Thursday, June 26, 2008

“A leader’s role is to raise people’s aspirations for what they can become and to release their energies so they will try to get there.”

David R. Gergen




7 ways for leaders to send out a powerful and positive message: Themselves!

  1. Leaders manage the process, but lead people
  2. Leaders inspire people, they don’t just drive them
  3. Leaders are easy to respect and look up to
  4. Leaders are easy to like and get along with
  5. Leaders help people to like themselves
  6. Leaders help people to believe that what they’re doing is important
  7. Leaders are responsive to people

- Nido Qubein




Wednesday, June 25, 2008

"Control is not leadership; management is not leadership; leadership is leadership. If you seek to lead, invest at least 50% of your time in leading yourself—your own purpose, ethics, principles, motivation, conduct. Invest at least 20% leading those with authority over you and 15% leading your peers."

— Dee Hock
Founder and CEO Emeritus, Visa




Effective leadership is not about making speeches or being liked; leadership is defined by results not attributes.
-Peter F Drucker




Tuesday, June 24, 2008

”All of the great leaders have had one characteristic in common; it was the willingness to confront unequivocally the major anxiety of their people in their time. This, and not much else, is the essence of leadership.”
- John Kenneth Galbraith




Cardinal rules of Leadership:
1. Praise in Public, Criticize in Private
2. Praise for What's Right and Train for What's Wrong




Monday, June 23, 2008

“He that cannot obey, cannot command.”

Benjamin Franklin




If you want to manage somebody, manage yourself. Do that well and you'll be ready to stop managing. And start leading.




Sunday, June 22, 2008

Leadership is not manifested by coercion, even against the resented. Greatness is not manifested by unlimited pragmatism, which places such a high premium on the end justifying any means and any measures.

Margaret Chase Smith




Make heroes out of the employees who personify what you want to see in the organization.
- Anita Roddick




Saturday, June 21, 2008

~ Real glory springs from the silent conquest of ourselves. ~

Joseph P. Thompson




The role of the leader is to recognize the future.
The role of the leader is to find the future.
The role of the leader is to secure the future.




Friday, June 20, 2008

~ Victory becomes, to some degree, a state of mind. Knowing ourselves superior to the anxieties, troubles, and worries which obsess us, we are superior to them. ~

Basil King




You must unite your constituents around a common cause and connect with them as human beings.

James Kouzes and Barry Posner




Thursday, June 19, 2008

Fear stops you in your tracks. Self confidence propels you forward.






Do not wait for leaders. Do it alone, person to person.

- Mother Teresa




Wednesday, June 18, 2008

"Bluntness is a virtue."

- Allison Ling




All poets adore explosions, thunderstorms, tornadoes, conflagrations, ruins, scenes of spectacular carnage. The poetic imagination is therefore not at all a desirable quality in a chief of state.

-W. H. Auden




Tuesday, June 17, 2008

"Leadership is a process whereby an individual influences a group of individuals to achieve a common goal". (Northouse, 2004)




"If you have a lemon, make lemonade."

- Howard Gossage




Monday, June 16, 2008

~ Good leadership consists of showing average people how to do the work of superior people. ~

John D. Rockefeller




Effective leaders are known by the questions they ask rather than the statements they make.




Sunday, June 15, 2008

"Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others."

— Jack Welch




A low morality will not sustain leadership long, its influence quickly vanishes, it cannot produce its own succession.
-
Chester Irving Barnard




Saturday, June 14, 2008

”There is a powerful driving force inside every human being that once unleashed can make any vision, dream, or desire a reality.”
- Anthony Robbins




Responding to a question on which businesses support the Liberal Democrats: 'Oh, a lot...Geoffrey Madrell, very distinguished businessman, not least because he's the chairman of Glenmorangie...I consider that my most notable scalp so far in my leadership.'
- Charles Kennedy




Friday, June 13, 2008

~ The supreme quality for leadership is unquestionably integrity. Without it, no real success is possible, no matter whether it is on a section gang, a football field, in an army, or in an office. ~

Dwight David Eisenhower




”Success seems to be connected with action. Successful people keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don’t quit.”
- Conrad Hilton, Hilton Hotels




Thursday, June 12, 2008

You can't win any game unless you're committed to winning.






"The difference between a boss and a leader: a boss says, 'Go!' - a leader says, 'Let's go!'"

- E.M. Kelly, Growing Disciples, 1995




Wednesday, June 11, 2008

A ship in the harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for.
- William Shedo





We found that the most exciting environments, that treated people very well, are also tough as nails. There is no bureaucratic mumbo-jumbo ... excellent companies provide two things simultaneously: tough environments and very supportive environments.
- Tom Peters




Tuesday, June 10, 2008

"Charisma becomes the undoing of leaders. It makes them inflexible, convinced of their own infallibility, unable to change." - Peter F. Drucker




Becoming a leader is synonymous with becoming yourself. It is precisely that simple, and it is also that difficult.

-Warren Bennis




Monday, June 9, 2008

Don’t make them in your image. Don’t even try. My assistants don’t look alike, think alike, or have the same personalities. And I sure don’t want them thinking the way I do. You don’t strive for sameness, you strive for balance.
- Bear Bryant




”Clear your mind of can’t.”
- Samuel Johnson




Sunday, June 8, 2008

"High sentiments always win in the end, The leaders who offer blood, toil, tears and sweat always get more out of their followers than those who offer safety and a good time. When it comes to the pinch, human beings are heroic."

— George Orwell




Find a middle ground between a doormat and a steamroller.
- Terry Paulson




Saturday, June 7, 2008

It's hard to lead a cavalry charge if you think you look funny on a horse.

