Why The Lee Thayer Institute exists…
The Lee Thayer Institute is a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving the intellectual integrity of the leadership discipline articulated by Dr. Lee Thayer. It exists to ensure that this body of thought—grounded in responsibility, systems thinking, and performance under consequence—remains available and relevant to contemporary leaders.
The Institute does not promote technique or inspiration. It advances a disciplined approach to leadership as thinking, being, and performance in live enterprise.
The work is stewarded and extended by Joelle Thayer, who applies the discipline in organizational settings through Leadership TBD.
About Lee Thayer
Dr. Lee Thayer developed and field-tested a rigorous approach to leadership across more than four decades of engagement with executives, institutions, and public agencies. His work challenged prevailing assumptions about authority and performance, reframing leadership as responsibility enacted through disciplined thinking and systems design.
He advised leaders at IBM, AT&T, Westinghouse, Boeing, General Motors, Shell, and West Point, among others, and taught internationally across the United States, Europe, Australia, and Asia. His writings—including Leadership: Thinking, Being, Doing and How Executives Fail—remain foundational texts in the discipline.
A Ford Foundation Fellow and Fulbright Scholar, Thayer’s academic and professional work spanned the humanities, engineering, and psychology, shaping a leadership philosophy rooted in breadth of thought and precision of judgment.