Coming Soon
A Promise to Keep
Lessons in Leadership, Integrity, and Doing the Right Thing
Some of the most important leadership lessons aren't taught in boardrooms. They're learned at dawn, in a field, from a man who never once questioned whether doing the right thing was worth the cost.
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The Book
Most leaders don't fail dramatically. They drift.
A little compromise here. A small exception there. A value quietly set aside when the pressure gets high enough.
Laurie grew up on a farm in western Nebraska, where her father Jack showed her what integrity actually looks like — not as a policy or a value statement, but as a daily choice made before anyone is watching. Decades later, leading healthcare organizations and speaking to leaders across the country, she kept coming back to those same lessons. They weren't just farm wisdom. They were the foundation of every good leader she'd ever known.
A Promise to Keep is a book about the kind of leadership that doesn't drift — built on accountability, honesty, service, and the quiet courage to do what's right when it's hard. Twelve principles rooted in her father's words and her own hard-won experience in the executive suite, equal parts practical and deeply human.
This is not a book about strategies. It's a book about character. And it starts with a promise.
Inside you'll find
- Twelve principles rooted in real experience — from the farm and the boardroom
- An honest look at what integrity actually costs, and why it's always worth it
- Practical wisdom on accountability, servant leadership, decision-making, and grit
- A leadership philosophy grounded in character, not just competence
How It's Built
Four seasons, twelve lessons.
01
Preparing the Soil
What has to be true in you before you can lead anyone else.
02
The Journey
Keeping your word when the work is ordinary and nobody's watching.
03
When Things Get Hard
Storms, bad seasons, and the calls that cost you something.
04
Leaving a Legacy
What holds after you're gone — and who you handed it to.
“Animals eat before you do.”Jack — on servant leadership, before anyone called it that
The Title
Why this book is called what it is.
Laurie's father passed away before she finished writing it. He knew she was working on it. He believed in it — believed in her — the way he always had, quietly and completely. After he was gone, finishing the book wasn't optional anymore. It was a promise.
But the title means something beyond a father and a daughter. Leadership itself is a promise. When you step into the role you make a commitment — to your people, your organization, your own values — whether you say it out loud or not.
The question isn't whether you made the promise. It's whether you'll keep it when it counts.
This book is for you if
- You lead people and you want to do it in a way you're proud of
- You've watched good leaders drift and you don't intend to
- You'd rather have twelve principles you'll actually use than fifty you won't
- You believe character matters as much as competence
About the Author
Laurie Schadegg spent forty years in healthcare leadership — P&L ownership, M&A integration, board governance — and now coaches executives stepping into broader scope. She speaks to leadership teams and associations across the country on integrity, accountability, and the kind of leadership that holds under pressure.
She still measures a good decision the way her father did: by whether you'd make the same one if no one ever found out.
Laurie Schadegg
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