Requirement 1: Specify your Diversity Mission (what you seek to achieve thorough diversity) and your Diversity Vision (what will constitute success).

The President has often clarified his Diversity Mission—to deal with complex problems through diversity of thought.  On numerous occasions, he also has stated his Diversity Vision—that this diversity of thought would result in dissent, vigorous debate, tension, and conflict, which would, in turn, produce complex, innovative, creative decisions capable of handling complex problems.

As part of this requirement, care must be taken to speak definitively about motive (the reason thought diversity is important).  In the corporate community, this is the business case.  More broadly, it is the viability case.

Requirement 2: Determine whether your organization/community culture will support your Diversity Mission and your Diversity Vision. In declaring his intent with respect to diversity of thought, President Obama implicitly repudiated the Washington “oppositional”, “perpetual campaign”, partisan political model that has been prevalent in recent decades.  This traditional cultural does not easily support bipartisanship.

Some observers, indeed, did perceive the new president’s bipartisan aspirations for thought diversity as evidence that he was naïve and did not understand the nation’s capitol and its partisan ways.  As if to prove the skeptics correct, one potential cabinet member withdrew his name; apparently, in part, because, he could not support the bipartisanship that would be required.  Also, the struggle to enact the stimulus legislation has proved that partisan politics are alive and kicking.

If your culture does not support your diversity aspirations, one option is to go around it.  President Obama has been seeking to get around Washington’s traditionally partisan culture by repeatedly reminding everyone, “These are not normal times.”  He is hoping that the current situation will be viewed as a crisis, and thus, facilitate at least a temporary departure from a constraining, partisan environment.  This may well be his major diversity challenge.

Requirement 3: Recruit people with the potential to contribute to the thought diversity you are seeking.

Collectively, the recruits must be representative of a broad range of thought, while individually, they must be open-minded, receptive to criticism, and comfortable with the tensions of vigorous debate. As events have shown, not all candidates who meet the representation criterion have the necessary personal characteristics to satisfy the thought diversity requirement.

Most observers give President Obama high marks for assembling a group of people with diverse thought –even to the point of having Republican participation in his cabinet. Not only does the group have diverse perspectives, but also present are strong personalities prepared to advocate for their view. Further, seeded among the appointees are individuals with proven track records of working across party lines. Without a doubt, the potential for diversity of thought appears to be significant.

Requirement 4: Unleash the potential for diversity of thought. Often overlooked, this step is based on the recognition that assembling potential for thought diversity is not the same as actually generating thought diversity.

We cannot yet know whether the potential President Obama is bringing together will be actualized. A few Washington veterans are worried that some of the strong-willed personalities will dominate and stifle thought diversity; specifically, they fear that a rigorous process has not been established for soliciting and hearing ideas.

Requirement 5: Channel the unleashed diversity of thought toward the end of effective, quality decision making. In this regard, the President has insisted that his cabinet member choices share a core vision of the country’s needs. This shared vision will help to channel diverse thoughts. Further, he has stated that after all considerations and deliberations; he will make the final decisions, thus placing himself squarely in the middle of the channeling process.

To this pursuit of thought diversity, the President brings a strong desire for quality decisions in the country’s best interests, and an understanding that without diversity of thought, his administration will not realize its full potential. In this context, the evolution of the Obama Cabinet will provide Chief Diversity Officers with an instructive case study on the do’s and don’ts of achieving diversity of thought.

Dr. R. Roosevelt Thomas, Jr., is the CEO of Roosevelt Thomas Consulting & Training (RTCT) and the founder of the American Institute for Managing Diversity. He has been at the forefront of developing and implementing innovative concepts and strategies for maximizing organizational and individual potential through Diversity Management. He is the author of Building a House for Diversity; Beyond Race and Gender; Redefining Diversity; and Building on the Promise of Diversity.

Most CPAs, attorneys, investment bankers and business brokers will tell you to focus on some fundamental issues to improve your wealth prospects; namely, your company valuation and viability.  They will assert that certain criteria are the key to maximizing your eventual exit potential or sales price.  They will refer to these as “value drivers.”  According to Ned Minor, an attorney and author of Deciding to Sell Your Business,   “Value drivers are those characteristics that influence a buyer’s decision about how much to pay for a company. These include–but are not limited to–a stable, motivated management team, effective financial controls, a realistic growth strategy, and a facility appearance consistent with asking price.”

