Margery Kraus | What It Takes To Be Truly 'Glocal'

Margery Kraus, founder and executive chairman of APCO, reflects on 40 years of leadership. She shares how APCO grew from a small team into a global advisory firm rooted in trust, values and innovation.

Margery discusses building a culture that thrives across borders, letting go of control to develop future leaders and applying lessons from motherhood to business. She also looks ahead to what's next, including bold thinking around education, youth opportunity and social change.

 

Key Takeaways:

(00:28) Leadership journeys often begin with unexpected opportunities.

(03:04) An outside perspective can lead to more creative solutions.

(09:09) Culture is easier to scale when values are shared.

(11:30) Letting go of control is part of growing a company.

(21:33) Personal life lessons can influence leadership philosophies.

(23:02) Public praise and private feedback build trust and respect.

(26:31) Being underestimated can become a strategic advantage.

(33:45) Knowing when to step back is key to long-term success.

(36:19) Major change creates space for bold new ideas.

 

Resources Mentioned:

Margery Kraus
https://www.linkedin.com/in/margerykraus/

APCO | LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/company/apco-worldwide/

APCO | Website
https://apcoworldwide.com/

"Roots and Wings" by Margery Kraus
https://www.amazon.com/Roots-Wings-Lessons-Motherhood-Company/dp/168463024X

 

 

ABOUT LET GO & LEAD

Let Go & Lead is a leadership platform created by Maril MacDonald, founder and CEO of Gagen MacDonald. Maril brings together provocateurs, pioneers, thought leaders and those leading the conversation around culture, transformation and change. Over the course of the past 14 years, Let Go & Lead has existed in many forms, from video interviews to resource guides to its current iteration as a podcast. At its core, it remains a place where people can access a diversity of perspectives on interdisciplinary approaches to leadership.

Maril has interviewed over 140 leaders — from business to academia and nonprofits to the arts — through the years. In each conversation, from personal anecdotes to ground-breaking scientific analysis, she has probed the lessons learned in leadership. From these conversations, the Let Go & Lead framework has emerged. It is both a personal and organizational resource that aims to serve the individual leader or leadership at scale.

 

ABOUT GAGEN MACDONALD

At Gagen MacDonald, we are dedicated to helping organizations navigate the human struggle of change. We are a people-focused consulting firm and our passion is improving the employee experience—for everyone. For more than 25 years, we have been working with companies to create clarity from chaos by uniting employees across all levels around a single vision so they can achieve results and realize their future.

We have been a pioneer in bringing humanity to strategy execution, leading in areas such as organizational communication, culture, leadership and employee engagement. Our Vision is to lift all humanity by transforming the companies that transform the world.

Full episodes also available on:

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/let-go-lead-with-maril-macdonald/id1454869525

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5Gaf7JXOckZMtkpsMtnjAj?si=WZjZkvfLTX2T4eaeB1PO2A 

 

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Gagen MacDonald is a woman-owned, human-focused transformation consulting firm and trusted partner to the C-suite. We specialize in internal communications, employee engagement, culture change and leadership development. Learn more at http://www.gagenmacdonald.com.

 

#LeadershipDevelopment #OrganizationalChange #CorporateCulture #EmployeeEngagement