![\"Doug](\"https:\/\/conantleadership.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/team-doug-conant.webp\")
<\/a>Founder\u2019s Corner: What\u2019s Doug Enjoying?<\/span><\/h3>\nA snapshot of resources that our Founder & CEO,\u00a0Doug Conant<\/a>, has recently found insightful and\/or\u00a0inspiring.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\nARTICLE:The Star Model\u2122 by Jay R. Galbraith<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\nFrom Doug: Jay Galbraith sadly passed away in 2014 but he was a giant in his area of leadership at MIT and beyond. His star model<\/span><\/a>, which connects explicitly to the \u2018Align Resources\u2019 step in my own Higher Ground Leadership Success System<\/span><\/a>, strongly influenced my work as CEO of Campbell Soup Company, and I recommend exploring it in depth. You can find Galbraith\u2019s summary overview of the model excerpted below, then click through to read his full explanation<\/span><\/a>. <\/p>\nExcerpt<\/strong>: \u201cIn the Star Model\u2122, design policies fall into five categories. The first is strategy, which determines direction. The second is structure, which determines the location of decision-making power. The third is processes, which have to do with the flow of information; they are the means of responding to information technologies. The fourth is rewards and reward systems, which influence the motivation of people to perform and address organizational goals. The fifth category of the model is made up of policies relating to people (human resource policies), which influence and frequently define the employees\u2019 mind-sets and skills.\u201d Find the full resource here<\/a>.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\nWhat Dolly Parton Taught Us about Leaving a Legacy<\/h3>\n
\u201cToo many leaders think about legacy in terms of what they accomplish,\u201d writes Marcel Schwantes in this Inc. piece<\/a>, but Dolly Parton showed us, \u201clegacy is what continues to create value for other people after your direct involvement ends.\u201d In Parton\u2019s words, \u201cIf you do your job right . . . it will carry on.\u201d Looking at her incredible contributions across \u201cmusic, movies, business, and philanthropy,\u201d Schwantes identifies three lessons about leaving a legacy. <\/span><\/p>\n1. \u201cBuild something that gives other people opportunity.\u201d Parton built her theme park, Dollywood, \u201cto help families in the Appalachian community where she grew up.\u201d She said, \u201cI wanted to create a place where families can have fun and also to give folks good work.\u201d <\/p>\n
2. \u201cTurn something personal into something bigger than yourself.\u201d Dolly Parton\u2019s father could not read or write so she devoted her life to helping spread literacy far and wide. She started the Imagination Library in 1995 for children in her home county in Tennessee and grew it into, \u201ca global literacy program,\u201d which has since \u201csurpassed 300 million books gifted worldwide in 2025 and distributed more than 40 million books that year alone.\u201d<\/p>\n
3. \u201cTurn compassion into action.\u201d Wildfires ravaged Parton\u2019s home county in 2016. Her foundation sprang into action, creating the \u201cMy People Fund, which provided 1k per month for six months to families who lost their homes . . . the fund ultimately distributed $8.9 million directly to wildfire victims.\u201d Leaders do not need the same resources as Parton to follow in her footsteps; you only need to remember that, \u201ccompassion, in its true form, becomes meaningful when leaders convert it into action.\u201d <\/p>\n
Get the full story here<\/a>.<\/p>\nHow to Build a Culture that Executes<\/h3>\n
A common problem in many companies is that a sound, well-considered strategy loses momentum and doesn\u2019t yield results despite a talented team and smart goals. \u201cWhen this happens, we often hear the same explanation: \u2018It\u2019s a culture problem\u2019,\u201d writes Sandra Mohr in this Chief Learning Officer piece<\/span><\/a>. Mohr says company culture provides an incomplete explanation for stalled execution: \u201cCulture doesn\u2019t execute strategy. People do.\u201d She continues, \u201cEvery day, people make hundreds of decisions that determine if their organization\u2019s strategy becomes reality.\u201d The question becomes, \u201cnot simply whether an organization has a strong culture,\u201d but, \u201cwhether leaders have created organizational conditions that enable people to consistently make decisions that advance the mission.