Episode 42: Daniel Edds – Culture of Courage

Dan Edds is the Managing Director of PRAXIS Solutions, he is a speaker and author of two books, his most recent title: The Genetics of Leadership: Cracking the Code of Sustainable Excellence.

Dan is a certified as a LEAN Practitioner, Balance Scorecard Design, Strategic Planning, Group Facilitator, and Project Manager. He is also a senior examiner for the Baldridge Quality Award.

After a career in management consulting, Dan began to ask this question, “how do high-performing organizations approach the practice of leadership?” He began to ask this because too many times, he would be called in to fix this group, or improve this system, or upgrade a process.

Dan never walked out of an engagement with the team feeling anything but elated for the time spent. However, too many times, he would check back after 3-6 months and nothing had changed. In fact, things had even gotten worse. When he began to look at why it always came down to leadership. Not necessarily individual leaders, but a way of doing leadership institutionally.

It was what Dan now recognizes as the leadership system. As he researched high-impact organizations in manufacturing, healthcare, education, the US Military and even groups as diverse as an NFL Superbowl champion, the NY Mafia, and the Salvation Army, what he found were organizations that consistently performed at an elite level but were highly intentional about developing courageous employees. This established what I can only describe as cultures of courage.

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