Adlai Stevenson




"Honest differences are often a healthy sign of progress."
Mahatma Gandhi




Friday, June 6, 2008

"Leadership is a process of giving purpose (meaningful direction) to collective effort, and causing willing effort to be expended to achieve purpose" (Jacobs & Jacques, 1990)




"Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great."

- Mark Twain




Thursday, June 5, 2008

"As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others." - Bill Gates




"You cannot be a leader, and ask other people to follow you, unless you know how to follow, too."

— Sam Rayburn




Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Coaching isn't an addition to a leader's job, it's an integral part of it.
- George S. Odiorne




Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren't.
- Margaret Thatcher




Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Communicate everything to your associates. The more they know, the more they care. Once they care, there is no stopping them.
- Sam Walton




Do the hard jobs first. The easy jobs will take care of themselves.

- Dale Carnegie




Monday, June 2, 2008

~ Great leadership does not mean running away from reality. Sometimes the hard truths might just demoralize the company, but at other times sharing difficulties can inspire people to take action that will make the situation better. ~

John Kotter




Efficiency tends to deal with "Things". Effectiveness tends to deal with "People". We manage "Things" we lead "People".




Sunday, June 1, 2008

I cannot give you the formula for success, but I can give you the formula for failure: which is: Try to please everybody.

Herbert B. Swope




How to bring out the best in others:
1. Ask your people to share their ideas
2. Welcome change
3. Set challenging goals and measure performance
4. Be generous with feedback
5. Reward initiative
6. Develop people who show special potential




Saturday, May 31, 2008

What's important as a leader is not what happens when you are there. It's what happens when you're NOT there.




You only have power over people so long as you don't take everything away from them. But when you've robbed a man of everything, he's no long in your power - he's free again.




Friday, May 30, 2008

The guy who takes a chance . . . who walks the line between the
known and unknown . . . who is unafraid of failure, will succeed.
- Gordon Parks





Until all of us have made it, none of us have made it.

Rosemary Brown




Thursday, May 29, 2008

"People ask the difference between a leader and a boss. . . . The leader works in the open, and the boss in covert. The leader leads, and the boss drives." - Theodore Roosevelt




Six Traits of Effective Leaders. They:
1. Make others feel important
2. Promote a vision
3. Follow the golden rule
4. Admit mistakes
5. Criticize others only in private
6. Stay close to the action




Wednesday, May 28, 2008

LEADERSHIP:
Lead by Example
Encourage the Heart
Appreciate Diversity
Develop People's Potential
Enable and Empower
Realist
Serve
Help/Coach Where Necessary
Inspire a Shared Vision
Process Challenger




"Most successful men have not achieved their distinction by having some new talent or opportunity presented to them. They have developed the opportunity that was at hand."

- Bruce Marten




”Nothing splendid has ever been achieved except by those who believed that something inside of them was superior to circumstance.”
- Bruce Barton




“Of all the forces that make for a better world, none is so indispensable, none so powerful, as hope. Without hope men are only half alive. With hope they dream and think and work.”

- Charles Sawyer




Tuesday, May 27, 2008

In order to be a leader a man must have followers. And to have followers, a man must have their confidence. Hence, the supreme quality for a leader is unquestionably integrity. Without it, no real success is possible, no matter whether it is on a section gang, a football field, in an army, or in an office. If a man's associates find him guilty of being phony, if they find that he lacks forthright integrity, he will fail. His teachings and actions must square with each other. The first great need, therefore is integrity and high purpose.

-Dwight D Eisenhower




Keep your fears to yourself, but share your inspiration with others.

Robert Louis Stevenson




For ten years Caesar ruled with an iron hand. Then with a wooden foot, and finally with a piece of string.

- Spike Milligan




"Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers, who can cut through argument, debate, and doubt to offer a solution everybody can understand."

— General Colin Powell




"Don't be afraid to take a big step when one is indicated. You can't cross a chasm in two small steps." David Lloyd George




"Example is not the main thing in influencing others, it is the only thing."

- Albert Schweitzer




All of the great leaders have had one characteristic in common: it was the willingness to confront unequivocally the major anxiety of their people in their time. This, and not much else, is the essence of leadership.
Galbraith




"Before you can inspire with emotion, you must be swamped with it yourself. Before you can move their tears, your own must flow. To convince them, you must yourself believe."

Winston Churchill

Clear leadership and support for our frontline staff is of critical importance to the future growth and development of the Group.
-Fred Goodwin




"Four rules of leadership in a free legislative body:
First, no matter how hard-fought the issue, never get personal. Don't say or do anything that may come back to haunt you on another issue, another day....
Second, do your homework. You can't lead without knowing what you're talking about....
Third, the American legislative process is one of give and take. Use your power as a leader to persuade, not intimidate....
Fourth, be considerate of the needs of your colleagues, even if they're at the bottom of the totem pole...."

— George Bush
Former President of the
United States

"A man with ability and the desire to accomplish something can do anything."

- Donald Kircher




"Be willing to make decisions. That's the most important quality in a good leader." - General George S. Patton Jr.

Don Keough's (CEO Coca-Cola) 11 Rules on "HOW TO LOSE":
1. Stop taking risks
2. Be content
3. Never deviate from what the founder did
4. Be inflexible
5. Rely totally on research and experts
6. Concentrate on competitors instead of your customers
7. Put yourself - not the customer - first
8. Solve administrative concerns first
9. Let others do your thinking for example, headquarters
10. Rely on T-G-E: "That's Good Enough" and T-N-M-J: "That's Not My Job!"
11. Rationalize slow growth




95% of American managers today say the right thing. 5% actually do it.
- James O'Toole