Do you think you are a leader?
Here is what some of the best minds in America,
and elsewhere, have said about leadership.
59 Quotes, with commentary by Billy Rojas
What you believe is vital. It is where you must begin.
Ask yourself: "what is it, that if I believed it down to my core, would change
everything?
Kamal Ravikant
The secret of leadership is simple: Do what you believe in.
Paint a picture of the future. Go there. People will follow.
Seth Godin
Your beliefs affect your choices. Your choices shape your actions.
Your actions determine your results. The future you create depends upon
the choices you make and the actions you take today.
Roy T. Bennett
BR comment:
What should be added, what must be added, is that beliefs are not created equal.
And it is an essential truth that most people are unable to be objective about
the truth value of their beliefs. But you've got to get this right or you
end up with confirmation bias as your guiding star in life
-and that is guaranteed to result in failure.
If you want to bring change, then you must not believe, rather you must perceive
-perceive what others can't -imagine what others aren't capable of - and act
in a way
others wouldn't dare to.
Abhijit Naskar,
BR comment:
You can't be timid, you need to have guts. You need to be bold. You should not
be
stupid about what course of action you take but you need to take action.
Leadership is
about bold actions, not reluctant actions, not half-hearted actions, and,
while "look before you leap" caution is always as good idea,
if you put caution first in everything you do, then you are
guaranteed to be a mediocrity.
Primary Rule of Leadership:
Leadership knows; it does not believe.
Lamine Pearlheart
BR comment:
Research is indispensable. You need to know what you are talking about.
For that, you need to "hit the books." Which may mean make good use of
scientific studies or surveys or the like, but is necessarily means study.
And the more the better, at least up to a point. There comes a time
when you have to say, "this is enough study, now I need to '
actually do something with my knowledge."
But it must be actual knowledge, not guesswork. And definitely not wishful
thinking.
---------------------------------------------------
Passion
You have to be burning with an idea, or a problem, or a wrong that you want to
right.
If you're not passionate enough from the start, you'll never stick it out.
Steve Jobs
A great leader's courage to fulfill his vision comes from passion, not position
John Maxwell
Good business leaders create a vision, articulate the vision, passionately own
the vision,
and relentlessly drive it to completion.
Jack Welch
Never undermine the power of passion. You have a very high chance of achieving
anything you are passionate about.
Israelmore Ayivor
No one needs to light a fire under you when there’s a fire in you.
Richie Norton
BR Comment:
Do not confuse passion with desperation. If you are in a crisis and simply
"must"
succeed or face dire consequences, then the issue isn't inspiration, isn't the
stuff dreams are made of, but escaping from a nightmare. That is a very
different ballgame.
To tell the difference you need to be honest with yourself. Clinically honest,
not 'confirmation bias honest' where your beliefs simply have to be true
or else your whole conceptual world falls apart.
If you can't be honest with yourself, nothing said here, quotes or comments,
really matters, and you may as well waste time watching situation comedy on TV.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Its all about teams and teamwork
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, concerned citizens can change the
world.
Indeed it is the only thing that ever has.
Margaret Mead
Great Groups need to know that the person at the top will fight like a tiger
for them.
Warren Bennis,
BR comment:
This cannot be emphasized enough. Real leaders are fighters. They do not
fight needless battles but they thrive on fighting for what is right.
If you're not a fighter then you can't be a leader, it is as simple as that.
And real leaders build teams, the best teams possible under the circumstances.
If you aren't a team player, if you do not actually build a team, forget about
becoming a leader. This has to be something you very much want to do.
-----------------------
Leadership is all about caring, daring and sharing!
Caring for people, Daring to Act fearlessly, & Sharing the success with all!
Sujit Lalwani, Life Simplified!<https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/24334259>
BR comment:
The preceding quote is crucial to everything else. Make it your First
Commandment,
Care. Dare. Share. If you are not willing to do that much then you can't
possibly be a leader.
