U.S. Fund for Unicef Chief Offers Management Secrets

Caryl M. Stern, president of the U.S. Fund for Unicef, explains how she works to create greater cohesion and a culture that values talent at the organization, in an interview with The New York Times.

As part of the Times’s Corner Office series of talks with chief executives, Ms. Stern recounts how the group brought in coaches when she took over four years ago and how she made an effort to eat breakfast with each staff member over her first six months on the job to get to know them.

The result, Ms. Stern says, has been an organization in which employees take each other’s needs into account.

“I’ve never sat at a management table before where people will say, ‘Well, my division really needs this, but I think your division’s needs are bigger, so I’m going to put mine off to the side,’” she says. “I’m not describing utopia. It’s a competitive environment, but there is a sense of trust and a bond within this group.”