Abstract The author is an American entrepreneur and civic leader, and the Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Operation HOPE, the nation's largest on‐the‐ground provider of financial literacy and economic empowerment services. He puts the considerable changes the world has undergone in the 30 years since Leader to Leader began publishing in the context of leadership needed in realms such as economic improvement and financial literacy as basic rights available to wider areas of society. He identifies “the central leadership question of our time: Can we build a society in which more people believe they have a real stake in tomorrow?” He identifies the “Third Reconstruction” as an economic moment: “the work of moving from civil rights to silver rights, from protest to ownership, and building a capitalism that finally includes everyone.” He notes the importance of the concept of hope and identifies key areas in which leadership must take hold and continually improve; in his words, Financial Literacy, Economic Mobility, and the Architecture of Opportunity.
Abstract The author, a leadership educator and keynote speaker, has also published three books of poetry. While examining leadership challenges during the 30 years of the existence of Leader to Leader , and the transformative contributions of the publication's founder, Frances Hesselbein, he also includes four of his own poems. He recounts four forces that have “reshaped the landscape of leadership.” In his words, they are globalism, more women in positions of senior leadership, denigration of truth, and artificial intelligence. Reflecting upon Frances’ teachings and life example, his four poems each come with short titles: Heart, Integrity, Courage, Life Lesson. “Taken as a whole,” he contends, “these attributes provide suggestions as to how to address the challenges we face today because they are rooted in a moral code that provides clarity as well as compassion.”
Abstract The author, the editor‐in‐chief of Leader to Leader , begins by relating the optimism and determination of Frances Hesselbein in creating the publication 30 years ago, and how those values are modeled in the classic 1930 book by Watty Piper, The Little Engine that Could . The author discusses the fact that Frances “never shied away from celebrating Leader to Leader .” She was particularly proud of the APEX awards the publication won consistently over the years, and the author points out that two more APEX awards were won this year. She acknowledges the people and organizations that support the publication each issue, and remarks about “our deepest gratitude to our contributors for your great work, thought leadership, and dedication. It is because of your contributions that we are able to bring people together to collaborate, network, and learn from each other through the pages of our Leader to Leader journal.”
Abstract The author, the originator of the concept of “Artificial Integrity” and an AI researcher, writes about the role of humans, and human thinking and skills, in a world of rapidly shifting values caused in large part by artificial intelligence. He discusses the concept of “transferability,” which he asserts is the “ability to take what one has already developed, often in a completely different domain, and apply it meaningfully to a new, unfamiliar situation.” He writes about this concept within music and athletics, noting applicability within the worlds of business and organizations. “What matters now,” he writes, “is not just seeing what repeats, but understanding how what once made sense can be made to make sense again, elsewhere.” He also writes of three conditions, or steps, of transferability: The first “lies in recognizing predisposition.” The second is “deliberate amplification.” The third is “the act of transfer itself.”
Abstract Leadership has been an integral part of the author's life, from her earliest years. She notes that her “parents, Sam and Maureen Shriver, built their careers around it. And as the granddaughter of Dr. Paul Hersey, the co‐creator along with Ken Blanchard of the Situational Leadership® Model, first published in the Training and Development Journal in May 1969, the principles of great leadership were always present in my life.” She further notes that she has “dedicated my career to modernizing the Situational Leadership Model to make it more accessible and sharing it with as many people as possible.” She stresses the importance of caring, and how leadership can be expressed in many forms, not just the workplace. “The Situational Leadership Model,” she writes, “gives you a framework, but effective leadership goes beyond that; it comes from the heart. It means being intentional about how you lead and always striving to do better and making sure your people know they can hold you accountable to a high standard of integrity.”
Abstract The author studies medicine and business at Stanford University and public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School. He notes that scientific funding often rewards projects “that build on concepts that have had time to mature. The safest bet, it turns out, is often not the truly radical project but the one that feels new while still resembling that which has succeeded before.” He writes that “for young leaders, the challenge for us is to move beyond small fixes and confront harder structural questions. In health care, that means stronger primary care, simpler coverage, more equitable payment, less consolidation that drives up prices while claiming efficiency, and care models that reduce administrative drag instead of shifting it downstream.” Further, “our task is to become visionaries; to widen the aperture of innovation so it does not merely extend existing systems but transforms them. We must resist the seduction of being just novel enough to fit in and advance our careers at the expense of the deeper change needed to benefit society.”
