instant leadership resources

2008-06-26T20:25:00.000-07:00

“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!

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

- Nido Qubein

2008-06-25T20:20:00.000-07:00

"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

2008-06-24T20:20:00.000-07:00

”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

2008-06-23T20:20:00.000-07:00

“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.

2008-06-22T20:19:00.000-07:00

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

2008-06-21T20:19:00.000-07:00

~ 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.

2008-06-20T20:18:00.000-07:00

~ 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

2008-06-19T20:18:00.000-07:00

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

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

- Mother Teresa

2008-06-18T20:17:00.000-07:00

"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

2008-06-17T20:17:00.000-07:00

"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

2008-06-16T20:16:00.000-07:00

~ 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.

2008-06-15T20:16:00.000-07:00

"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

2008-06-14T20:15:00.000-07:00

”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

2008-06-13T20:15:00.000-07:00

~ 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

2008-06-12T20:14:00.000-07:00

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

2008-06-11T20:14:00.000-07:00

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

2008-06-10T20:13:00.000-07:00

"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

2008-06-09T20:12:00.000-07:00

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

2008-06-08T20:12:00.000-07:00

"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

2008-06-07T20:11:00.000-07:00

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

2008-06-06T20:08:00.000-07:00

"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

2008-06-05T20:07:00.000-07:00

"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

2008-06-04T20:06:00.000-07:00

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

2008-06-03T20:05:00.000-07:00

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

2008-06-02T20:04:00.000-07:00

~ 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".

2008-06-01T20:03:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-31T20:02:00.000-07:00

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.

2008-05-30T20:01:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-29T20:01:00.000-07:00

"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

2008-05-28T19:57:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-28T07:58:00.000-07:00

”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

2008-05-27T19:57:00.001-07:00

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

2008-05-27T19:56:00.003-07:00

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

2008-05-27T19:56:00.001-07:00

"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

2008-05-27T19:55:00.001-07:00

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

2008-05-27T19:54:00.002-07:00

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

2008-05-27T19:54:00.001-07:00

"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.

2008-05-27T19:53:00.001-07:00

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