\u201d Mohr says this distinction is crucial, and shows, \u201cwhy organizations with exceptionally talented people still struggle . . . people perform within environments that either support or constrain effective decision-making. When priorities are unclear, ownership is inconsistent, expertise remains isolated, or learning is treated as an occasional event rather than an ongoing capability,\u201d even the best strategies falter. This holds true across sectors. <\/span><\/p>\nThe good news is that successful enterprises can point us to a better way: \u201cOrganizations that consistently execute well rarely rely on extraordinary individuals alone. They intentionally create environments where people understand what matters, take ownership for outcomes, contribute their expertise, and continuously improve how work gets done. Execution becomes less dependent on heroic leadership and more dependent on organizational capability.\u201d Leaders should stop, \u201cviewing culture as an outcome of organizational success,\u201d and begin instead, \u201cto see it as an operational capability\u2014one that can be intentionally designed, strengthened and continuously refined.\u201d Get the full story here<\/a>. <\/p>\n**For more on this, explore our Higher Ground Leadership Success System<\/a>, a holistic approach to organizational excellence.<\/p>\nThe Power of \u2018I Don\u2019t Know\u2019<\/h3>\n
\u201cWe often reward a confident take, the person with the answer, the one who never flinches,\u201d writes Danny Kenny in this Big Think post<\/a>, but he says there is also immense power in admitting the limits of your knowledge: \u201cEvery time someone stands up, on a real stage or a metaphorical one, and owns a miss, something magical happens. They gain trust. They gain respect. They gain far more than they lose.\u201d Kenny uses the example of the \u201csoldier\u201d versus \u201cscout\u201d mindset: \u201cA soldier defends the territory and attacks whatever threatens it. Meanwhile, a scout heads out, sees what\u2019s actually there, and draws an honest map. The soldier needs to be right. The scout needs to know what\u2019s true.\u201d Leaders need to be scouts, not soldiers. This requires \u201cintellectual humility,\u201d which is the ability to admit when you don\u2019t know the answer or need more information. People higher in intellectual humility, \u201clearn more, recover faster from setbacks, and tend to be trusted more by the people around them.\u201d Leaders can practice the skill by owning up to mistakes when they get it wrong and by modeling the behavior of seeking more information before posturing as an expert. When leaders are able to say, \u201cI don\u2019t know,\u201d intellectual humility spreads throughout the organization. Get the full story here<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\nUnearthing Your Inner Genius<\/h3>\n
\u201cThe brain you were born with contains the same learning engine as every genius who ever lived,\u201d writes Josh Turknett, a neurologist and founder of the Institute for Performance Neurology, in this excerpt from his new book<\/a>, The Genius and The Impostor: The Neuroscience of Unlocking Human Potential. Turknett shares five science-backed tips for unleashing your inner genius, and here are the first two. <\/span><\/p>\n1. You are already a genius, but you\u2019re blind to it. \u201cAs you read these words, your brain is pulling off an insanely complex task. It\u2019s taking a continuous stream of symbols and slicing them into identifiable chunks called words. . . Why are we so prone to underestimating ourselves? Because the brain builds expertise by building problem-solving circuits. When those circuits are built, they stop requiring conscious effort. The better we become at something, the less effort we feel, and we mistakenly equate that effortlessness with simplicity. But effortlessness is not a sign of simplicity. It\u2019s a reflection of mastery.\u201d<\/p>\n
2. Extraordinary minds are built from ordinary brains. The quintessential genius, Einstein, famously said, \u201cI have no special talents. I am only passionately curious.\u201d Einstein, \u201cbelieved that genius didn\u2019t arise from special hardware, but from how he\u2019d used the hardware we all possess. Neuroscience backs him up. When you get down to the level of neurons and networks, learning the piano, the two-step, or theoretical physics is enabled by the same exact processes. All of our extraordinary cognitive abilities are built through the same learning engine that exists inside every brain. That learning engine is your genius, and it never leaves you.\u201d Get the full story here<\/a>.