Set the Azimuth, Part Four: Cultural Behaviors

A coral reef is one of the most beautiful and complex structures in the natural world. It is an entire ecosystem, alive and self-sustaining, every part depending on every other. And here is the amazing characteristic about a coral reef. No one built it. It occurred. You cannot commission a coral reef or draw up … Read more

The Mirror Test

Integrity is not what you say in the boardroom. It is what you do when no one is watching. When I was a young lieutenant in Germany, I had a platoon of about 41 Soldiers. We patrolled the East and West German border, and when we weren’t out at the border outposts, we worked on … Read more

Level 2: The Follower Culture

It’s more organized than Level 1. It’s also more rigid. In We’re All In, I described what I witnessed as a young officer in the U.S. Army in West Germany in the mid-1970s. It was, looking back, a perfect example of a Follower culture at scale. The Army was in crisis. The clash of a … Read more

What Will Effective Leadership Look Like in the Future? | Part 3: What Do We Do With a Broken Culture?

This is part of an ongoing series of blogs based on the latest Level Five Associates book, The Power of Being All In. “While your culture should drive decision-making throughout the organization, consider it a North Star, not a straitjacket.” —  Erin Meyer in the Harvard Business Review, July-August 2024 issue. What Do We Do … Read more

What are the Impacts? | Part 2: The Dangers of Thinking Information Equals Communication

This is the latest entry in a series of blogs based on the latest Level Five Associates book, The Power of Being All In. All too often, we mistakenly believe that sharing information alone is communicating. (We discussed this in a recent blog post: The Communication Desert.) Technology is feeding self-deception. Our warp-speed technology growth … Read more

What are the Impacts? | Part 1: Invest or Else

This is the latest entry in a series of blogs based on the latest Level Five Associates book, The Power of Being All In. One of the executives I interviewed in The Power of Being All In, Andrew Sewnauth, President and CEO of CDS Life Transitions, had this to say: “I think talent management lies … Read more