Acts of kindness mean more to those who receive them than we think - and do more for our own health and happiness than we expect.
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).
Acts of kindness mean more to those who receive them than we think - and do more for our own health and happiness than we expect.
Despite recent calls for a “national divorce,” the United States is a contract ratified by the whole people not a compact of states. Honoring that matters in how we think and behave, as the Constitution’s framers knew.
IRS Commissioner Donald C. Alexander insisted that everyone, regardless of position or income, be subject to the nation’s tax laws and treated fairly, even when they hated him for it.
We all want to avoid ubiquitous emails - Spam - that flood us online. But how would we feel if an important email we sent was treated as Spam?
Honor codes on campus have a laudable goal but struggle to work. Stopping academic cheating means paying more attention to what honor means.
High-level officials who leave government service often reap large financial gain from drawing on their government assignments. Is this always as good for democracy as it is for them?
One vote was needed to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment. No one expected it would come from Harry Burn.
Some people love the splendor of a large cruise ship on the open ocean. But I’m not one of those people, and I have reasons.
The “Citizen’s Guide” offers helpful tips on sixteen core tasks of citizenship. How we answer the questions our role as citizens raise is important for our democracy.
Americans often sour on democracy, yet it’s serving us reasonably well if we take a long-term view.
Virginia Hall refused to be limited by her gender, disability or fears for her safety. The result was a pathbreaking career of public service in war and peace.
The peaceful transition of power is a hallmark of American presidential history. We must protect it.
In Election 2022, neither Democrats nor Republicans could claim a clear victory. But the qualities of character that have built America did win.
The words “civility” and “compromise” don’t appear in the Constitution, but it can’t work without their prevalence in practice.
In times of extreme partisanship, it helps to remember how Senator Arthur Vandenberg exemplified working across party lines for a better America and a better world.
If you’ve been reluctant to dance, give it a try. It will improve your brain and your relationship with someone you choose as your partner.
Ukraine faces a winter without heat and water due to Russian bombing. The West faces the challenge of whether they will step up to protect democracy - and not just in Ukraine.
Dissatisfaction among Americans have led some to want a very powerful leader - a strongman - who can correct our ills. That’s a dangerous path.
Our fascination with whether a president is up or down in polls leads to short-term thinking - and thinking biases - that may harm the nation’s long-term needs.
Risking his life as an African American passing as white, Walter White spurred efforts to investigate and end lynching in America.