that helped them survive.  Success will depend on a company’s capacity to quickly, assess, decide, initiate, and eliminate.  Futurist David Houle calls this era the “shift-age”. He suggests that the ground will continue to move under our feet. Only...

“It’s the right thing to do.”  Most organizations have their values

posted prominently on boardroom walls, websites, and in annual reports.  Unfortunately, too many CEOs consider the “values thing” complete once PR professionals wordsmith an attractive centerpiece for the corporate table.  Unfortunately, just like a table centerpiece at...

Most leaders will tell you that he or she places integrity at the top

Groupthink is powerful: a little unethical conduct here, a white lie there — justification is available for every integrity-compromised action. Suddenly, someone realizes something is wrong, and it’s too late; the momentum has built like a leaky faucet until a drip becomes a stream that turns into a flood, drowning employees, customers and those...

A common shortcoming of management is the inability or unwillingness to

A frequent mistake by well intentioned CEOs and HR directors is to have managers attend internal or external classroom training.  As the founder and former CEO of Achieve (now part of Achieve Global), I can attest that “just in case” training is a waste of time and money.  A system (such as the above) must be established.  A peak performance...