Quotes on Leadership
I desire so to conduct the affairs of this administration that if at the end, when I come to lay down the reins of power, I have lost every other friend on Earth, I shall at least have one friend left, and that friend shall be down inside of me.
Abraham Lincoln
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Surround yourself with the best people you can find, delegate authority, and don't interfere.
Ronald Wilson Reagan
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If anything goes bad, I did it. If anything goes semi-good, we did it. If anything goes real good, you did it. That’s all it takes to get people to win football games.
Bear Bryant
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Power flows to the man who knows how. Responsibilities gravitate to the person who can shoulder them.
Elbert Hubbard
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It is hard to look up to a leader who keeps his ear to the ground.
James Boren
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A man who wants to lead the orchestra must turn his back on the crowd.
James Crook
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When the eagles are silent, the parrots begin to jabber.
Sir Winston Churchill
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One of the greatest talents of all is the talent to recognize and to develop talent in others.
Frank Tyger
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Treat a man as he is and he will remain as he is. Treat a man as he can and should be and he will become as he can and should be.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Trust men and they will be true to you; treat them greatly and they will show themselves great.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Few things help an individual more than to place responsibility upon him and to let him know that you trust him.
Booker Washington
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Just as the real basics of human nature do not change from one generation to another, so the real basics of human leadership do not change from one leader to another - from one field to the next - but remain always and everywhere the same.
William Holler
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Leaders are visionaries with a poorly developed sense of fear and no concept of the odds against them.
Robert Jarvik
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Business is dependent upon action. It cannot go forward by hesitation. Those in executive positions must fortify themselves with facts and accept responsibility for decisions based upon them. Often greater risk is involved in postponement than in making a wrong decision.
Harry Hopf
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We should place confidence in our employee. Confidence is the foundation of friendship. If we give it, we will receive it. Any person in a managerial position, from supervisor to president, who feels that his employee is basically not as good as he is and who suspects his employee is always trying to put something over on him, lacks the necessary qualities for human leadership - to say nothing of human friendship.
Harry Humphreys
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This is what I found out about religion: it gives you courage to make the decisions you must make in a crisis, and then the confidence to leave the result to a higher power. Only by trust in God can a man carrying responsibility find repose.
Dwight Eisenhower
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If you wish to succeed in managing and controlling others - learn to manage and control yourself.
William Boetcker
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A gentle word, a kind look, a good-natured smile can work wonders and accomplish miracles. There is a secret pride in every human heart that revolts at tyranny. You may order and drive an individual, but you cannot make him respect you.
William Hazlitt
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A leader has two important characteristics; first, he is going somewhere; second, he is able to persuade other people to go with him.
Maximilien Robespierre
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Leadership appears to be the art of getting others to want to do something you are convinced should be done.
Vance Packard
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Leadership is the ability to get men to do what they don't want to do and like it.
Harry Truman
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Management is the art of getting three men to do three men's work.
William Feather
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Not armies, not nations, have advanced the race; but here and there, in the course of the ages, an individual has stood up and cast his shadow over the world.
Edwin Chapin
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If you cry "forward," you must without fail make plain in what direction to go.
Anton Chekhov
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A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus, but a molder of consensus.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
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Good leadership involves responsibility to the welfare of the group, which means that some people will get angry at your actions and decisions. It's inevitable, if you're honorable. Trying to get everyone to like you is a sign of mediocrity: you'll avoid the tough decisions, you'll avoid confronting the people who need to be confronted, and you'll avoid offering differential rewards based on differential performance because some people might get upset. Ironically, by procrastinating on the difficult choices, by trying not to get anyone mad, and by treating everyone equally "nicely" regardless of their contributions, you'll simply ensure that the only people you'll wind up angering are the most creative and productive people in the organization.
Colin Powell
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The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help them or concluded that you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership.
Colin Powell
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Strategy equals execution. All the great ideas and visions in the world are worthless if they can't be implemented rapidly and efficiently. Good leaders delegate and empower others liberally, but they pay attention to details, every day.
Colin Powell
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Good leaders don't wait for official blessing to try things out. They're prudent, not reckless. But they also realize a fact of life in most organizations: if you ask enough people for permission, you'll inevitably come up against someone who believes his job is to say "no." So the moral is, don't ask. Less effective middle managers endorsed the sentiment, "If I haven't explicitly been told 'yes,' I can't do it," whereas the good ones believed, "If I haven't explicitly been told 'no,' I can." There's a world of difference between these two points of view.
