Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
Great things are accomplished by talented people who believe they will accomplish them.
Embrace error: Create an atmosphere in which prudent risk taking is strongly encouraged.
Followers who tell the truth, and leaders who listen to it, are an unbeatable combination.
Ineffective leaders often act on the advice and counsel of the last person they talked to.
Growing other leaders from the ranks isn't just the duty of the leader, it's an obligation.
Good leaders make people feel that they're at the very heart of things, not at the periphery.
Recognize and respect mutual self-interests, then build creative collaborations to serve them.
Perhaps the central task of the leader of leaders thus becomes the development of other leaders.
I am reminded how hollow the label of leadership sometimes is and how heroic followership can be.
It is the capacity to develop and improve their skills that distinguishes leaders from followers.
The opposite of hope is despair, and when we despair, it is because we feel there are no choices.
You need people who can walk their companies into the future rather than back them into the future.
Expect the best from your people and they will usually deliver but your expectations must be realistic.
Leaders are people who believe so passionately that they can seduce other people into sharing their dream.
Leaders should always expect the very best of those around them. They know that people can change and grow.
What job is worth the enormous psychic cost of following a leader who values loyalty in the narrowest sense.
Great groups deliver great results. And for everyone involved in a great group, great work is its own reward.
Listening to the inner voice - trusting the inner voice - is one of the most important lessons of leadership.
Just as no great painting has ever been created by a committee, no great vision has ever emerged from the herd.
The basis of leadership is the capacity of the leader to change the mindset, the framework of the other person.
Create a compelling vision, one that takes people to a new place, and then translate that vision into a reality.
If I had to reduce the responsibilities of a good follower to a single rule, it would be to speak truth to power.
Becoming a leader is synonymous with becoming yourself. It is precisely that simple, and it is also that difficult.
Learning to be an effective leader is no different than learning to be an effective person. And that's the hard part
Understand stakeholder symmetry: Find the appropriate balance of competing claims by various groups of stakeholders.
The first job of a leader is to define a vision for the organization...the capacity to translate vision into reality.
The learning person looks forward to failure or mistakes. The worst problem in leadership is basically early success.
Leaders know the importance of having someone in their lives who will unfailingly and fearlessly tell them the truth.
If I were to give off-the-cuff advice to anyone trying to institute change, I would say, "How clear is the metaphor?"
Great things are achieved by talented people who are absolutely convinced that they not only can but will achieve them.
Effective leaders make a full commitment to be a learner, to keep increasing and nourishing their knowledge and wisdom.
Our tendency to create heroes rarely jibes with the reality that most nontrivial problems require collective solutions.
First and foremost, effective leaders must continuously strive to make themselves smarter and better at making judgments.
You are your own raw material. When you know what you consist of and what you want to make of it, then you can invent yourself.
Manage the dream: Create a compelling vision, one that takes people to a new place, and then translate that vision into a reality.
Leaders must earn the trust of their teams, their organizations, and their stakeholders before attempting to engage their support.
People who know what they want and why they want it, and have the skills to communicate that to others in a way that gains support
See the long view: By all means "plant the corn, milk the cows, and feed the horses" but always keep the eventual "harvest" in mind.
There are two ways of being creative. One can sing and dance. Or one can create an environment in which singers and dancers flourish.
Great leaders love talent and know where to find it. They surround themselves with talented people who can work effectively together.
Leaders learn by leading, and they learn bestby leading in the face of obstacles. As weather shapes mountains, problems shape leaders.
Taking charge of your own learning is a part of taking charge of your life, which is the sine qua non in becoming an integrated person.
A new leader has to be able to change an organization that is dreamless, soulless and visionless... someone's got to make a wake up call.
More leaders have been made by accident, circumstance, sheer grit, or will than have been made by all the leadership courses put together.
The new leader is one who commits people to action, who converts followers into leaders, and who may convert leaders into agents of change.
People who cannot invent and reinvent themselves must be content with borrowed postures, secondhand ideas, fitting in instead of standing out.
A leader is someone whose actions have the most profound consequences on other people's lives, for better or worse, sometime forever and ever.
Understand the "Pygmalion Effect": Leaders should always expect the very best of those around them. They know that people can change and grow.
Successful leadership is not about being tough or soft, sensitive or assertive, but about a set of attributes. First and foremost is character
No leader can create sustainable, significant change without a reservoir of good will. Without that, you always tend to compromise with failure.