CHAPTER FIVE
DO WE HAVE THE RIGHT CORE VALUES?
It is easy to be skeptical about values today. At best, they express ideals and principles that leaders and organizations really care about. But often they are just vague phrases that float in the ether, far above messy problems, and sometimes values even serve as camouflage for corruption. Enron, for example, had a lofty mission statement and a long list of explicit organizational values. So perhaps the skeptics are right.
On the other hand, great leaders have always cared deeply about values. They believed in the power of values to inspire effort and sacrifice and to shape hopes, dreams, and behavior, even years or decades after a leader was gone. Great leaders also understood that values help ...
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