"Core values provide a context for continuous growth and development that takes us toward our dreams. Our core values project forward to become our vision. How we see the world is what we project from ourselves."

- from Jim Clemmer's article, "Being All That We Can See"

"Effective cultural change has at its core a simple, basic definition of the beliefs that are to shape the organization's character. Then comes the hardest leadership test of all; consistently showing rather then just telling what the organization stands for."

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

"Anything more than three to four core values are no values. As with so many issues of strategy and culture, managers need to set priorities about what's really important to the organization. Core values are those few single words or short statements that act as central "hooks" to hang the key behavioral guidelines that shape everyone's actions."

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

"A key test of whether core values are alive and real in an organization is to ask team members at random to recite those values. If they can't do it without referring to a piece of paper, there are either too many values (ideally they should be no more than three or four words or short phrases – five if you really stretch it) or they aren't being used in daily operations."

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

"Make "values fit" a key criterion in hiring. Most effective leaders know that you can improve a person's skills and experience with training and development, but it's much harder to train for attitude and almost impossible to change a person's core values."

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

"Vision is the critical focal point and beginning of high performance. But a vision alone won't make it happen. Unless the hard work of striving, building, and improving follows, even the most vibrant vision will remain only a dream."

- from Jim Clemmer's article, "Developing a Team or Organization Vision"

"Of all the principles, there is one that is central, one from which the others emanate, much as spokes radiate from the hub of a wheel. That core principle, Focus and Context, consists of three interrelated parts, which are defined by the answers to three key questions:

1. Where are we going (the vision or picture of our preferred future or outcome)?
2. What do we believe in (our guiding values or principles)?
3. Why do we exist (our reason for being, mission, or purpose)?"

- from Jim Clemmer's article, "Focus and Context: The Hub of Leadership"

"Honesty and integrity are key ingredients in developing trust. Trust is a key element in establishing credibility. Our credibility is at the center of our ability to influence others and provide strong leadership."

- from Jim Clemmer's article, "Honesty and Integrity Build a Foundation of Trust"

"Thinking about death can produce a passion for life. Early in my career Charlie Jones, a personal effectiveness and leadership development author and speaker introduced me to the idea of clarifying my life's purpose through contemplating my death. In his book, Life is Tremendous he wrote, "You're not ready to live your life until you know what you want written on your tombstone". That's a powerful thought. It forces us to boil away all our goals, plans, and activities to get at the core reason we exist."

- from Jim Clemmer's article, "How I Express My Personal Purpose"

"Visioning is where my personal effectiveness quest began. In 1974, when I was just starting my straight commission Culligan sales job, someone recommended I read Claude Bristol's book TNT: The Power Within You. The book sparked such an intensity of energy, excitement, and profound new awareness that I couldn't get a good night's sleep for almost a week. Even now, as I thumb through the book and recall that turning point in my life, a shiver runs up my spine."

- from Jim Clemmer's article, "How Visioning Changed My Life"

"Effective leaders are "unreasonable" optimists. Optimists refuse to live in "the real world." They live in a world of hope and possibilities. They see an opportunity in every calamity. The pessimist sees a calamity in every opportunity. Optimists excite and arouse others to action by helping them see, believe in, and reach for what could be."

- from Jim Clemmer's article, "Leaders are Learned Optimists"

"People want meaningful work in an organization with an exciting purpose. What they get is a job. People hear management talk about empowerment, teamwork, and service. What they get are paternalistic pats on the head, motivation programs, and blame for not using the systems, processes, and technology dropped on them and their customers."

- from Jim Clemmer's article, "Leaders Care for Organization Culture and Context"

"Successful entrepreneurs are good examples of strong leaders who use vision to build new paradigms. Entrepreneurs know that there can only be experts on what was or is. There are no experts on what will be."

- from Jim Clemmer's article, "Leaders Help People See Beyond What Is to What Could Be"

"Just as the terms "management" and "leadership" are often used interchangeably, goals and visions are often perceived to be the same thing. They are not. While both are critical to success (and are therefore highly interconnected), the management act of goal-setting is quite different from the leadership act of visioning."

- from Jim Clemmer's article, "Leaders Help People See Beyond What Is to What Could Be"

"Whether in our personal or business lives, it's easy to become overly focused on tasks and results. Within many organizations, progress and success are gauged by tangible measures like volume, activity levels, revenues, or profits. Intangibles such as energy and focus are recognized as important."

- from Jim Clemmer's article, "Leaders Shape Focus and Context"

"Strong leaders shape their own Focus and Context (and that of their families, friends, and colleagues) through Vision, Values, and Purpose. They help themselves and others overcome problems and get out of "reality ruts" by focusing on the possibilities. Strong leaders connect and energize people. They work tirelessly to ensure that no ones loses sight of what it's all about."

- from Jim Clemmer's article, "Leaders Shape Focus and Context"

"Whether in our personal or business lives, it's easy to become overly focused on tasks and results. Within many organizations, progress and success are gauged by tangible measures like volume, activity levels, revenues, or profits. Intangibles such as energy and focus are recognized as important, yet they often fade into the background."

- from Jim Clemmer's article, "Leaders Shape Focus and Context"

"Leaders actively pay attention to the context and culture of their families, groups, or organizations. They ensure that Vision, Values, and Purpose are alive and at the center of focus."

