Publications
Publications
- Harvard Business Review (website)
Sidestepping Some of the Partisan Debate: An Interview with Max Stier
By: Aaron K. Chatterji and Michael W. Toffel
Abstract
Whereas some organizational leaders are engaging in CEO activism by speaking out on social and political issues not directly related to their bottom line, some leaders want to avoid doing so. Some, in fact, hold neutrality as a core component of their strategy. But maintaining nonpartisanship in an increasingly polarized world is a difficult task. It means—in some ways—that those leaders have to become activists for neutrality. Perhaps no one has a better understanding of how this works than Max Stier, the CEO of the Partnership for Public Service, a nonprofit nonpartisan organization that works with political administrations to hire and train political appointees. We interviewed Stier for our HBR Big Idea series “Divided We Lead,” and this is a condensed and edited version of our conversation.
Keywords
Citation
Chatterji, Aaron K., and Michael W. Toffel. "Sidestepping Some of the Partisan Debate: An Interview with Max Stier." Special Issue on HBR Big Idea: Leadership in a Hot-Button World. Harvard Business Review (website) (March–April 2018).