<\/p>\nMore from ConantLeadership<\/em><\/h3>\n50 Years of Leadership \u2192<\/a>One System for Success<\/a><\/span><\/h3>\nIntroducing the Higher Ground Leadership Success System\u2122<\/span><\/em><\/p>\nConantLeadership Founder, Doug Conant, has turned everything he learned running Fortune 500 companies, across decades,\u00a0into one leadership system<\/a>, organized around two pillars of DEPTH and REACH. The system is now yours to explore\u00a0in a new article in\u00a0<\/a>Leader to Leader<\/a>\u00a0and in\u00a0our free four-week email mini-course<\/a>. Read an excerpt from the article below or\u00a0click through to get the full story<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\nExcerpt:\u00a0\u201cIn 1976, on my first day of work at General Mills, I was completely out of my depth. Oblivious to the culture of the corporate world, I roamed the halls in my tan suit, brushing my overgrown curly hair out of my eyes. I didn\u2019t look the part of a product marketing manager, and I didn\u2019t feel the part either. I\u2019d moved to Minneapolis to take the job, uprooting my whole life, and I didn\u2019t know a soul. Untethered, I was a fish out of water. As I tried to find my way through the labyrinth of office doors, a friendly older man stopped me and asked if I was lost. \u201cYes,\u201d I answered, and I meant it in every sense of the word. Thankfully, he pointed me in the right direction, and that small act of kindness changed the trajectory of my entire career.\u201d Get the full story\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\nLeadership Lessons from a Near-Fatal Car Accident<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/h3>\nThe Latest from our Golden Anniversary Collection<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nAn excerpt:<\/span><\/span><\/strong>Throughout my stay in the hospital, there was an around-the-clock army of nurses, doctors, and support staff caring for me. They would check on me, ask about my pain, diligently tend to my wellness, listen to my responses, and course-correct my treatment.
<\/span>
What\u2019s fascinating is that I could always tell the most adept and experienced personnel apart from the others because of one important differentiator: Every time the most engaged caretakers would visit my room, they would always approach me with an unmistakable, sleeves rolled-up spirit of, \u201cHow can I help?\u201d
<\/span>
The best helpers were fully present in their interactions with me\u2014not nervous, hesitant, or withholding. They were self-assured, compassionate, and generous with their time, attention, and knowledge. In a nutshell, I came to understand that\u00a0the best professionals are often the\u00a0kindest<\/em>\u00a0professionals<\/a>. Get the full story\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\nWatch: Doug Conant on the <\/span>\u2018Grit in the Boardroom\u2019<\/span><\/a><\/h3>\nIn this conversation<\/a>, host Erika Eliasson-Norris, CEO of Beyond Governance, speaks with Doug Conant about how to rebuild trust and reinvigorate a struggling corporate culture.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\nListen: Doug Conant on the \u2018One of One\u2019 Podcast<\/span><\/a><\/h3>\n
ARTICLE:The Star Model\u2122 by Jay R. Galbraith<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n From Doug: Jay Galbraith sadly passed away in 2014 but he was a giant in his area of leadership at MIT and beyond. His star model<\/span><\/a>, which connects explicitly to the \u2018Align Resources\u2019 step in my own Higher Ground Leadership Success System<\/span><\/a>, strongly influenced my work as CEO of Campbell Soup Company, and I recommend exploring it in depth. You can find Galbraith\u2019s summary overview of the model excerpted below, then click through to read his full explanation<\/span><\/a>. <\/p>\n Excerpt<\/strong>: \u201cIn the Star Model\u2122, design policies fall into five categories. The first is strategy, which determines direction. The second is structure, which determines the location of decision-making power. The third is processes, which have to do with the flow of information; they are the means of responding to information technologies. The fourth is rewards and reward systems, which influence the motivation of people to perform and address organizational goals. The fifth category of the model is made up of policies relating to people (human resource policies), which influence and frequently define the employees\u2019 mind-sets and skills.\u201d Find the full resource here<\/a>.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cToo many leaders think about legacy in terms of what they accomplish,\u201d writes Marcel Schwantes in this Inc. piece<\/a>, but Dolly Parton showed us, \u201clegacy is what continues to create value for other people after your direct involvement ends.\u201d In Parton\u2019s words, \u201cIf you do your job right . . . it will carry on.\u201d Looking at her incredible contributions across \u201cmusic, movies, business, and philanthropy,\u201d Schwantes identifies three lessons about leaving a legacy. <\/span><\/p>\n 1. \u201cBuild something that gives other people opportunity.\u201d Parton built her theme park, Dollywood, \u201cto help families in the Appalachian community where she grew up.\u201d She said, \u201cI wanted to create a place where families can have fun and also to give folks good work.\u201d <\/p>\n 2. \u201cTurn something personal into something bigger than yourself.