In other words, while there are other ways to 'succeed in life,' if what you
most want
really requires leadership, then you cannot afford to forget this quote.
------------------
Only those who play win. Only those who risk win. History favors risk-takers.
Forget the timid. Everything else is commentary.”
Iveta Cherneva
Become the kind of leader that people would follow voluntarily;
even if you had no title or position.
Brian Tracy
BR comment:
Many people will only listen to you if you already are successful -as the world
understands success, viz, something visible and obvious. And for some purposes
that is as it should be. But not if what is at stake is visionary, ahead of the
curve,
but with great potential. There is the success of peasants, of little minds who
want nothing better than a lot of money or maximum security in life.
Then there is the success of people like Buckminster Fuller, or the Apostle
Paul.
Money may be desirable but not at the cost of one's vision of the future.
Great achievements often -usually, almost always- require great sacrifice.
----------------------------------------
A great person attracts great people and knows how to hold them together.
Goethe
Remember teamwork begins by building trust. And the only way to do that
is to overcome our need for invulnerability.
Patrick Lencioni
A true leader has the confidence to stand alone, the courage to make tough
decisions,
and the compassion to listen to the needs of others. He does not set out to be
a leader,
but becomes one by the equality of his actions and the integrity of his intent.
Douglas MacArthur
BR comment:
You can't be a conformist and be a leader; you need the kind of self confidence
that
allows you to take a stand even when the crowd is against you. Or when the
crowd
simply won't listen.
Leadership is not about safety, although no-one should ever overlook safety,
it is about calculated risk taking. It is not about job security. And it is
not about 'not making waves.' Indeed, any real leader makes waves
as a matter of how he (or she) functions in the world naturally.
If you are hamstrung by your responsibilities, if you feel there is too much
to lose
if you take risks, then follow this advice:
Lead me, follow me, or get out of my way.
General George Patton
---
Leadership is solving problems. The day soldiers stop bringing you their
problems
is the day you have stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence
that you can help or concluded you do not care. Either case is a failure of
leadership.
Colin Powell
<https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/24334259>
Great teams do not hold back with one another. They are unafraid to air their
dirty laundry.
They admit their mistakes, their weaknesses, and their concerns without fear of
reprisal.
Patrick Lencion
Great leaders get people to admit the truth because they know that dreams are
buried
under the lies they tell themselves, in order to feel okay with giving up.
Shannon L. Alder
I refuse to live life with unsettled differences.
John Paul Warren
People want guidance, not rhetoric. They need to know what the plan of action
is,
and how it will be implemented. They want to be given responsibility to help
solve
the problem and authority to act on it.
Howard Schultz
BR comment:
"Plan of action" is the operative concept. What do you intend to do? Actually
do?
This does not mean building a sand castle in the air, one more grand scheme that
exists essentially as an ideal in the sky, but something concrete, something
that
can be done if you take step #1, then step #2, and so forth. What -exactly- \
are these steps?
Where, in the immediate future, the next hour, but no worse than the nest day,
will this take you? And understand that anyone who is willing to follow you
will want to know "what's in it for me?" If it becomes clear that there will be
no "payoff" in a reasonable time, you will lose your followers.
To put it in such terms, this isn't about bringing about the arrival of the
Kingdom of Heaven to Earth, it is about real world advice for
launching a start-up. Keep it practical even though you
also need a vision for great things down the road.
--------------------------
“Abraham Lincoln was asked by an aide about the church service he had attended.
Lincoln responded that the minister was inspired, interesting, well-prepared,
eloquent and the topic relevant. The aide said, “Then it was a good service?”
Lincoln responded, “No.” The aide protested,
“But, Mr. President, you said that the minister was inspired, interesting,
well-prepared,
eloquent, and that the topic was relevant.”
“Yes,” replied Lincoln, “but he didn’t challenge us to do any great thing.”