Abstract The author, a Harvard Business School professor, contends that the “ability to ‘think outside the building’ – beyond taken‐for‐granted norms and structures – is the next frontier for leaders. Advanced leadership is even more relevant at a time when many of the most challenging problems, whether climate change or disparities in economic well‐being, involve complex systems with multiple stakeholders and no clear agreement about goals across independent entities.” In addition, advanced leaders, in her words, dream bigger than they are; mobilize allies and build multi‐stakeholder coalitions; and persist and persevere. Within the latter, she notes “Kanter's Law” – that everything can look like a failure in the middle. The messy middles of any change process are inevitable. Just when an effort is well along, it might be derailed. Advanced leaders who mobilized and energized constituents with their vision must know how to keep energy going.″
Abstract The author, a leadership scholar, executive advisor, and Professor Emerita, notes that going beyond thinking of leaders gaining power and achieving results, “the more important challenge is how that power is experienced by the people who live with its effects.” Power is not neutral, she asserts, and provides examples to learn from. There is importance in “making impact visible.” To this end, she writes:“Making impact visible requires deliberate attention. It means asking how a decision will be carried out in practice.” A related “obligation in the use of power is to preserve agency – the ability of people to exercise choice.” The use of authority in everyday practice is stressed, in terms of leadership within conversations, constraints, inputs, and adjustments. The best leaders “seek results in ways that strengthen rather than diminish the people whose efforts make those results possible.”
Abstract The author is the founder of the systems change organization Quark Collaboration Institute. She contends that leadership development is widely treated as a professional concern, yet one of the most consequential leadership roles in society receives little intentional support. Parenting places adults in positions of irreversible authority over developing human beings under conditions of asymmetry, uncertainty, and delayed feedback. These conditions expose leadership demands that organizations often obscure through metrics, roles, and exit options. This article reframes parenting as a leadership system that reveals what authority requires when people are still becoming, and when development, rather than efficiency defined by speed, control, certainty, or immediate results, is the appropriate measure of success. Drawing parallels to leadership transitions, promotion, and succession, it argues that curiosity, restraint, and creativity are not soft skills, but disciplined capacities for holding authority responsibly under conditions where future outcomes cannot be reliably predicted. The article further examines how prioritizing efficiency during developmental periods can erode trust, judgment, and long‐term organizational capacity. For senior leaders, parenting offers a clear lens on leadership as stewardship of power, with implications for succession, workforce retention, and the cultivation of durable leadership capacity over time.
ABSTRACT The author, founder of MBDGs (Mind‐Based Development Goals), had an 18 year career at All Nippon Airways. It was this experience that led to her insights about leadership development. Her “article introduces self‐existence awareness—a nonconditional sense of worth that exists prior to performance, evaluation, or achievement.” She describes in detail the MBDGs model. At the heart is Self‐existence awareness, which she describes as “the difference between believing, “I am valuable because I can do something” and recognizing, “I may not fully understand why, but my existence itself has value.”” For instance, in her words, MBDGs describes inner growth as a natural flow; and first, self‐understanding deepens . She describes “six interconnected goals,” which in her words are: 1. self‐establishment, 2. vision, 3. diversity and inclusion, 4. cooperativeness, 5. growth cycle, 6. responsibility toward the next generation . The model was built in Japan, based on Japanese experience, especially in the high‐pressure world of aviation. But it is applicable to settings elsewhere worldwide, and to settings beyond business, including education, where the author has teaching experience. She has witnessed shifts where “words and actions are guided less by the pressure to prove outcomes and more by purpose and long‐term direction.”
Abstract The author is the chief consumer and small business banking Officer of Truist Financial Corporation. He describes a life‐changing experience at the age of 13 “that introduced me to the purpose that would define my life,” and “the catalyst for my personal purpose: wake up every day and be a dealer of H.O.P.E. — an acronym for “helping other people excel.”” He notes that “by activating my purpose personally and professionally, I've realized something game‐changing: Purpose doesn't create impact on its own. It needs an environment that amplifies it.” He cites research involving a disconnect: people believe purpose is important to their work, yet most do not feel connected to the purpose/mission of their organization. He describes his leadership work: “Everything we do at Truist flows from our purpose: to inspire and build better lives and communities. It's our north star and the starting point for every decision we make.” He says their leaders “agree that beliefs drive behaviors, which deliver results. Beliefs shape how people think about their work. When people believe their work has meaning, they bring more energy, creativity, and resilience.” The foundation to leading with purpose, he believes, “goes back to the tried‐and‐true principles and practices of servant leadership.”