\u201d Dolly Parton\u2019s father could not read or write so she devoted her life to helping spread literacy far and wide. She started the Imagination Library in 1995 for children in her home county in Tennessee and grew it into, \u201ca global literacy program,\u201d which has since \u201csurpassed 300 million books gifted worldwide in 2025 and distributed more than 40 million books that year alone.\u201d<\/p>\n 3. \u201cTurn compassion into action.\u201d Wildfires ravaged Parton\u2019s home county in 2016. Her foundation sprang into action, creating the \u201cMy People Fund, which provided 1k per month for six months to families who lost their homes . . . the fund ultimately distributed $8.9 million directly to wildfire victims.\u201d Leaders do not need the same resources as Parton to follow in her footsteps; you only need to remember that, \u201ccompassion, in its true form, becomes meaningful when leaders convert it into action.\u201d <\/p>\n Get the full story here<\/a>.<\/p>\n A common problem in many companies is that a sound, well-considered strategy loses momentum and doesn\u2019t yield results despite a talented team and smart goals. \u201cWhen this happens, we often hear the same explanation: \u2018It\u2019s a culture problem\u2019,\u201d writes Sandra Mohr in this Chief Learning Officer piece<\/span><\/a>. Mohr says company culture provides an incomplete explanation for stalled execution: \u201cCulture doesn\u2019t execute strategy. People do.\u201d She continues, \u201cEvery day, people make hundreds of decisions that determine if their organization\u2019s strategy becomes reality.\u201d The question becomes, \u201cnot simply whether an organization has a strong culture,\u201d but, \u201cwhether leaders have created organizational conditions that enable people to consistently make decisions that advance the mission.\u201d Mohr says this distinction is crucial, and shows, \u201cwhy organizations with exceptionally talented people still struggle . . . people perform within environments that either support or constrain effective decision-making. When priorities are unclear, ownership is inconsistent, expertise remains isolated, or learning is treated as an occasional event rather than an ongoing capability,\u201d even the best strategies falter. This holds true across sectors. <\/span><\/p>\n The good news is that successful enterprises can point us to a better way: \u201cOrganizations that consistently execute well rarely rely on extraordinary individuals alone. They intentionally create environments where people understand what matters, take ownership for outcomes, contribute their expertise, and continuously improve how work gets done. Execution becomes less dependent on heroic leadership and more dependent on organizational capability.\u201d Leaders should stop, \u201cviewing culture as an outcome of organizational success,\u201d and begin instead, \u201cto see it as an operational capability\u2014one that can be intentionally designed, strengthened and continuously refined.\u201d Get the full story here<\/a>. <\/p>\n **For more on this, explore our Higher Ground Leadership Success System<\/a>, a holistic approach to organizational excellence.<\/p>\n \u201cWe often reward a confident take, the person with the answer, the one who never flinches,\u201d writes Danny Kenny in this Big Think post<\/a>, but he says there is also immense power in admitting the limits of your knowledge: \u201cEvery time someone stands up, on a real stage or a metaphorical one, and owns a miss, something magical happens. They gain trust. They gain respect. They gain far more than they lose.\u201d Kenny uses the example of the \u201csoldier\u201d versus \u201cscout\u201d mindset: \u201cA soldier defends the territory and attacks whatever threatens it. Meanwhile, a scout heads out, sees what\u2019s actually there, and draws an honest map. The soldier needs to be right. The scout needs to know what\u2019s true.\u201d Leaders need to be scouts, not soldiers. This requires \u201cintellectual humility,\u201d which is the ability to admit when you don\u2019t know the answer or need more information. People higher in intellectual humility, \u201clearn more, recover faster from setbacks, and tend to be trusted more by the people around them.