James O’Toole is an American scholar in business ethics and leadership. He is the Daniels Distinguished Professor of Business Ethics at the University of Denver’s Daniels College of Business.
A Rhodes Scholar, O’Toole earned his doctorate in Social Anthropology from Oxford University. His career spans academia, government, and corporate consulting, including roles as Special Assistant to the U.S. Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare, and Executive Director of the Leadership Institute at USC. O’Toole has advised major corporations, edited influential publications, and served on the Board of Editors for the Encyclopaedia Britannica.
From 1994 to 1997, he was Executive Vice President of the Aspen Institute and later led the Booz Allen & Hamilton Strategic Leadership Center. Named among the “100 most influential people in business ethics” by Ethisphere and a top “thought leader on leadership” by Leadership Excellence magazine. He has authored 18 acclaimed books, including Leading Change: The Argument for Values-Based Leadership (1995,) Transparency: How Leaders Create a Culture of Candor (2008,) and The Enlightened Capitalists: Cautionary Tales of Business Pioneers Who Tried to Do Well by Doing Good (2019.)
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What creates trust, in the end, is the leader’s manifest respect for the followers.
—James O’Toole
Leaders must begin by setting aside that culturally conditioned ‘natural’ instinct to lead by push, particularly when times are tough. Leaders must instead adopt the unnatural behavior of ALWAYS leading by the pull of inspiring values. The difficulty lies in that imperative ALWAYS.
—James O’Toole
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