Abstract The author, an executive coach who specializes in leadership development and succession planning, contends that generational misunderstanding (including “othering” in workplaces and boardrooms) is not a one‐directional phenomenon. “When established leaders punch down,” he writes, “younger leaders punch back up. Neither side benefits from this cycle. It calcifies into mutual distrust, missed opportunities to learn from each other, and organizations that move slower than they should.” He further contends that “the organizations that will thrive are the ones where leaders team across generational lines, not in spite of their differences, but because of them.” He suggests three places to start; in his words: Audit your generational viewpoints; Build shared definitions; and Repeat what matters. For instance, within point one, he writes that the “audit has to be individual first. Before you can collaborate across generations, you need to name the biases you carry, examine them honestly, and retire the ones that are holding you back.”
ABSTRACT The author, Founder & CEO of ConantLeadership and a longtime company CEO and chairman, describes his 50 years of leadership, and how it has led to what he terms the ‘Higher Ground Leadership Success System ™. This requires both/and thinking, such as when leaders must be “both tough‐minded on standards and tender‐hearted with people.” Also that it “requires championing high performance and insisting that results are delivered with integrity.” He contends that “above all else, ‘Higher Ground’ leadership is predicated on two simple needs: The need for profound depth and transcendent reach .” He provides two case studies of companies he has led: Nabisco and Campbell Soup Company, and notes that his “leadership model consists of ten elements, which map to the two simple pillars of Depth and Reach.” The ten elements are, in his words, 1. Build Foundation 2. Honor All 3. Inspire Trust 4. Growth Mindset 5. Higher Purpose 6. Create Direction 7. Align Resources 8. Build Vitality 9. Execute With Excellence 10. Produce Extraordinary Results. He believes that “you simply cannot win in the marketplace, classroom, community, or battlefield without first winning in the workplace. It was true for the last five decades, and it is true today.”
Abstract The author, founder of CZB Consultancy, writes about how the VUCA acronym (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity) applies to both external and internal conditions for today's leaders. She says that leaders have dealt with “stress, conflict, and uncertainty” in their lives not just in their various professional roles, but going back to childhood. “Attachment theory,” she writes, “originating in developmental psychology, examines how we learned to regulate stress and emotional needs beginning in childhood. From the earliest days of life through our formative years, experience and exposure wove an intricate web of coping mechanisms designed to help us survive, adapt, and belong.” She has intensively studied this phenomenon during the past decade, and has applied it in her work with executives. She notes that “high stakes moments such as the management of a multimillion‐dollar budget, the closing of a pivotal business deal, or the decision to restructure are all opportune moments for attachment styles to quietly move into the driver's seat. This is because the nervous system does not differentiate between a broken toy and a high‐risk board decision; it responds to perceived threats based on learned patterns.” She also provides suggestions for leaders who, in their patterns, lean either avoidant or anxious.
ABSTRACT Seeley, CEO of Carew International, contends that today's leaders often neglect the sense of meaning people in their organizations are striving for. At the same time, there is the human (and organizational) failing to not “imagine alternatives to the world they've normalized, even when that world is producing suboptimal, unacceptable, or even fatal outcomes.” He discusses “information asymmetry,” and the shifting role of artificial intelligence/AI, where “meaning is a scarce resource.” He notes that Carew “created the LAER communication tool. It highlights four purpose‐unearthing interpersonal activities: Listen, Acknowledge, Explore, Respond.” He partially illustrates this with his dialog with one of Carew's employees, a blue‐collar worker who transformed his duties into “a cause greater than himself, aligned with what mattered most to him—supporting his family.” He also provides six practical steps for “leading in an AI‐soaked world.” They are, in his words, Double down on “Why” conversations; Audit your internal LAER; Use AI as a force multiplier, not a trophy; Fire faster; Mentor intentionally; and Celebrate meaning. “AI can provide information and insight,” he concludes, “but it cannot develop or replicate the deep work of personal conviction.”
Abstract The author is a high‐growth strategy specialist and CEO and executive advisor, with extensive teaching experience. Based on her work with “hundreds of leaders across the private, public, and social sectors as they attempt to steer organizational performance through uncertainty,” she delineates what is behind the cost of chaos. In her words, and described further in the article, they include: the paralysis of stalled decision‐making; ineffective decision‐making; elevated operational cost; lack of confidence; employee burn‐out and lack of engagement; and mindshare shift away from the long‐term. In her words, under “avoiding the chaos tax,” and described in detail in the article are: reframe uncertainty; re‐anchor on value creation; set, test, and communicate strategic beliefs: identify kickers and killers; improve decision‐making speed; isolate, and take, no‐regret moves; and learn faster, grow faster. For instance, under reframe uncertainty, she writes: “Our job as leaders is to determine what it is that we are trying to accomplish and then position the organization to achieve it, no matter the events that occur.” and in re‐anchoring on value creation: “With a laser focus on value creation, we can bring nuance relevant to value creation in and filter the noise, or mere distractions, out.”
