Saying “I was wrong” opens the door to personal learning, healing, and better relationships - for individuals and leaders.
Terry Newell is currently director of his own firm, Leadership for a Responsible Society. His work focuses on values-based leadership, ethics, and decision making. A former Air Force officer, Terry also previously served as Director of the Horace Mann Learning Center, the training arm of the U.S. Department of Education, and as Dean of Faculty at the Federal Executive Institute. Terry is co-editor and author of The Trusted Leader: Building the Relationships That Make Government Work (CQ Press, 2011). He also wrote Statesmanship, Character and Leadership in America (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013) and To Serve with Honor: Doing the Right Thing in Government (Loftlands Press 2015).
Saying “I was wrong” opens the door to personal learning, healing, and better relationships - for individuals and leaders.
Experiencing positive awe enriches lives, but threat-induced awe generates fear and powerlessness. We are not helpless in producing more of one and less of the other.
Born into slavery, Fred Bailey was determined to learn. He used his hard-earned education and his voice to gain his freedom and campaign for abolition.
Stories can spread like a virus. When they do, they can complicate our ability to think clearly.
The decisions we make may not be as free as we think when they are primed by a subconscious process.
The tragic death of George Floyd highlights the injustice that still waits to be corrected for so many Americans.
Seventy years ago, Margaret Chase Smith’s moral courage reminded us how important it is to stand up for core American values.
We like ourselves - a lot! That’s a good thing, but there are some funny and unexpected ways it can show up.
So many low income workers are making social distancing possible. When COVID19 ends, we owe them much more than just saying “thanks.”
Acting as if we can either save the economy or save lives is a false ethical choice. We can do both. What we may lack is the will.
Many people are confused by scientific discussions about the coronavirus. Knowing how scientists approach their work can help.
Military leaders often need to ask those under their command to sacrifice their lives. To get that kind of commitment, they must love those they lead.
We must act now to ensure that a national election in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic is fair, free, full, and viewed as legitimate.
The current pandemic highlights a threat to our democracy: the ways we have to replace the loss of key leaders are legally insufficient and could well lead to social upheaval.
Presidential judgment requires foresight, reason and prudence, especially when confronting a pandemic.
Amidst the global tragedy of COVID19, this post is offered in the hope that a bit of humor will ease the stress, if only for a brief moment.
COVID19 offers valuable lessons in how flaws in personal and national character can weaken society.
Candidates who promise to much and ask too little of us warp the political process and the American character.
People with moral courage and an understanding of the “sacred values” that matter to others can find ways to bridge the seeming chasm between “us” and “them.”
It may be natural to think in “us vs. them” terms, but that tendency can be overcome when seeing “them” as really part of “us” is good for everyone.