- from Jim Clemmer's article, "Leaders Shape Focus and Context"

"Like a person who walks briskly into a room and then forgets why, groups and organizations can lose sight of their purpose. So they run faster to make up for their lack of focus."

- from Jim Clemmer's article, "Leaders Shape Focus and Context"

"Developing a purpose that's aimed at serving others adds a richer sense of meaning to our lives. It taps into the deep craving we all have to make a difference. We need to feel that the world was in some way a little bit better off for the brief time we passed through it."

- from Jim Clemmer's article, "Leadership on Purpose"

"Many people who've studied or thought deeply about what makes strong leaders have come to the same conclusion as Benjamin Disraeli when he wrote, "I have brought myself, by long meditation, to the conviction that a human being with a settled purpose must accomplish it, and that nothing can resist a will which will stake even existence upon its fulfillment."

- from Jim Clemmer's article, "Living on Purpose"

"Visions are the most compelling when a leader who's an effective communicator delivers them in person. Powerful personal communication skills and energizing leadership are inseparable. We need to learn how to use "impassioned logic" by adding metaphors, stories, models, or examples to help everyone "see the big picture" and rouse their emotions to make it happen."

- from Jim Clemmer's article, "Organizational Visioning Pathways and Pitfalls"

"If leaders expect mature and responsible, adult behavior, that's what they generally get. If managers expect "their people" to behave like immature, irresponsible kids, that's what they generally get. Whether we think they're eagles or turkeys, they'll prove us right."

- from Jim Clemmer's article, "People Live Up or Down to a Leader's Expectations"

"Only share your vision with people who truly want to see you succeed and will encourage or help you get there. However, share, broadcast, brag on, take bets toward, or otherwise publicly declare your improvement goals. That paints you into a corner. Your pride will push you to keep going toward that goal when you've got to pull yourself out of bed early, pass on the dessert, or practice those new skills."

- from Jim Clemmer's article, "Personal Visioning Pathways and Pitfalls"

"We can see only what is. That's getting stuck in reality ruts. They can too easily become a grave with the ends knocked out. We can get buried by our problems. Or we can see beyond what is to what could be. We can rise above our reality ruts to see the possibilities. The choice is ours."

- from Jim Clemmer's article, "Seeing Only What Is or What Could Be"

"Visions are values projected into the future. Both flow from purpose. Vision, values, and purpose are interconnected and inseparable. Sometimes they operate like a combination lock, each twist and turn of the dial doesn't appear to do much, but when they are all lined up, the future we dare to dream of clicks open."

- from Jim Clemmer's article, "Seeing the World as We Are"

"My files continue to fill with studies that show the benefits of values-based leadership. One Boston College study, for example, examined the eight-year performance of 30 "socially conscious" companies. Those companies performed 106% better than their peer group."

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

"The key problems of the Motivation Myth is clearly illustrated by a Farcus cartoon; a team leader is at the head of a conference table addressing her team with these words, "We need to improve morale, any of you boneheads have a good idea." The main cause of the problem seems pretty obvious. She just needs to look in the mirror."

- from Jim Clemmer's article, "The Motivation Myth"

"If the reason for a company's existence is just profit, they won't be very profitable. Eventually the company probably won't even exist. The dollar sign isn't a cause. It doesn't stir the soul. Operating margins and returns on investment don't excite and inspire. As an ultimate objective on its own, the pursuit of profits is hollow and unsatisfying. Such naked greed is one-dimensional. It comes from, and leads to, the naked selfishness of 'what's in it for me?'"

- from Jim Clemmer's article, "The Purpose-Profit Paradox"

"Peanuts creator Charles Schultz once observed: "There's a big difference between a bumper sticker and a philosophy." Many managers have created "bumper sticker values" that they negate through contradictory actions."

- from Jim Clemmer's article, "Two Keys to Adding Values"

"Strong leaders know and care about the people on their teams. They have frequent discussions about each person's individual goals and performance objectives. These coaching conversations help the leader see the extent to which each person understands and buys into the vision."

- from Jim Clemmer's article, "Vision at Work"

"Great teams and organizations rally around a shared vision. Team members feel connected and proud to be involved."

- from Jim Clemmer's article, "Vision at Work"

"Strong leaders inspire performance by reaching people's imaginations with vivid images. They use physical models, stories, metaphors, examples of past successes, descriptive language – alone or in combination, with plenty of repetition – to help people form a compelling mental picture of where the team or organization is headed."

- from Jim Clemmer's article, "Vision at Work"

"If we want to change our personal output, we need to change the input. An important element in making personal effectiveness efforts work is changing our personal pictures and self talk."

- from Jim Clemmer's article, "What We Get is What We See"

"Most organizations, social movements, world records, new products or services, and remarkable achievements began as a figment of someone's imagination. Somebody had a thought that turned into a dream. That dream grew even as the dreamer was being ridiculed and told to "get real."

- from Jim Clemmer's article, "Yield of Dreams"

"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 than they are. These well-intentioned managers are trying to improve their teams or organizations without improving themselves. Many seem to be living along the lines of Mark Twain's observation, "Nothing so needs reforming as other people's habits."