\u201d Leaders can practice the skill by owning up to mistakes when they get it wrong and by modeling the behavior of seeking more information before posturing as an expert. When leaders are able to say, \u201cI don\u2019t know,\u201d intellectual humility spreads throughout the organization. Get the full story here<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe brain you were born with contains the same learning engine as every genius who ever lived,\u201d writes Josh Turknett, a neurologist and founder of the Institute for Performance Neurology, in this excerpt from his new book<\/a>, The Genius and The Impostor: The Neuroscience of Unlocking Human Potential. Turknett shares five science-backed tips for unleashing your inner genius, and here are the first two. <\/span><\/p>\n 1. You are already a genius, but you\u2019re blind to it. \u201cAs you read these words, your brain is pulling off an insanely complex task. It\u2019s taking a continuous stream of symbols and slicing them into identifiable chunks called words. . . Why are we so prone to underestimating ourselves? Because the brain builds expertise by building problem-solving circuits. When those circuits are built, they stop requiring conscious effort. The better we become at something, the less effort we feel, and we mistakenly equate that effortlessness with simplicity. But effortlessness is not a sign of simplicity. It\u2019s a reflection of mastery.\u201d<\/p>\n 2. Extraordinary minds are built from ordinary brains. The quintessential genius, Einstein, famously said, \u201cI have no special talents. I am only passionately curious.\u201d Einstein, \u201cbelieved that genius didn\u2019t arise from special hardware, but from how he\u2019d used the hardware we all possess. Neuroscience backs him up. When you get down to the level of neurons and networks, learning the piano, the two-step, or theoretical physics is enabled by the same exact processes. All of our extraordinary cognitive abilities are built through the same learning engine that exists inside every brain. That learning engine is your genius, and it never leaves you.\u201d Get the full story here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Introducing the Higher Ground Leadership Success System\u2122<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n ConantLeadership Founder, Doug Conant, has turned everything he learned running Fortune 500 companies, across decades,\u00a0into one leadership system<\/a>, organized around two pillars of DEPTH and REACH. The system is now yours to explore\u00a0in a new article in\u00a0<\/a>Leader to Leader<\/a>\u00a0and in\u00a0our free four-week email mini-course<\/a>. Read an excerpt from the article below or\u00a0click through to get the full story<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n Excerpt:\u00a0\u201cIn 1976, on my first day of work at General Mills, I was completely out of my depth. Oblivious to the culture of the corporate world, I roamed the halls in my tan suit, brushing my overgrown curly hair out of my eyes. I didn\u2019t look the part of a product marketing manager, and I didn\u2019t feel the part either. I\u2019d moved to Minneapolis to take the job, uprooting my whole life, and I didn\u2019t know a soul. Untethered, I was a fish out of water. As I tried to find my way through the labyrinth of office doors, a friendly older man stopped me and asked if I was lost. \u201cYes,\u201d I answered, and I meant it in every sense of the word. Thankfully, he pointed me in the right direction, and that small act of kindness changed the trajectory of my entire career.\u201d Get the full story\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n The Latest from our Golden Anniversary Collection<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n An excerpt:<\/span><\/span><\/strong>Throughout my stay in the hospital, there was an around-the-clock army of nurses, doctors, and support staff caring for me. They would check on me, ask about my pain, diligently tend to my wellness, listen to my responses, and course-correct my treatment. In this conversation<\/a>, host Erika Eliasson-Norris, CEO of Beyond Governance, speaks with Doug Conant about how to rebuild trust and reinvigorate a struggling corporate culture.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\nWhat Dolly Parton Taught Us about Leaving a Legacy<\/h3>\n
How to Build a Culture that Executes<\/h3>\n
The Power of \u2018I Don\u2019t Know\u2019<\/h3>\n
Unearthing Your Inner Genius<\/h3>\n
More from ConantLeadership<\/em><\/h3>\n
50 Years of Leadership \u2192<\/a>One System for Success<\/a><\/span><\/h3>\n
Leadership Lessons from a Near-Fatal Car Accident<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n
<\/span>
What\u2019s fascinating is that I could always tell the most adept and experienced personnel apart from the others because of one important differentiator: Every time the most engaged caretakers would visit my room, they would always approach me with an unmistakable, sleeves rolled-up spirit of, \u201cHow can I help?\u201d
<\/span>
The best helpers were fully present in their interactions with me\u2014not nervous, hesitant, or withholding. They were self-assured, compassionate, and generous with their time, attention, and knowledge. In a nutshell, I came to understand that\u00a0the best professionals are often the\u00a0kindest<\/em>\u00a0professionals<\/a>. Get the full story\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\nWatch: Doug Conant on the <\/span>\u2018Grit in the Boardroom\u2019<\/span><\/a><\/h3>\n
Listen: Doug Conant on the \u2018One of One\u2019 Podcast<\/span><\/a><\/h3>\n