---------------
Imagine a place where everyone chooses to bring energy, passion, and
a positive attitude every day.
Stephen C. Lundin
Neoteny is more than retaining a youthful appearance, although that is often
part of it. Neoteny is the retention of all those wonderful qualities that we
associate
with youth: curiosity, playfulness, eagerness, fearlessness, warmth, energy.
Unlike those defeated by time and age, our geezers have remained much like our
geeks
–open, willing to take risks, hungry for knowledge and experience, courageous,
eager to see what the new day brings. Time and loss steal the zest from the
unlucky,
and leave them looking longingly at the past. Neoteny is a metaphor for the
quality
–and the gift– that keeps the fortunate of whatever age focused on all marvelous
undiscovered things to come.
Warren G. Bennis
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Helping others reach their goals
*
Outstanding leaders go out of their way to boost the self-esteem of their
personnel.
If people believe in themselves, it's amazing what they can accomplish.
Sam Walton
I start with the premise that the function of leadership is to produce more
leaders,
not more followers.
Ralph Nader
No man will make a great leader who wants to do it all himself, or to get
all the credit for doing it.
Andrew Carnegie
It is better to lead from behind and to put others in front, especially when
you celebrate victory when nice things occur. You take the front line when
there is danger.
Then people will appreciate your leadership.
Nelson Mandela
*
*
Power isn’t control at all —power is strength, and giving that strength to
others.
A leader isn’t someone who forces others to make him stronger; a leader is
someone willing to give his strength to others that they may have
the strength to stand on their own.
Beth Revis,
* It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the
credit.
* Harry S Truman
*
* ---------------------------------------
*
*
Encouragement
One of the best ways to influence people is to make them feel important.
Roy T. Bennett
*
*
You will never reach your dreams without honoring others along the way.
John Paul Warren
*
To lead is to put myself below another so that I can lift up another.
And true leadership means that I will keep them in that position and me in mine.
Craig D. Lounsbrough
*
* When you encourage others, you boost their self-esteem, enhance their
self-confidence,
make them work harder, lift their spirits and make them successful in their
endeavors.
Encouragement goes straight to the heart and is always available.
Be an encourager. Always.
Roy Bennett
True leaders understand that leadership is not about them but about those they
serve.
It is not about exalting themselves but about lifting others up.
Sheri L. Dew
Always remember people who have helped you along the way,
and don’t forget to lift someone up
Roy T. Bennett
(On being in a position of leadership) Even if it's your dog, you've got
authority
over somebody. Start treating him better.
Joyce Meyer
*
*
One word of encouragement can be enough to spark someone’s motivation
to continue with a difficult challenge.
Roy T. Bennett
*
*
* BR comment:
* You would think that the value of encouraging others would be
self-evident.
* However, it is anything but common wisdom. Thanks to how libertarian
values
* have permeated society -and the Church- the idea that it is good to
encourage others
* is largely ignored. After all, the libertarian mindset has it that we are
all islands,
* we all stand alone, and if you can't hack it, screw you.
*
It is difficult to try and think of a more anti-Christian attitude.
* There is a rule I have tried to follow in the past even though, to be
sure,
* the principle does not apply all that often -so far. And to be honest
about it,
* maybe I honor it mostly in the breech. But it is a goal of mine, one that
* I want to honor fully in the future whenever genuine success comes my way.
This does not mean that I have the least intention of giving away the store
just as I am getting started. I deserve some time to get my house in order,
to build a first rate business, to set aside resources for long term purposes,
etc.
However, at some point it is my intention, as a rough guide, to...
*
* Follow the 2/3rds rule: When you have success of some kind, when you
* hit the jackpot, at least if it amounts to something, after you have taken
* your 2/3rd cut, be sure that those who have helped you reach your goal
* get a 1/3rd cut, or, if that does not really seem fair to yourself, a
1/4th cut,
* maybe less, but something substantial and meaningful. And in some cases,
* when it really is called for, my cut should not be more than 51%.
