"We can't build a team or organization that's different from us. We can't make them into something we're not. Failing to follow this principle is the single biggest reason that so many team and organization change and improvement efforts flounder or fail. The changes and improvements we try to make to others must ring true to the changes and improvements we're also trying to make to ourselves."

- from Jim Clemmer's article, "A Checklist for Changing Me to Change Them"

"'Finding my voice' is a phrase often used by artists, writers, musicians, and other creative people to describe the often difficult process of learning from other artists' styles and, from these, developing the style that most truly represents yourself. This applies not just to artists, but to people in just about any walk of life."

- from Jim Clemmer's article, "Being True to Me"

"The guiding vision of my career has been less about where I want to go and more about who I want to become. There have been times when this has meant passing up lucrative opportunities because they didn't fit that vision. But I am even more convinced today that if we are to remain true to ourselves, we must always keep searching for what will fulfill our vision, values, and purpose."

- from Jim Clemmer's article, "Being True to Me"

"Our values are most truly revealed when times are toughest. When the heat is on and the pressure is building, what do we care most about?"

- from Jim Clemmer's article, "Being True to Me"

"Numerous managers have "done their values thing" and produced pretty parchment papers filled with inspiring words. However, many are frustrated because they feel that people throughout their organization or team "aren't getting the message". But people do get management's message. They see it loud and clear."

- from Jim Clemmer's article, "Bridging the Rhetoric-Reality Values Gap"

"Management perks and privileges like parking spaces or special offices create separation. Similarly, employees find it hard to get any sense of partnership or collaboration when their bosses hold exclusive meetings or conferences, hang out in management cliques, use condescending or dehumanizing language, or withhold financial statements or other 'confidential' information."

- from Jim Clemmer's article, "Bridging We-They Gaps"

"Leaders put a real effort into listening to, and learning from, people throughout their organization. Listening is the clearest way we can show respect. Listening builds trust. By contrast, managers don't listen to "their people" – usually because they're too busy telling them what they need."

- from Jim Clemmer's article, "Bridging We-They Gaps"

"Studies show that in many organizations a majority of frontline people are afraid to speak up. That's why leaders spend huge amounts of time with people throughout their organization. They're busy listening at breakfasts, lunches, barbecues, and town hall meetings. They're conducting surveys, participating in cafeteria conversations, working together with people on the frontlines, and attending celebration events."

- from Jim Clemmer's article, "Bridging We-They Gaps"

"Promote only those people who are role models for the organization's values. Promotions are the clearest indication of whether values are lived or simply espoused."

- from Jim Clemmer's article, "Bringing Values to Life"

"Replace rules and policies with values and trust. Effective leaders treat team members as responsible adults who want to do the right thing for the team or organization. They know that with good support, training, and examples to follow, most people will exercise good judgment."

- from Jim Clemmer's article, "Bringing Values to Life"

"The big (and often painful) leadership question is; what do I need to change about me to help change them? Instead of just wishing for a change of circumstance, I may need a change of character."

- from Jim Clemmer's article, "Changing Me to Change Them"

"I can think of all kinds of ways to change our kids, my associates, my wife Heather, and lots of other people in my life. But that's not the place to start. The place to start is with changing me."

- from Jim Clemmer's article, "Changing Me to Change Them"

"A young boy came home and told his Dad that the other kids kept stealing his pencils at school. The father stomped off to the school to complain. 'It's not a matter of the pencils,' he bellowed to his son's teacher, 'I get plenty of those from work. It's the principle of the thing that bothers me most.' An environment that doesn't ring true with honesty, integrity, and trust is an environment that drains energy."

- from Jim Clemmer's article, "Creating High Energy Environments"

"Feedback is as critical to learning and improvement as cake is to a six-year-old's birthday party. As painful as I find "corrective feedback" and "suggestions for improvement," they are sources of my best learning and most profound personal changes."

- from Jim Clemmer's article, "Don't Wait to See Blood"

"Reputation is what people think I am. Personality is what I seem to be. Character is what I really am. Our goal should be to blur the lines between the three until they are one and the same. That means living my life from the inside out."

- from Jim Clemmer's article, "Exploring Inner Space"

"At our youngest daughter's sixth birthday party, a five-year-old boy hit Vanessa on the head. Asked to apologize, he politely refused: 'Mr. Clemmer, I don't apologize unless I see teeth marks or blood.'

