6 Pathways

to Leadership & Organizational Success

Take the 6 Pathways Challenge

Select 6 items from the list of 50 below and then click the Submit button at the bottom to compare your choices with those of the executives that were surveyed.

1. Intellect, skill and wisdom are not exclusive to those with a formal education.

2. Prejudice permits exceptions.

3. Wounding the rich is more consequential than ravaging the poor.

4. Compassion elevates forgiveness to its highest level.

5. Luck trumps everything.

6. Green is discrimination’s color of choice.

7. Everyone’s a salesperson—some better than others.

8. Verify first, trust later.

9. Let who and what you know best be the compass for your charity.

10. In your own way, be insatiably curious.

11. Enough is rarely enough.

12. Check the prize before running the race.

13. The classroom is democracy’s nursery.

14. There is honor in duty and service if conscience is uncompromised.

15. Time boils away fabrication and exaggeration to leave a residue called truth.

16. Marriage is a kind of interpersonal battery, powered up at the start; likely to weaken or die if not periodically recharged.

17. To get to a good place, begin the journey headed in the right direction.

18. A strong delivery with light content is usually more effective than a tepid delivery with strong content.

19. Those who have no regard for respect and dignity should not be respected or dignified.

20. Caution—manufactured public images can mask arrogance and disrespect.

21. Many errors are starting blocks for improved performance

22. Hubris may bring attention, but humility will win respect.

23. Use positive thinking as a lens to look for an opportunity almost always hidden in a problem.

24. Bad news is best delivered directly and honestly, but with empathy.

25. Talk and promises are easy; deliverables are not.

26. Value those the most who are the least indifferent.

27. When you only want to see what you only want to see—you will see what you want to see.

28. Reality is perfection’s flaw.

29. Build your brand when you can.

30. Be wary of titles that sap ambition and foster grandiose delusions.

31. Some problems cannot be resolved in full; all problems can be mitigated in part.

32. A partner should bring as much or more to you as you bring to a partner.

33. Pursue purpose; deflect distraction.

34. Visions that are possible are not always probable.

35. If the train is moving in the wrong direction, get off.

36. The two most consequential words in any language: yes and no.

37. Creating can be hard; sustaining can be harder.

38. Caution is a speedbump to progress and a magnifying glass to outcomes.

39. Principles are more meaningful and actionable when translated into responsibilities.

40. A statement of purpose or behavior should not be static.

41. For rousing the masses, use a homily; for achieving transformational change, get personal.

42. What you say can be as important as what you do.

43. Faith fosters hope; confrontation fosters change.

44. Accepted authoritarianism puts truth in jeopardy.

45. Gray power is America’s most unexploited energy source.

46. The past can be a guidepost for the future or a headwind to progress.

47. Deception’s contorted path is littered with too much risk to warrant the journey.

48. Outcomes are inches on impact’s yardstick.

49. A leader’s character casts a wide shadow.

50. Civility is an elixir for resolving political, social and organizational differences.