Amie J. Devero
In the course of six years of research and more than fifteen years of field work, Amie Devero has distinguished many of the key characteristics common to the thousands of organizations that maintain better than average results and ethical performance over the long term. What stood out was the degree to which they all use deep-seated core values for their decision-making and management.
If you are a leader or a manager, an investor or a student, the tools and practices that are presented here will become indispensible. Powered by Principle not only explains why these types of organizations do so well, but provides a detailed, step by step guide for how to create this kind of dynamic and aligned organization.
From the rationale to the exact type of process one should use to measure the expression of core values, every step is outlined here. Along the way, you will also gain knowledge of ways to develop your own thinking and mindset for this profound journey to become Principle-Powered. Regardless of your title, role or tenure, you will find a way to make your organization far better, and to make yourself better along the way.
Amie Devero has nearly twenty years of experience in helping organizations and people produce extraordinary results.
She was educated at Bennington College, Harvard University and The London School of Economics, and holds two masters degrees.
After retiring from a successful career as a professional dancer, Amie founded Execufit Ltd, a wellness consulting company based in London, England. Shortly after expanding the business into the U.S., she sold it to her employees and began working as a turnaround specialist with a small venture capital firm until 1993 when she joined the National In-Line Hockey Association as Director of Operations. In the early 1990’s Amie moved to Tampa, Florida. She joined Framework Consulting in 1997 and was a partner for seven years.
Amie is now the founder and president of The Devero Group, a consulting consortium that helps organizations produce outstanding results. A centerpiece of her work is the Powered by Principle approach. She is a leading expert in strategic thought, planning and execution and has consulted to such organizations as SimplexGrinnell, The Boeing Company, The Jamaica Bobsleigh Team, Guardian Life of the Caribbean, The Tampa Bay Lightning and Bayer Corporation.
Along with consulting and writing, Amie is in demand as a speaker, giving keynote presentations on a variety of topics in the management and motivational areas. Over the years she has spoken to hundreds of audiences and provided training to over 10,000 people. When she isn't writing, speaking or consulting, Amie is an avid triathlete, devoted crossword puzzle and mystery lover and single parent to three cats.
If you are a leader reading this, you should be asking yourself how much you’re willing to pay, in personal discomfort and humility, for the possibility of your organization’s long-term success. The pay-off for building a Principle-Powered organization is immense. But the price that it extracts from leaders in terms of reducing their ego, opening their ears and developing themselves on an ongoing basis, is high. For the organization, this exercise can produce unprecedented transformation, deepening everyone’s level of trust and loyalty toward each other and the whole organization, building respect between leaders and subordinates, allowing for the constant improvement in every aspect of the business and generating huge increases in productivity and financial results. But besides these organizational bonuses, there are personal benefits that one gets from undertaking such a process.
For people who become truly committed to finding value in everything they hear, like the athlete who listens keenly to his coach, their performance level rises. They also have the means to enhance the depth of their relationships, to leave those they interact with feeling completely respected—not to mention learning more than the rest of us. In our personal lives, we tend to listen sparingly to those we know well or those people about whom we have formed quick opinions. But each and every one of us could benefit by bringing some degree of the Disciple discipline to our daily lives. When we listen to our children we easily dismiss their input as naïve, idealistic, inexperienced or wrong. We certainly do the same with our spouses. After knowing anyone for a long time it is all too easy to believe that they have nothing new to offer. That is human nature.
Think about how often you imagine you already know what your spouse, parent, teenager, best friend or sibling is about to say. We are implacable in our certainty about how well we know our families and friends and about how predictably they will behave. Of course, because we act in concert with our expectations of what they are about to say or do, it isn’t really surprising that they then seem always to fulfill our expectations, be they positive or negative. But sometime early in our relationships—when we met our spouse or first got to know our best friend, we were entranced. In those early days we listened keenly and were regularly surprised by what these people said or did. Not only were we surprised, but we gained value out of their words, deeds or insights; enough so that we kept them in our lives. Yet the very thing that drew us to them, their contribution to our lives, becomes invisible as a direct result of our having known them a long time. Often, those closest to us have the least freedom to help us or share their insights about how we might better ourselves or our lives. Yet we listen to strangers with rapt attention.
If you ever watch Oprah, Dr. Phil or any other self-help guru on television giving advice, it is painfully obvious that all they are offering is basic common sense. Most of these “life lessons” proposed by these celebrity coaches are not based on new innovations, special knowledge or even any real vision. Yet thousands of people are inspired, enlightened and seem to make real changes in their lives and work because of what they hear from these TV personalities. Does Oprah really have a special gift for teaching weight-loss? Does Dr. Phil have a unique insight into marriage and family? Probably not. Instead, they are able to make a difference in the quality of their viewers’ lives because the viewers listen and act on the advice. Oftentimes I suspect that the wife, friends, colleague or child said the same thing to the person getting advice from Dr. Phil—but they couldn’t be heard through the buffer of arrogance and familiarity.