ABSTRACT The author is the creator of the Williams Negotiation Architecture (WNA), including the GREG, GAIN, and TEMPO frameworks, each of which is described in detail in the article. He contends that some leaders have a limited view of the concept of negotiation, and when and how it is used. “Negotiation doesn't start when positions are declared,” he writes, “nor conclude with the agreement of terms. It is an ongoing process.” And while many think of negotiation as primarily an outward process, he notes that “every negotiation begins internally. Before leaders engage with others, they negotiate with themselves.” The framework within his architecture represents a “practical system for how leaders think, signal, and decide under pressure.” The acronyms, in his words, are: GREG (Greatest Recognition of Every Goal); GAIN (Greatest Area for Integrative Negotiation); and TEMPO (Timing and Execution Model for Practical Outcomes). Each is also described in practice; for instance, within TEMPO: “While GREG and GAIN clarify what matters and where opportunities exist, TEMPO governs how leaders act under pressure. Time is not neutral in negotiation.” He concludes that “leaders who commit to this practice develop not only better agreements but also better judgment.”
Abstract The author is a bestselling novelist and the creator of The S.T.O.R.Y. Method™ and the concept of Narrative Leadership. He notes that “people often say leaders are readers.” Yet this tends to mean business books and journal articles. He wondered whether the same could be true for writing fiction, presenting in his article “timeless lessons from fiction that can help every leader communicate more vividly, and lead more humanly.” He uses examples from literature that stand the test of time, such as Shakespeare's “Hamlet” and “A Midsummer Night's Dream.” That classic nature is also recalled in 20 th century examples such as Antoine de Saint‐Exupéry's “The Little Prince,” John Steinbeck's “East of Eden,” and Harper Lee's “To Kill a Mockingbird.” He also raises four larger points from fiction; in his words 1. Empathy and Perspective‐Taking Makes You Relatable 2. Telling Stories Makes You Memorable 3. Agency and Progress Make You Motivating 4. Emotional Exercise Makes You Resilient. “Every organization and every community,” he writes, “is full of stories waiting to be heard. The best authors listen to their characters; the best leaders listen to their people and partners.”
ABSTRACT The author, President/CEO of Girl Scouts of Northern New Jersey, notes that her article “explores leadership as an integrative practice. While my own experience spans corporate and nonprofit leadership, the invitation is broader.” She references leadership in contexts such as corporate, educational, and nonprofit, and believes that “these domains reveal that leadership is not a fixed role but a developmental journey shaped by context. What leaders come to value, notice, reward, and protect is influenced by the systems in which they operate.” She references her leadership in Girl Scouts of Northern New Jersey, and earlier corporate roles. She writes that “leaders who are serious about integration intentionally surround themselves with people from different professional backgrounds, lived experiences, and ways of thinking.” Integrative leadership involves balance: “Leadership today,” she writes, “requires a capacity to pause, synthesize, and decide in ways that honor both evidence and meaning. When leaders build teams and cultures that can hold this complexity, they strengthen their organizations’ ability to learn, adapt, and act with confidence.” Finally, she says that integrative leadership “is not a role, a title, or a personality type. It is a way of seeing, deciding, and building that reflects the realities leaders now face.”
ABSTRACT The author, founder of Leading With Aliveness, describes how her varied leadership background and lived experience has led to her current researching and advising. She describes what she terms the aliveness effect: “To lead with aliveness, we open to the universal energy—feeling its force, finding its form, and shaping it through practice. This practice begins with the Power of the Pause: our capacity to be in the eye of the storm, and from there, the other powers unfurl like sails in the wind.”… “The Power of Perspective is deep attention. We soften the gaze, scan the horizon, and tune into the currents of change.”… “The Power of Practice is embodied intention. With practice, we gain confidence; from confidence comes relaxation and flow, then timing and speed. Without practice, we lack inner strength and stability.” Other descriptions: “The Power of the Pride is optimal performance, a collective presence, a coherent force. The Power of Play is pure adventure, at the edge of what is known, in contact with the unknown.” She also cites academics such as John Coates, research fellow in neuroscience and finance at the University of Cambridge; and Dacher Keltner, professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley.
