Quotes about Leadership Dynamics

You must be either the servant or the master, the hammer or the anvil.

How many kings are governed by their ministers — how many ministers by their secretaries? Who, in such cases, is really the chief? He, as it seems to me, who can see through the others, and possesses strength or skill enough to make their power or passions subservient to the execution of his own designs. January

The leaders of many countries condemn feudalism and monarchies and boast of adopting democracy or communism. But those same leaders, whose subjects revere them and whose misdeeds are kept secret, will hold office until their last breath, or until a handpicked heir takes over. Little has changed from the old feudal systems.

Clearly Hitler was not the representative of any single group or class but many groups at the same time. [...] He had no choice if he wanted to stay in power, for no group was so powerful that he could base his power on it alone

But wait till Ike had to deal with de Gaulle, whom I had seen in the Middle East. Giraud then would seem to Ike the acme of rational and complaisant Frenchmen.

Primus inter pares [First among equals].

Completely trusted, he became (in effect) Octavian's deputy—nearly his equal, but always a step behind when on parade.

In 35 B.C., Sextus Pompeius was executed, presumably with Antony's approval.

of both Hirtius and Pansa—had placed Octavian in an extraordinarily powerful position.

Senators will also have been pleased to witness the declining importance of the people—

In many ways, Ahmed Patel was the mind of Sonia Gandhi. Nearly everything we know about her publicly was constructed or revealed with his enabling.

Obama's just a puppet - he's a puppet in a chair.

People think my family pushed me into running for office. The person who pushed me most not to run for office was my father.

Vladimir Putin is a person from a different generation.

I don't really think anything Microsoft does puts pressure on Apple.

The model a lot of companies use is a very pyramidal model which sort of designates that all creativity, all wisdom flows from the top. We think that's the absolute wrong model.

Lawyers don't run sales forces.

It's important to understand the compensation equation that a CEO and a founder has with his or her employees.

A leader tries to perpetuate the conditions which demand his leadership. Thus, the leader requires the outsider.

QUESTION: Who governs the governors? ANSWER: Entropy.

Leadership and our dependence on it (how and why we choose particular leaders) is a much misunderstood historical phenomenon.

In Quebec, as women were getting more power, there were the men who agreed with that and the men who were afraid. I think most men are willing to share power with women, but there's fear. Every time you change something, there's a friction.

For me, this is a familiar image - people in the organization ready and willing to do good work, wanting to contribute their ideas, ready to take responsibility, and leaders holding them back, insisting that they wait for decisions or instructions.

If anything goes bad, I did it. If anything goes semi-good, we did it. If anything goes really good, then you did it. That's all it takes to get people to win football games for you.