While these value drivers sound logical on the surface, they only provide a partial definition of wealth for B2B companies. Today, many business leaders are seeking a more meaningful balance between money and happiness.  And they understand that money and wealth are not the same. If you want to create meaning and significance in the world, it is essential to define wealth in a way that honors your values, your vision, and your core strengths.

Before you begin to worry that you’re being transported into a spiritual dimension, recognize that this expanded mindset about wealth can simply lead to greater self-awareness, a more clearly defined sense of purpose, and more committed teams moving in the same direction. 

Our CEO research helped us discover seven contemporary criteria to help you assess your “Wealth Quotient:”

1. You consistently and confidently express and demonstrate your value to the market. Try this simple experiment.  Walk the hallways of your offices, and call your top business associates and advisors.  Ask them “What is our company’s elevator statement, and why do our customers love to buy from us?” Then record what percentage would provide a consistent answer. If you are like many technology or professional services firms, you will assert (mistakenly) that your tools or methodology make you unique. Sadly, buyers really don’t care about them. They DO care about how you can improve their condition.

2. You are paid handsomely for that value.  In these tumultuous times, value is being challenged more than ever.  Some law firms are being forced to provide alternative fee arrangements and abandon the antiquated hours for dollars pricing models for this reason.  Clients no longer equate hours worked with value received.   

3. You continuously innovate.  Many companies were launched during previous recessions, including Microsoft, FedEx, HP, and Procter & Gamble.  They filled needs that others were ignoring. Don’t let a downturn stop you from regularly assessing your products, services, and relationships.  If you are selling services that fall into the competitive category, chances are you are competing on price and can barely distinguish your offerings among the crowd (whose members include “not invented here” and “status quo”). Ensure you are developing breakthrough and distinctive offerings where you encounter few, if any, competitors.

4. You focus on business endeavors that do not exploit and degrade other people. Michel Kripalani, CEO of Oceanhouse Media in San Diego, California, started a successful gaming company several years ago, and grew to 40 employees. But he eventually lost his passion for running a traditional bricks and mortar gaming firm.  According to Kripalani, “We were ready to do something that would have a more positive impact on the planet.”  Today, Oceanhouse Media has developed over 80  iPhone and iPad apps for Dr. Seuss’ children’s books and Hay House Media. They have experienced consistent growth using a well-managed, virtual business model.

5. Your business endeavors honor the natural environment.  Wal-Mart launched the Sustainability Index Initiative in 2009 with the intention to reduce the carbon footprint of inventoried products by millions of tons by 2015.  If the world’s largest retailer– a frequent target of environmentalists and labor advocates–can step up to the plate and walk more softly on the land, anyone can. 

6. You have enough of the “right” clients – in other words, you know who they are; you can explain your ideal client to others very clearly; and you market to them in an authentic, consistent, systematic way. During the recession, you may have been tempted to accept any client with a checkbook. Today, it’s an ideal time to re-visit how you define ideal clients, and the systems you are using to attract more of them.

7. You provide your stakeholders, investors and employees enough time for family, friends and personal growth.  Your culture defines your brand.  Your brand defines your value. Your value defines your wealth.  Just ask Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos. Over the past few years, Zappos employees became accidental role models for living company values. Some of the Zappos core values include “pursue growth and learning,” “create fun and a little weirdness” and “build a positive team and family spirit.” Last summer, they sold Zappos to Amazon last year for $847M in stock.

When you apply these seven criteria, you have greater control of your daily activities and growth decisions, and your brand and value is no longer at the mercy of rogue bloggers, finicky customers, and overworked employees. These seven criteria will help keep your company out of the emergency room.

This post originally appeared on FastCompany.com.

[Photo courtesy of http://www.matrubhumitrust.com/]

Copyright 2010, Lisa Nirell.  All rights reserved.

Lisa Nirell is the Chief Energy Officer of EnergizeGrowth® (www.energizegrowth.com).  She is one of the only marketing expert speakers with 27 years’ experience advising and working for B2B growth companies.  Lisa helps her clients improve their top line revenues and attract more ideal clients.

Lisa has worked with hundreds of entrepreneurs, as well as BMC Software, Sony, Wells Fargo, Microsoft, and IBM. She is also the author of “EnergizeGrowth® NOW:  The Marketing Guide to a Wealthy Company.”   Visit www.energizegrowth.com and http://blog.energizegrowth.com today to download free educational resources and join the EnergizeNews community.