Colin Powell
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Organization doesn't really accomplish anything. Plans don't accomplish anything, either. Theories of management don't much matter. Endeavors succeed or fail because of the people involved. Only by attracting the best people will you accomplish great deeds.
Colin Powell
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Leaders honor their core values, but they are flexible in how they execute them.
Colin Powell
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The essence of leadership is the willingness to make the tough, unambiguous choices that will have an impact on the fate of the organization.
Colin Powell
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A statesman who keeps his ear permanently to the ground will have neither elegance of posture nor flexibility of movement.
Abba Eban
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No good decision was ever made in a swivel chair.
George Patton
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Any company that requires constant supervision is not a well-trained, well-managed, well-led company.
Larry Winget
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You can't run a popularity contest and be successful.
Ara Parseghian
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The truth is that many people set rules to keep from making decisions. Not me. I don't want to be a manager or a dictator. I want to be a leader - and leadership is ongoing, adjustable, flexible, and dynamic. As such, leaders have to maintain a certain amount of discretion.
Mike Krzyzewski
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Good people are found not changed. They can change themselves, but you can't change them. You want good people, you have to find them. If you want motivated people, you have to find them, not motivate them.
Jim Rohn
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If you wish others to believe in you, you must first convince them that you believe in them.
Harvey Mackay
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A leader is best when people barely know that he exists. Less good when they obey and acclaim him. Worse when they fear and despise him. Fail to honor people, and they fail to honor you. But of a good leader, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say, "We did this ourselves."
Lao Tzu
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Transformational leaders pick the right people, match them to the right jobs, achieve mutual clarity on the desired results, and then they get out of the way and leave the individual with maximum freedom to perform.
Brian Tracy
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Don't ever ask a player to do something he doesn't have the ability to do. He'll just question your ability as a coach, not his as an athlete.
Lou Holtz
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Caring about somebody doesn't mean making it easy for them. Caring is helping them to develop their traits and talents.
Lou Holtz
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The standards you establish for others must reflect the standards you set for yourself. No one will follow a hypocrite.
Lou Holtz
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When you concern yourself with the welfare of others, you engender loyalty and respect. You create value. And you acquire power.
Lou Holtz
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An organization's ability to learn, and translate that learning into action rapidly, is the ultimate competitive business advantage.
Jack Welch
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The challenge of leadership is to be strong, but not rude; be kind, but not weak; be bold, but not a bully; be thoughtful, but not lazy; be humble, but not timid; be proud but not arrogant; have humor, but without folly.
Jim Rohn
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Nothing so conclusively proves a man´s ability to lead others as what he does from day to day to lead himself.
Thomas Watson Jr.
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The successful leader must be willing to assume responsibility for the mistakes and the shortcomings of his followers.
Napoleon Hill
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The successful leader must plan his work and work his plan.
Napoleon Hill
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The world does not pay men for that which they "know". It pays them for what they do, or induce others to do.
Napoleon Hill
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Define success for those under your leadership as total commitment and effort to the team's welfare. Then show it yourself with your own effort and performance. Most of those you lead will do the same. Those who don't should be encouraged to look for a new team.
John Wooden
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A strong leader accepts blame and gives the credit. A weak leader gives blame and accepts the credit.
John Wooden
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When you punish your people for making a mistake or falling short of a goal, you create an environment of extreme caution, even fearfulness. In sports it's similar to playing "not to lose" - a formula that often brings on defeat.
John Wooden
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You must truly care about the lives and welfare of your team members, and demonstrate it with concern and support within a disciplined environment.
John Wooden
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I believe effective leaders are, first and foremost, good teachers.
John Wooden
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Peaks and valleys belong in the Alps, not in the temperament - the emotions - of a leader.
John Wooden
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An effective leader allows exceptions to the rule for exceptional results or when circumstance demands.
John Wooden
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Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.
George Patton
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Leaders make decisions – all the time. Followers make suggestions. Making suggestions is easy because it requires no action or fear of failure. Making decisions is tough. It takes guts because there is always something at stake.
Ruben Gonzalez
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Always treat your employees exactly as you want them to treat your best customers.
Stephen Covey
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Effective management is putting first things first. While leadership decides what "first things" are, it is management that puts them first, day-by-day, moment-by-moment. Management is discipline, carrying it out.
Stephen Covey
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Satisfied needs do not motivate. It's only the unsatisfied need that motivates. Next to physical survival, the greatest need of a human being is psychological survival - to be understood, to be affirmed, to be validated, to be appreciated.
