No project like this comes together on its own.
The ideas and stories in this book come from my upbringing, years of experience, and lots of reading, thinking, and long walks on dirt roads in my beloved North Salem, New York.
These thoughts were honed by years of working with many fine colleagues who have helped me implement my thoughts as we strived to make Guardian an even better company.
I would like to thank my co-writer, Greg Shaw, for being the one who could finally pull this book out of me.
Along the way there have been many fine contributors, such as Kate Childs-Graham, Annie Farber, John Meehan, and Evan Leatherwood. Special gratitude goes to Mark W. Davis for research, insights and editorial contribution that helped make this book possible.
The communications team at Guardian and my excellent office staff have contributed much, including Leah Johnson, who originally proposed that I write a book; Sarah Costanza, who was my chief of staff in the early years; Sherry Pudloski, the Guardian communications chief who stuck with me until we got it right; and Angelica Canales, Louise Lopez, Brendan Duffy, Doug Dubitsky, Claire McCombs, and Patrick Brennan for tracking myriad details and making sure I had the time to get this done.
I would like to thank Leah Spiro, my agent, who never lost confidence that this book would come to fruition and helped me put my thoughts to paper; Myles C. Thompson, my publisher at Columbia Business School Publishing, who kept our North Star shining; Brian Smith for his fine editing; and Amy Oshinsky for her fact checking and willingness to read every draft.
This book would not have happened without the talented leadership team members at Guardian who showed me that living by great values and achieving great business results are not in opposition but, in fact, are synergistic.
I would like to thank the Guardian Board of Directors for their support of this project, and in particular Nancy Cooper, who read and commented on many drafts.
I thank the many generous friends and colleagues whose shared insights helped form these pages:
Stan Litow and Patrick Michel regarding P-TECH; Isabella Cardenas-Navia and Debbie Hughes, among others at the Business Higher Education Forum; Dr. Wilfredo Nieves and the team at Capital Community College; Roger Ferguson, Jr., CEO of TIAA; James Manyika and Kevin Sneader of the McKinsey Global Institute; Mona Mourshed of McKinsey & Company; Nicole Anderson and Scott Smith of AT&T; Chris Payne, Piedmont Central College; Dr. Peter Lin; Dr. Nancy Hoffman; Greg Case, CEO of Aon; Peter Weinberg of Perella Weinberg for sharing his story; Brian Fitzgerald, CEO of the Business Higher Education Forum, and Karen Elzey, vice president, Business Higher Education Forum; Stu Thorn, retired CEO of Southwire; Mike Wiggins, cofounder, 12 for Life; Kate Bolduc, who worked so diligently with the late Tracy Rich and me to get the Community College Project off the ground at Guardian; and Dr. Regina Stanback Stroud, who spent so much time with us in the beginning.
Dr. Marshall Goldsmith and Dr. Srikumar Rao have been mentors and coaches.
I would also like to thank, of course, my parents and family, who taught me the values on which this book is based, and my wonderful and long-suffering husband, Steve Mulligan, who listened to never-ending stories about the book.