Leadership Reminder for 2025

Remembering Jimmy Carter

If you’ve opened this and are choosing to read it, thank you. It’s New Year’s Eve, and over the holidays, checking email and reading someone else’s writing is often far down the list of what most people want to do.

In fact, thank you for reading throughout the year. Your interest and engagement mean a lot to me.

Today I simply point you toward the wisdom and character of former President Jimmy Carter, who died two days ago at 100 years old. He was a national treasure and a humble example of a life well lived. Let his words be a constant guide as we move forward in leadership roles— in the realms of career, family, government, church, and community — as we nurture leaders, and as we choose leaders.

“High moral and ethical standards are essential, and they don’t change from one job to another, or from one level of authority to another. Honesty, truthfulness, integrity, unselfishness – these are always there. And whenever a leader violates these basic principles, through arrogance or through ignorance, there is a derogation of duty.” — Jimmy Carter, in Harvard Business Review, March 1988