Sure, everyone wants to be a star, even if it only is the star of the
purchasing department.
But you are better off if you make others better off in the process -you will
be
appreciated more and earn more respect. Politicians know this instinctively.
Speeches by the winners in elections always include paeans of praise for
those who helped someone get elected. It may be boring for most TV viewers
but for those receiving thanks, it is music to their ears. Plus they know that
there might be a good job in the Senator-elect's office, a good referral that
helps boost their career, or knowledge that one's spouse will be proud,
*
Don't hog he spotlight, spread the glory around. Give others the credit they
deserve,
Build others up and they will thank you and be in your gratitude.
*
* In other words, give your bad ego a swift kick. Refuse to listen to your
bad ego.
* Listen to your good ego instead, and share your good fortune.
*
Read the Apostle Paul's letters some time. He stressed this principle
repeatedly,
*
In case you have not noticed.
*
---------------
*
Be a good shepherd
*
A leader.....is like a shepherd. He stays behind the flock, letting the most
nimble
go out ahead, whereupon the others follow, not realizing that all along they
are being directed from behind.
Nelson Mandela
Leadership is the art of giving people a platform for spreading ideas that work.
Seth Godin
True leadership lies in guiding others to success. In ensuring that everyone is
performing
at their best, doing the work they are pledged to do and doing it well.
Bill Owens
BR comment:
*
Being a good shepherd also means being a good teacher.
*
*
There is a pop culture adage that says: "Those who can, do, those who can't,
teach."
This saying is pure horse crap. Every skill you know was taught to you by
someone else.
*
Teaching is essential to everything worth doing in the world. My experience
working
*
for the US Navy impressed me for a lesson taught to me by the Navy, which is
that
*
the Navy is an educational institution as much as it is a branch of the US
Military.
*
The Navy has no choice. There are always new technologies to master, there
always
are new recruits to train, and some jobs onboard an aircraft carrier demand
nothing less
than extreme competence. To achieve its objectives the Navy constantly educates
people. You need to do so also, if you want followers for your leadership.
And education is a way of sharing.
You aren't very good at teaching? Uhhh, you can learn how to become good,
can't you?
Not by concentrating on what you have been doing all along, but by learning
new teaching skills from others. Ask any good teacher; there is a helluva lot
more
to it than standing before a class of students and talking. That is only a
fraction
of what it takes. Most of all you need to want to teach others, but there
are effective ways to do so, that is what you need to master.
*
----------------------------------------------
*
Special people
BR comment:
Face it, some people really are special. They have unique talents, or are very,
very smart,
or are extremely skilled at what they do. How can a leader make the most of the
opportunity
to lead someone special?
Ted Williams was one of the all time greats at the game of baseball. He was
also notorious
for his temperament -and occasional temper. About which his manager, Joe
McCarthy
of the Boston Red Sox, once said:
* Any manager who can't get along with a .400 hitter is crazy.
Alternatively:
Its a really bad manager who can't get along with a .400 hitter.
What made Ted Williams tick? He once explained it this way-
* .
* "A man has to have goals --for a day, for a lifetime-- and that was
mine, to have people say,
* 'There goes Ted Williams, the greatest hitter who ever lived.'"
He was good, extraordinarily good, and he knew it. In my humble opinion, he
deserved
to indulge his ego now and then. He also said:
*
* "...baseball gives every American boy a chance to excel, not just to be
as good
* as someone else but to be better than someone else. This is the nature
of man
* and the name of the game."
A leader should want to maximize the value of a "Ted Williams" if he is
fortunate enough
* to be in a position of leadership vis-a-vis a genuine "talent," someone
special.
*
* But not all talents are successful, or if successful in the past, not in
the here-and-now.
* A case in point concerns a friend of Alexander Hamilton, William Coleman.