Stephen Covey
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Outstanding leaders go out of their way to boost the self-esteem of their personnel. If people believe in themselves, it's amazing what they can accomplish.
Sam Walton
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The best executive is one who has sense enough to pick good people to do what he wants them to do, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it.
Theodore Roosevelt
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I've trained myself to propose solutions instead of ask for them, to elicit responses instead of react, and to be assertive without burning bridges. To have an uncommon lifestyle, you need to develop the uncommon habit of making decisions, both for yourself and for others.
Timothy Ferriss
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You can delegate authority, but not responsibility.
Stephen Comiskey
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You can't manufacture passion or "motivate" people to feel passionate. You can only discover what ignites your passion and the passions of those around you.
Jim Collins
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If you want to build a ship, don't drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work, and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.
Antoine de Saint-Exupery
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Many people set rules to keep from making decisions.
Mike Krzyzewski
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Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.
Jack Welch
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Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfills the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things.
Sir Winston Churchill
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When we are debating an issue, loyalty means giving me your honest opinion, whether you think I'll like it or not. Disagreement, at this stage, stimulates me. But once a decision has been made, the debate ends. From that point on, loyalty means executing the decision as if it were your own.
Colin Powell
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Success doesn't come from bland acceptance by the entire world. It comes from the ability to inspire the few.
Scott Adams
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You can't work individuals by general rules. Every man is a special case and needs a special pill.
George Horace Lorimer
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A man who is feared to his face is hated behind his back.
George Horace Lorimer
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The great trouble with some fellows is that a little success goes to their heads. Instead of hiding their authority behind their backs and trying to get close to their men, they use it as a club to keep them off. And a boss with a case of big-head will fill an office full of sore heads.
George Horace Lorimer
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I am sure that if every leader who goes into battle will promise himself that he will come out either a conqueror or a corpse he is sure to win.
George Patton
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While individuals operating individually can choose whatever values and principles they like, when working in a group the people must agree on the group's values and principles. If the group is not clear about them, confusion and eventually gravitation toward the population's averages will result. If the group's values and principles are clear, their way of being (i.e., their culture) will permeate everything they do.
Ray Dalio
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A resolute and resourceful leader understands that there are a multitude of means to increase the probability of success. And that's what it all comes down to, namely, intelligently and relentlessly seeking solutions that will increase your chance of prevailing in a competitive environment. When you do that, the score will take care of itself.
Bill Walsh
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Everybody's got an opinion. Leaders are paid to make a decision. The difference between offering an opinion and making a decision is the difference between working for the leader and being the leader.
Bill Walsh
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The trademark of a well-led organization in sports or business is that it's virtually self-sustaining and self-directed—almost autonomous. To put it in a more personal way, if your staff doesn't seem fully mobilized and energized until you enter the room, if they require your presence to carry on at the level of effort and excellence you have tried to install, your leadership has not percolated down.
Bill Walsh
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Strong leaders don't plead with individuals to perform.
Bill Walsh
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Make each person in your employ very aware that his or her well-being has a high priority with the organization and that the well-being of the organization must be his or her highest professional priority.
Bill Walsh
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"[E]xtra effort," in whatever form it takes (mental, physical, emotional), cannot be sustained without eventual damage and diminishing returns. There has to be a very acute awareness on your part as to the level of exertion and the toll it's taking on those you lead.
Bill Walsh
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People matter most—more than equipment, investors, inventions, momentum, or X's and O's. People are at the heart of achieving organizational greatness.
Bill Walsh
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Leaders are not, as we are often led to think, people who go along with huge crowds following them. Leaders are people who go their own way without caring, or even looking to see, whether anyone is following them. 'Leadership qualities' are not the qualities that enable people to attract followers, but those that enable them to do without them. They include, at the very least, courage, endurance, patience, humor, flexibility, resourcefulness, stubbornness, a keen sense of reality, and the ability to keep a cool and clear head, even when things are going badly. True leaders, in short, do not make people into followers, but into other leaders.
John Holt
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Decisiveness looks like leadership. Keep in mind that most normal people are at least a little bit uncertain when facing unfamiliar and complicated situations. What people crave in that sort of environment is anything that looks like certainty. If you can deliver an image of decisiveness, no matter how disingenuous, others will see it as leadership.
Scott Adams
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Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.
Dwight Eisenhower
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God does not give authority so that you can force others to obey your wishes. Authority is the opportunity to use all your skill, all your resources, and all your wisdom to make those under you successful.
Bob Schultz
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The mercenaries will always beat the draftees, but the volunteers will crush them both.
Chuck Noll
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