Many managers don't realize the problems they're creating unless they see the teeth marks or blood on those with whom they work. The most insensitive managers are those who lack good feedback systems and refuse to seek input on how to improve their own performance."

- from Jim Clemmer's article, "Forward Looking Leaders Know When to Step Back"

"Personal feedback – especially about problems or faulty signals we've sent – can be very painful. But our frequency, sensitivity, and action (or lack of it) on personal performance feedback sets the learning and improvement pace and tone for the rest of our organization."

- from Jim Clemmer's article, "Forward Looking Leaders Know When to Step Back"

"Leaders know that it is hard to see the bigger picture when you're inside the frame. That's why they regularly step back to see themselves, their team, or their organization through the eyes of others. This means dealing with their perceptions as their reality. Effective leaders don't negate the viewpoint of others with comments like 'that's just their perception, that's not reality.' Leaders know that leadership, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder."

- from Jim Clemmer's article, "Forward Looking Leaders Know When to Step Back"

"Honesty and integrity produce trust, which produces high levels of confidence. High confidence encourages people to dream and to reach for new horizons. High confidence fosters risk-taking. Risk-taking and initiative are fundamental to organization change and improvement."

- from Jim Clemmer's article, "Forward Looking Leaders Know When to Step Back"

"Our ability to lead others is directly related to our ability to forge strong relationships. Strong relationships are dependent upon trust. Trust provides the glue."

- from Jim Clemmer's article, "Forward Looking Leaders Know When to Step Back"

"As a parent I am too often reminded of the old adage that says 'children act like their parents – despite all attempts to teach them good manners.' When one of our kids does something I'm not especially pleased with, my first inclination is to wonder 'where did you learn that?' If I reflect on it for a while, I can start to see where that behavior came from – their mother, of course!"

- from Jim Clemmer's article, "Leaders Go First"

"We lead people and manage things. Core values are critical to effectively leading people. Peter Drucker is on the mark when he says, 'making the right people decisions is the ultimate means of controlling an organization. . . your people decisions are your key decisions, because they tell your organization what you value.'"

- from Jim Clemmer's article, "Pathways and Pitfalls to Living Organizational Values"

"There are numerous modern technologies, instruments, and techniques to help managers see where they are today. But many of them still attempt to navigate their own personal development or organization-change processes with tools similar to old-fashioned sextants or star charts. Some may have lookouts posted in the crow's nest, but ignore or discount any warnings that don't coincide with their own perception."

- from Jim Clemmer's article, "Pinpointing My Leadership Position"

"Ringing true to me is hard. Getting real is tough. It's a lifelong effort to keep peeling back the layers of my own outer actions and inner self to discover who I really am. A clear form of hypocrisy is when I attempt to fool others. A foggier form of hypocrisy is when I am fooling myself."

- from Jim Clemmer's article, "Ringing True to Me"

"Nobody expects you to be the perfect role model. But they do expect to see a close connection between who you are and the direction you're pointing the team or organization toward. Or they at least need to see that you recognize your shortcomings and you're working hard to improve yourself so you can close the organization-personal performance gap."

- from Jim Clemmer's article, "Ringing True to You"

"Successful team or organization leadership begins with successful self-leadership. The first step in improving your team or organization is improving yourself."

- from Jim Clemmer's article, "Ringing True to You"

"Too many managers who aspire to lead and develop others haven't learned how to lead and develop themselves. They are trying to build organizations or provide services that are different from them. These well intentioned managers are trying to improve their teams or organizations without improving themselves."

- from Jim Clemmer's article, "Ringing True to You"

"More than half of the 2,300 respondents surveyed at 50 top business schools were willing to take a 10-percent or greater salary reduction to work at a company that had values consistent with their own."

- from Jim Clemmer's article, "Strong Leadership Builds on a Bedrock of Strong Values"

"Contribute to authentic conversations in an authentic workplace. Speak the truth as you see it. Obviously the time and place needs to be appropriate. Diplomacy and tact are also critical. Help others (especially your peers and those above you) to see the moose-on-the-table."

- from Jim Clemmer's article, "Test Your Career Health"

"It's been said that "children are natural mimics - they act like their parents despite all attempts to teach them good manners." As with parenting, managers speak a louder sermon with their lives than their lips. Words - no matter how passionate - are not enough."

- from Jim Clemmer's article, "Why Real Leaders Pump Gas"