Here’s the problem.  Women work hard.  Some get top flight educations but feel empty inside.  Some stay in jobs they dislike for security, ignoring their sprit and inner voice.  Some lose track of their natural ways to fit into masculine business scenarios. 

The only way that we can reach true success is when we allow our inner quiet wisdom and knowledge to guide us on a daily basis.  The only way that we can truly receive this guidance is by listening.  The only way we can truly listen is by having a way to connect with this guidance.  For some this connection comes in the form of meditation, for others prayer.  My way is through silence – deep silence in the early morning.  Before my day begins I embark upon a quiet inner journey.  I seek stillness and drop into the quietness.  From this place, a sense of refreshment often arises.  By the end of my quiet moments I often feel renewal and a sense of peace.  At times I will leave my quiet sitting with an idea or thought that I believe never would have visited me had I not stayed still long enough to receive it.

Join us in The Living Room of The Essential Feminine when Camille Maurine and I explore ways that you can enrich your inner life and reach greater levels of success and satisfaction.  We will be there on August 25^th at noon Pacific Time.  Be sure to register at: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/987535361 .

Think about the inner resources that we naturally hold such as a deep understanding of the whole, a natural ability for care and compassion, and a deep innate wisdom to be able to see through the outer surface of things.  If we find ways to integrate these into our lives in a way that enhances our personal power and our ability to pull from our own resources and depth our lives would become more successful (from the inside out).

The way that we do this is by creating a deep and meaningful inner life.  When we come to realize that quiet contemplation is equal and more important than active doing, success and happiness takes on a new meaning.

How do we create our inner world so that it can be reflected in our outer world?  Creating a daily practice is one way to create a strong connection between your outer world (desires and intentions) and your inner world (your contemplation, deep reflection and where you are “informed”).  Some create a daily practice through claiming quiet time in the morning to re-group, set intentions and gather themselves together before facing the busy day.  This allows for an opportunity to start the day with clarity and intention.  It’s also useful to clear time in the evening before closing your eyes from the day’s busyness to set intentions for the next day or even for a good night’s sleep.  It’s not so important what the specific practice is as long as it aligns with your values and beliefs and feeds your soul, providing you with a chance for renewal and conscious choice about your life.  Life is rich if we embrace it with an open mind and an open heart.  It’s our choice as to how we fill our waking hours.  Make some choices about how you would like to create your inner and outer life alignment going forward.  Join us for more discussion on this exciting topic on August 25th at The Essential Feminine Living Room.  We will be joined by Camille Maurine, an internationally renowned creator of the transformational Moving Theater process and author of Meditation Secrets for Women and Meditation 24/7.  Please register for this complimentary webinar at:   https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/987535361

My undergraduate degree is in mathematical economics. In my work as an educator and coach, I always believe in measuring positive change in human interaction. I love John and Jim’s idea of increasing the application of measurement in the human dimension. Here are some edited excerpts from a recent e-mail interview with them.

What is Human Sigma, and why do companies need it?

The Human Sigma approach combines a proven method for assessing the health of the employee-customer encounter with a disciplined process for improving it. It is based on five new rules to bring excellence to the way employees engage and interact with customers. Companies that follow these principles are outpacing their competition by 26% in gross margin and 85% in sales growth.

How much of your thinking on Human Sigma is owed to Six Sigma?

Well, our answer to that is some. There are some really good conceptual ideas that Six Sigma brought in terms of how to focus an organization on improving itself. But remember that Six Sigma was developed in a manufacturing context, and the role of people was relatively small, 10% or so. Our argument is essentially that business leaders have not focused on people, and our rationale is they haven’t done so because it’s hard. People are the hardest thing to fix. So Human Sigma was developed as a response to the lack of effectiveness of Six Sigma methodology for increasing productivity from people.

It seems it would be difficult to measure human interactions in a scientific way. Can you tell us how that is done?

The act of measuring itself is quite simple: Ask the people involved in an interaction how it made them feel. This simple activity is based on a large body of scientific research about what to ask them, how to ask them, and why asking them works. The right questions are crucial. That is the expertise we have accumulated over a long period of time researching and consulting on the issues and from reviewing data from the millions of employees and customers we have interviewed.

If it is clear from the research that employees hold the key to raising profits and value in a company, why is it that management has been traditionally inept at measuring and managing them?

We have only learned how to measure this accurately in the past 10 to 15 years, so part of the problem has been a simple lack of reliable metrics. This inability to measure engagement also prevented the accumulation of the data needed to build a solid understanding of how to engage employees.

