Quotes About Leadership

I despise followers of any kind, especially those who follow me.

To all the positions, I just bring the determination to win. Me being an unselfish player, I think that can carry on to my teammates. When you have one of the best players on the court being unselfish, I think that transfers to the other players.

The politicians always told us that the Cold War stand-off could only change by way of nuclear war. None of them believed that such systemic change was possible.

I got politics and economics moving and then others took over.

Dictators and oppressors should continue to fear me because I will be here for a long time.

An instructor should exemplify the things he seeks to teach. It will be of great advantage if you yourself can do all you ask of your students and more.

Good leaders know who they are—their strengths, weaknesses, passions, talents, and values. And, developing leaders always starts with self-awareness.

Fearful leaders side-step issues instead of dealing with them, cover up mistakes instead of owning up to mistakes; they skulk back into the shadows and hope that the crisis—whatever it is—will somehow blow over instead of facing their fears. Worse, they resort to lies and deception to cover up the truth.

Leaders must be good listeners. It's rule number one, and it's the most powerful thing they can do to build trusted relationships.

An honorable leader must demonstrate a willingness to reveal his or her 'inner self' to their team. It builds trust and trust is essential. It's also a sign of strength and authenticity, and people are attracted to those who are 'real' and authentic.

some leaders don't want to celebrate with their team because they are afraid—yes, afraid that if they celebrate, people will quit working hard and lower the standards. I say don't let your fear take you out.

As is often the case with children, the rule of 'monkey see, monkey do' plays out in the workplace. It's hard to be good role model, and it's one of the greatest challenges of leadership.

Good teams are committed to the team mission and to each other personally. Good leaders inspire and build this commitment and trust.

Over-communicating is the glue that holds a high-performing team together and keeps them focused in the same direction. And, it circles back to clarity. Without good, consistent communication, you don't have clarity.

Voters—here's the real challenge: we don't need empty promises made by politicians whose only goal in life is to get elected or re-elected. We need leaders with attributes that qualify them to lead us through the difficult challenges we're facing.

Leaders can choose to grow and change, but generally the most powerful predictor of future performance is past behavior. Evaluate them realistically.

Leaders devoid of crucible experiences are likely to be overly confident about their ideas, and surprisingly more susceptible to fears; this is also true of children who are overly sheltered from facing challenges and experiences that help build their character. Courageously facing our fears in the difficult times gives us both humility and real confidence.

There are two kinds of second class men in business. There is the man who puts money first and service second. There is the man who puts service first and money second, who never has any money. The first class man in business is the man who is made up out of rolling the other two kinds into one man and working them together.

Crowds speak in heroes.

You learn how to coerce people to do your bidding . . . willingly.

Besides, you're taking the lead on this investigation, whatever it turns out to be." "I am? Why?" "Because I'm retiring in a few weeks. My job until then is to sit on my ass, push paper, and offer you pearls of wisdom," he said. "And I don't want to get myself killed like all the soon-to-retire cops in the movies just to add some tragic depth to your character. I've done enough for you already.

Management is nothing more than motivating other people.

I forgot to shake hands and be friendly. It was an important lesson about leadership.

In the end, all business operations can be reduced to three words: people, product and profits. Unless you've got a good team, you can't do much with the other two.