* He was a lawyer and former state legislator in Massachusetts; his career
had
* looked bright while the Federalists were in power but after Jefferson's
second
* election things went downhill for Coleman. Jefferson's republican
associate,
* governor De Witt Clinton, was in the midst of purging Federalists from
government
* employment, and Coleman lost his job as a clerk for the Circuit Court.
* He had little money and basically he was hanging on by his fingernails.
*
* This was when Hamilton intervened.
* The story is told on pages 649-650 of Ron Chernow's 2004 volume,
Alexander Hamilton.
*
* Hamilton, at the time -this was 1801- wanted to start a newspaper in
New York City
* to try and offer a strong counter narrative to the republican (lower
case) views of
* Jefferson's supporters in the city. This became the NY Post, now the
longest running
* newspaper published in the United States, But in early 1801 this was far
from a given.
* Hamilton needed someone to oversee the new journal.
*
* If the newspaper business seems alien to you, think of this in more
contemporary terms,
* say a professional quality website, a radio station, a cable TV
channel........
*
* Hamilton knew that this would be controversial, he was already enmeshed
in a dispute with
* another Federalist, Noah Webster. But his mission seemed to him to be
essential,
* get the Federalist Party out of its doldrums and make it competitive
again. This was
* not to be, of course, but there would have been no chance whatsoever if
Hamilton
* had not at least given it a serious all-out try. And had he lived, who
is to say
* that the Federalists were doomed to fade away? If anyone could
* have rescued the Federalists it was Hamilton.
What Hamilton needed was an editor for the Post. He knew Coleman and trusted
him
and admired his writing. And so it came to pass that Hamilton offered him the
position
and made sure to set him up with a fully functional newspaper office and
whatever it took
to get the paper into circulation.
Presumably Hamilton spent some of his own money along the way, but he (Hamilton)
was not rich, he could not afford to bankroll the publication. Yet he had
important contacts
and was not reluctant to call on them for help. Some of them also knew about
Coleman and
his talents -and experience. He was a first rate writer with considerable
potential;
if he became editor of the paper the Post surely would have a bright future.
And so it did.
Whatever you may think of Hamilton's politics, he was someone with real class.
He had wanted to help Coleman out and here was a really good way to do it.
Besides, if he did help Coleman regain his professional footing, the man
could be an important ally in politics. Coleman's difficulties were an
opportunity, was how Hamilton saw it, to advance his own interests.
And the interests of the Federalist Party.
And what would Hamilton have looked like to the leadership class in America
if he had done nothing to help Coleman?
It is worth pondering what would have happened if Hamilton had been a small
man,
not speaking of physical stature but in terms of ethos. What if Hamilton had
said
to Coleman, "Well, I can help you out with $20 but that's it" ? Or: "I have
some ideas
for you that might help with the newspaper as soon as you find a way to get it
started
on your own. Good luck."
History would have been different.
However, Hamilton was anything but a small man.
---
Too many companies believe people are interchangeable. Truly gifted people
never are.
They have unique talents. Such people cannot be forced into roles they are not
suited for,
nor should they be. Effective leaders allow great people to do the work they
were born to do.
Warren Bennis
*
-----------------------------------------------
*
*
*
The right kind of people
*
*
*
*
The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do
what he wants done, and self-restraint to keep from meddling with them while
they do it.
Theodore Roosevelt
People are an organization's most valuable asset and the key to its success.
Dave Bookbinder
You need the right kind of people in your life. Weed out the wrong people
Ikechukwu Josep
Leadership is less about motivating people to act and more about
choosing motivated people who act.
Richie Norton
*
Effective leadership is not about making speeches or being liked;
leadership is defined by results, not attributes.
Peter Drucker
BR comment:
For good results you need competent and well informed people to work along
side of.
Why anyone would want to go through life without being well-informed mystifies
me
completely. Socrates said that the unexamined life is not worth living. Maybe
we can
add a corollary: The uninformed life is inexcusable. If you are uninformed
you should be ashamed of yourself.