Now that we have a considerable amount of data, it has also become clear that many of the assumptions companies have made about their employees have simply been wrong. For example, there has been a tendency on the part of many executives to value control over quality by scripting employee behaviors when they interact with customers. These executives view employees as mistakes just waiting to happen, as impediments to doing business, and as costs to be minimized. It is difficult to engage an employee who knows that he is viewed as a costly nuisance at best by the organization’s leadership.

Why are people so hard to deal with?

There are a couple of good reasons. If you buy a tractor or a furnace, you know what you’re going to pay for it, how it’ll depreciate, where it goes in the system, what the maintenance costs are likely to be, and roughly when it will quit. If it melts steel or pulls a load at a given rate today, it’ll do the same or very close to that tomorrow.

People, of course, meet none of those conditions. They’re unpredictable, both in ways that you might appreciate and ways that you don’t appreciate. So because people— employees and customers—are much more unpredictable than machines, they can’t be managed or directed in prescribed ways. That makes for a lot of work.

Once you have learned to measure this employee-customer encounter, how can a company work to improve it?

Sustainable improvement in the employee-customer encounter requires disciplined local action coupled with a company-wide commitment to changing how employees are recruited, positioned in roles, rewarded, recognized, and, most important, how they are managed.

In your book, you said the employee/customer encounter is the new factory floor. How did you mean that?

If you contrast manufacturing environments with service economy environments, you need a new definition of value creation for a service economy. The definition that we landed on was that value is created when an employee and a customer come together and they interact. And that’s different from manufacturing, where you create value by making a product that is ready to be sold. Creating value in a manufacturing context is fairly straightforward. If you have a lot of broken products, you have problems. If you have no broken products, no poor-quality products, then your business can flourish. In a service business, so much more is focused on the interaction that your employees have with your customers that you need a new set of tools to evaluate how well you’re doing in that space.

Does Human Sigma apply to noncustomer-facing employees?

Certainly. Think of the guy on the loading dock who may not ever talk to the customer, but if he drops your TV before he loads it on the truck, or if he takes an extra three days to get it to the store, all those things have implications for customers whether that employee ever talks to them.

Can our readers reach you?

Yes, you can contact us at authors_humansigma@gallup.com

Marshall Goldsmith (Marshall@MarshallGoldsmith.com) is corporate America’s preeminent executive coach and a founder of Marshall Goldsmith Partners. He is the author, most recently, of Mojo: How to Get It, How to Keep It, How to Get it Back if You Lost It, as well as What Got You Here Won’t Get You There – the Wall Street Journal #1 best seller, and Succession: Are You Ready – published in February 2008 as part of the Harvard Business ‘Memo to the CEO’ series. Marshall is also on the faculty of the executive education programs at Dartmouth College and the University of Michigan.

This article in a different form originally appeared in Talent Management Magazine.

This project—interviewing people over 60 about the secrets of life—sounds like great fun. I wish that I had done it! What gave you this idea?

When I travel to a new city, I read reviews from people who have been there before—of hotels, restaurants, and things to do. Since I have always been interested in why some people find lasting fulfillment, it seemed to me that same method could apply to life and career. If you want to know the secrets to a happy life, you should ask someone who has lived one.

So I asked several thousand people to identify the one person they knew who had “lived a long life and found lasting happiness.” After reviewing over 1,000 suggestions, we conducted in-depth interviews with an extremely diverse group of 250 people ages 60 to 106. We asked them to reflect on their lives and careers to tell us what they had learned: the things that brought meaning and fulfillment as well as the regrets and things they wished they had learned sooner.

Why did you choose to interview people over the age of 60?

I feel we live in a society that tends to dismiss experience in favor of youth. This is out of step with what human societies have done for thousands of years. When I was done with the interviews, I had tapped into 18,000 years of life experience! It doesn’t get any better than that!

Was there one secret that really stood out for you?

The importance of following your heart and being true to yourself. Many of these people told me about critical times in their lives when they had to follow their own dreams instead of the dreams of other people, what parents, friends, or society was telling them to do.

The first thing is the choice of our careers, which must begin with understanding ourselves and what we love to do. I have met so many people over my years in business who are in jobs or careers that are not a good fit for their deepest self. Maybe they followed what their parents wanted them to do or they just got stuck in a career and keep trying to make it fit who they are.

