Quotes About Leadership

You need to get to know who your constituents are, how they feel, and what they think. You need to repeatedly walk the halls and plant floors, regularly meet with small groups, and frequently hit the road for visits with associates, key suppliers, and customers. Paying attention, personalizing recognition, and creatively and actively appreciating others increases their trust in you.

a leader's vision for the future has to be supported with facts about both the past and present." One

you have to get close to people if you're going to find out what motivates them, what they like and don't like, and what kinds of recognition they most appreciate. Yet, managerial myth says that leaders shouldn't get too close to their constituents, that they can't be friends with people at work.17 Let's set this myth aside. Over

Having the entire team support the philosophy would ensure consistency in the team's work and maintain credibility within our organization. It's for these reasons that the leadership development program at Yum! Brands, the world's largest restaurant company

Even with commonly identified values, there may be little agreement on the meaning of values statements. The lesson here is that leaders must engage their constituents in a dialogue about values. A common understanding of values emerges from a process, not a pronouncement.

Although the enthusiasm, energy, and positive attitude of the leader may not change the content of work, he or she certainly can make the context more fulfilling.

The central task for leaders is inspiring a shared vision, not selling their personal view of the world. You need to imagine the end result and be able to communicate your vision such that your constituents find a way to achieve their hopes and dreams while achieving that result.

Why would you want to follow someone if you suspected that they were lying or trying to trick you? Honesty is the basis of trust and you have to believe that what the leader speaks or knows is true." Of

If you follow someone who's universally viewed as having impeccable character and strong integrity, then you're likely to be viewed the same. If you willingly follow someone who's considered dishonest and unethical, your own image is tarnished.

Leaders set the tone. When they openly demonstrate the joy and passion they have for their organizations, team members, clients, and even challenges, leaders send a very powerful message to others that it's perfectly acceptable for people to make public displays of playfulness.

What you preach and what you celebrate must be one and the same. If they aren't, the event will come off as insincere and phony—and your credibility will suffer.

Conformity produces compliance, not commitment. Unity is essential, and unity is forged, not forced.

If you want others to believe in something and behave according to those beliefs, you have to set the example by being personally involved. You have to practice what you preach.

The Truth Is That the Best Leaders Are the Best Learners. Leadership can be learned. It is an observable pattern of practices and behaviors, and a definable set of skills and abilities. Skills can be learned, and when we track the progress of people who participate in leadership development programs, we observe that they improve over time.

Approaching White Oak Swamp from the north, he sent a crew to rebuild the bridge over the creek. When Union artillery and sharpshooters prevented this, Jackson lay down and took a nap.

Grant said that Shiloh convinced him that the rebellion could be crushed only by complete conquest

Hooker was a controversial choice, but he did everything right in his first three months of command and appeared to have vindicated Lincoln's decision until he stumbled at Chancellorsville.

What Lincoln probably did not know was that Halleck suffered severely from hemorrhoids, which grew even more painful under stress, and that he was taking opium to ease the pain.

He had been willing to risk war rather than let the nation perish.

Politics seemed to have fallen to a new wartime low of spite and pettiness.

Essential in a concept of power is the role of purpose.

James MacGregor Burns

She learned as she led, and led as she learned.

Divorced from ethics, leadership is reduced to management and politics to mere technique.