-------------------------------------------------
*
* Imperfect people
*
*
*
Give me your prejudices -give me your biases- give me your hatred -give me
your conditioned soul- and I will give you a unified and humane humanity.
Abhijit Naskar
*
* BR comment:
* We all have prejudices and we all hate some things and otherwise are
creatures
* with subjective inclinations and biases. This is reality. Accept it for
what it is.
* Then work with this reality to try and help others become better people.
* Try to make yourself a better person.
There is a quote from a source I have forgotten, which concerns a conversation
among friends in Victorian England. Someone was talking about the laws of
nature
and the beast within us all, saying that his faults and occasional bad behavior
result from human nature. To which a matronly woman replied: "But we were
put here to rise above our nature."
About our biases, sometimes they are antipathies, not prejudices. What is the
difference?
A prejudice originates with someone else, a parent, a friend, someone in the
community
who you think should be listened to. Antipathy results from experience and
nobody
tells you what bias you should harbor, you figure it out all by yourself.
This can be good or it can be bad, I admit to having a pro-Japanese bias
because of all the Japanese I have met in my life, the clear -vast- majority
of whom
are decent and likeable and and intelligent people. But I also have negative
biases
about people who are part of a population group that, by and large, is often
not very swift when it comes to intelligence, that extols all kinds of biases
against white people, and a significant percentage of which
consists of convicts or ex-convicts.
I knew perfectly well that my antipathy is unfair to some of the people
in this population, indeed, I deeply regret it when this happens.
*
But what is anyone supposed to think when this population has,
*
among its "star" leaders Cultural Marxists like Al Sharpton and
*
Maxine Waters and many other bigoted fanatics just like them?
*
But the problem, large scale ignorance, anti-white prejudices,
and high rates of criminality, won't go away by pretending
these liabilities don't exist. So, if there is going to be a solution it had
better be based on truth, otherwise there can't be a solution.
The problem also won't be solved until I take into account the prejudices of
a significant percentage of white people.
The point of all of this being that we can never associate only with perfect
people.
Their aren't any. Everyone has biases and everyone is a sinner of some kind.
Thus we need to figure out some way to live and work together in a society
that consists of nothing but imperfect people. Including yourself.
-----------------------------------
Being responsible sometimes means pissing people off.
Colin Powell, On Leadership<https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/2227377>
BR comment:
When it is justifiable. Be sure it is justifiable. Sometimes people need
a dressing down. You cannot be respected if you make yourself a doormat.
Of if you tolerate shoddy work, or accept, without comment, someone's ignorance
who should know better. If someone gets ticked off in the process, that's life.
You can't always be "Mr Nice." Get used to it.
-----------------------------------------
*
* Know your limitations, admit your limitations
*
<https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/2227377>
If you can't swallow your pride, you can't lead. Even the highest mountain
* has animals that step on it.
Jack Weatherford
*
*
The world is full of men who want to be right, when actually the secret of
a man's strength and his pathway to true honor is his ability to admit fault
when he has failed. God wants to fill the church with men who can say
they are wrong when THEY ARE WRONG. A man who is willing to
humble himself before God and his family and say:"I was wrong." will find
that his family has all the confidence in the world in him and will much more
readily follow him. If he stubbornly refuses to repent or admit he was wrong,
their confidence in him and in his leadership erodes.
Jim Anderson
* BR comment:
I could not have said what these two quotes say, any better.
*
*
* -----------------------------------------------------------------
*
Concluding quotations:
*
* Leaders think and talk about the solutions. Followers think and talk
about the problems.
Brian Tracy
A ruler should be slow to punish and swift to reward.
Ovid
Anyone can hold the helm when the sea is calm.
Publilius Syrus
BR Comment:
But what this is all about is navigating through a hurricane,
Eugene, Oregon
December 30, 2018
--
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