What about beyond one’s career?

I learned each one of us has a path we are meant to follow. Some of us were meant to spend our lives outdoors or working for ourselves or helping others or living a life of adventure. These people all had different dreams, but the common element is that they followed the voice inside themselves.

A man named Ron, for example, had a family that wanted him to become a medical doctor but he had an experience right before going to study medicine when he realized it was not his path. Others told him the path he was choosing was crazy, but he listened to his own voice and that decision made all the difference in how his life turned out. When I asked him how you know when you are following your heart he told me: “I think most of us know, but we have to have the discipline to listen and the courage to follow.” What I learned is that most people reading this know if they are following their heart right now but we have to have the courage to follow that voice.

What role did taking risks play in finding happiness?

One of the questions we asked people was about key moments when they reached a crossroads and when the paths they chose made a big difference in how their lives turned out. In almost every case, the important crossroads involved risk, stepping out of your comfort zone in some way. Looking back, people often identified those moments of “stepping out” as being the key to their ultimate happiness and success. When I asked people if they had risked enough almost every one of them said “nowhere near enough.” What I concluded is that many of us play it way too safe and it is often when we feel uncomfortable that we know we are making the right decision.

The other fascinating thing is that almost no one regretted a risk they took that didn’t work out—whether in work or their personal life. We can handle the risks we take that don’t work out but what we can’t deal with is the feeling that we didn’t try for what we really wanted. These people told me that the thing we should fear most at the end of life is that our last words would be: “I wish I had…” So the moral to the story is that if there is a dream or hope you have for your life, make sure you at least try for it.

When people looked back on their careers and lives, what gave them the most meaning and sense of purpose?

One of the questions we asked people was what brought them the greatest happiness and the greatest meaning and also what turned out not to matter very much. The most common sources of meaning were relationships and feeling they had made something better while they were here. When people looked back on their careers and lives, happiness came from feeling that they gave something to others, whether it was the people they mentored, the impact they had on some matter that was important to them, or the relationships people had developed during their lives.

It occurred to me that we think what will make us happy is what we get (money, status, power, praise) but what ends up giving us the greatest happiness is what we gave while we were here.

When I asked people what did not matter very much the three most common answers were: money beyond what you need to be comfortable, what other people think of you, and having status. Many of these people said they wished they had learned sooner that life is not a contest and your happiness is not about how you compare with others because there will always be someone who has more of whatever it is you think you want.

Many of these people are well beyond the traditional retirement age. Did you learn anything about staying “young at heart”?

These people ranged from 60 to 106, but they were not “out to pasture” and were still living vital lives both in work and life. Many of them told me how important it is not to pull the curtain down too soon on your life. One of my favorite people was a 93-year-old man named John who had three careers, including that of a painter, a career he began in his sixties. Like so many of the people I interviewed, these people assumed they could contribute until very late in life.

Thank you! How can our readers reach you?

My e-mail address is JohnIzzo@aol.com. My Web site is www.theizzogroup.com.

Marshall Goldsmith (Marshall@MarshallGoldsmith.com) is corporate America’s preeminent executive coach and a founder of Marshall Goldsmith Partners. He is the author, most recently, of Mojo: How to Get It, How to Keep It, How to Get it Back if You Lost It, as well as What Got You Here Won’t Get You There – the Wall Street Journal #1 best seller, and Succession: Are You Ready – published in February 2008 as part of the Harvard Business ‘Memo to the CEO’ series. Marshall is also on the faculty of the executive education programs at Dartmouth College and the University of Michigan.

This article in a different form originally appeared in Business Week.

Allies are different from friends in that your relationship with them always serves a specific purpose. You are trying to accomplish something and your ally has a motive in helping you; there’s a principle of mutual self-interest at work. The relationship is strategic; its purpose is to leverage power. You don’t need to have a lot in common with an ally — you don’t even necessarily need to enjoy one another’s company — but you do need to trust one another.

This post was excerpted from The Female Vision, published by Berrett-Kohler Publishers, June 2010.

Sally Helgesen is the author of five books, including the classic best-seller, The Female Advantage, celebrating its 20th year in print, and The Web of Inclusion, described by The Wall Street Journal as one of the best books on leadership ever published. She is an international speaker and groundbreaking thinker on leadership and organizations.

Julie Johnson, a graduate of the Harvard Business School, is considered to be one of America’s most experienced and well respected coaches. She has coached hundreds of senior executives in blue chip companies and has worked with many of the most successful women in the Fortune 500. Her work has been published in the Harvard Business Review as well as in the noted book, Coaching for Leadership.

Sometimes these words or phrases morph as people try to keep up with the latest trends in corporatespeak. A company may begin by striving for “customer satisfaction,” then advance to “total customer satisfaction,” and then finally reach the pinnacle of “customer delight.”

Enron Talked a Good Game

But this obsession with words belies one very large problem: There is almost no correlation between the words on the wall and the behavior of leaders. Every company says it wants “integrity,” “respect for people,” “quality,” “customer satisfaction,” “innovation,” and “return for shareholders.” Sometimes companies get creative and toss in something about “community” or “suppliers.” But since the big messages are all basically the same, the words quickly lose meaning for employees.

Enron is a great example. Before the energy conglomerate’s collapse in 2001, I had the opportunity to review Enron’s values during a meeting with its senior management team. I was shown a wonderful video on Enron’s ethics and integrity. I was greatly impressed by the high-minded beliefs the company espoused and the care that was put into the video. Examples of Enron’s good deeds in the community and the professed character of Enron’s executives were particularly noteworthy.

It was one of the most smoothly professional presentations on ethics and values that I have ever seen. Clearly, Enron spent a fortune “packaging” these wonderful messages. It didn’t really matter. Despite the lofty words, a number of Enron’s top executives either have been indicted or are in jail.

J&J Adheres to its Credo

The situation couldn’t be more different at Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), where I had the opportunity to work with that company’s top 2,000 leaders. The pharmaceutical company is famous for its “Credo,” which was written many years ago and reflects the sincere values of the leaders of the company at that time. The J&J Credo could be considered rather quaint by today’s standards. It contains several old-fashioned phrases, such as “must be good citizens—support good works and charities —and bear our fair share of taxes” and “maintain in good order the property that we are privileged to use.” Like most values statements, it conveyed a great message, but it had none of the slick PR packaging that Enron’s did.

Yet, even with its less-powerful language and seemingly dated presentation, the J&J Credo works—primarily because over many years, the company’s management has taken its values seriously. J&J executives have consistently challenged themselves and employees not just to understand the values, but to exhibit them in their day-to-day behavior. Whenever I conducted leadership training for J&J, one of its most senior executives would spend many hours with every class. The executive’s task was not to talk about compensation or other perks of J&J management; it was to discuss living the company’s values.

My partner, Howard Morgan, and I completed a study of more than 11,000 managers in eight major corporations. We looked at the impact of leadership development programs in changing executive behavior. As it turns out, each of the eight companies had different values and different words to describe ideal leadership behavior.

But these differences in words made absolutely no difference in determining the way leaders behaved. One company spent thousands of hours composing just the right words to express its view of how leaders should act—in vain. I am sure that the first draft would have been just as useful. In our study we found that leaders who took training and feedback seriously, made a personal commitment to improvement, and followed up with their co-workers became more effective. Leaders who just listened to the talk but took no action or made no commitment improved no more than those who hadn’t even heard the talk.

Actions Speak Loudest

Companies that do the best job of living up to their values and developing ethical employees, including managers, recognize that the real cause of success—or failure—is always the people, not the words. Rather than wasting time on reinventing words about desired leadership behavior, companies should ensure that leaders get (and act upon) feedback from employees—the people who actually observe this behavior. Rather than wasting time on changing performance appraisal forms, leaders need to learn from employees to ensure that they are providing the right coaching.

Ultimately, our actions will say much more to employees about our values and our leadership skills than our words ever can. If our actions are wise, no one will care if the words on the wall are not perfect. If our actions are foolish, the wonderful words posted on the wall will only make us look more ridiculous.

(This column has been modified from a piece that originally appeared in Strategy+Business, Summer, 2005.)

Marshall Goldsmith (Marshall@MarshallGoldsmith.com) is corporate America’s preeminent executive coach and a founder of Marshall Goldsmith Partners. He is the author, most recently, of Mojo: How to Get It, How to Keep It, How to Get it Back if You Lost It, as well as What Got You Here Won’t Get You There – the Wall Street Journal #1 best seller, and Succession: Are You Ready – published in February 2008 as part of the Harvard Business ‘Memo to the CEO’ series. Marshall is also on the faculty of the executive education programs at Dartmouth College and the University of Michigan.

This article in a different form originally appeared in Talent Management Magazine.