Rosalynn Carter, US First Lady (b. 1927)
Managers are often so busy cutting through the undergrowth they don’t even realise they are in the wrong jungle. A leader is a person who climbs the tallest tree, surveys the entire situation, and yells, ‘Wrong jungle!’
Stephen Covey, US management author, presenter (b. 1932)
People buy into the leader before they buy into the vision.
John C Maxwell, US clergyman, author (b. 1947)
I start with the premise that the function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers.
Ralph Nader, US lawyer, Presidential candidate (b. 1934)
I used to think that running an organisation was equivalent to conducting a symphony orchestra. But I don’t think that’s quite it; it’s more like jazz. There is more improvisation.
Warren Bennis, US academic, management author (b. 1925)
Let me state a basic old form of leadership. This anachronism is the person who in effect says to his organisation, ‘I order all of you insignificant little people to come to work excited, energetic, and creative and to accomplish impossible tasks so that I may become rich and famous and live a luxurious life travelling around the world and building a home on the Riviera and playing golf with other important people like myself. By the way, I want you to park in the outer lot and slog through the snow past the empty parking space with my name on it, and I also want you to pay for your coffee while I get mine free, served on fine china.’
Robert Townsend, US author, businessman (1920-1998)
You manage things; you lead people.
Grace Murray Hooper, US naval officer, Admiral (1906-1992)
A leader has a vision and conviction that a dream can be achieved. He inspires the power and energy to get it done.
Ralph Lauren, US fashion designer (b. 1939)
The leader who knows when to listen, when to act, and when to withdraw can work effectively with nearly everyone.
John Heider, US management author (b. 1936)
No man is great enough or wise enough for any of us to surrender our destiny to. The only way in which anyone can lead us is to restore to us the belief in our own guidance.
Henry Miller, US author (1891-1980)
Mention the word leadership and the vast majority of folks think of Gandhi or Churchill or Iacocca. In doing so, they raise the concept to a level where it seems relevant to a handful of people at most. Thinking that way, the younger manager doesn’t try to develop her own leadership potential. Leadership with a small ‘l’ is of incredible importance in today’s world. Needless to say, it would greatly help if we could get more people to think of leadership in the ‘small l’ sense, and not just the larger than life ‘capital L’ sense.
John Kotter, US author (b. 1947)
One of the advantages of being a captain is being able to ask for advice without necessarily having to take it.
Captain James T Kirk, character in ‘Star Trek’, created by Gene Roddenberry (1921-1991)
A leader is best
When people barely know that he exists,
Not so good when people obey and acclaim him,
Worse when they despise him.
‘Fail to honour people,
They fail to honour you’;
But of a good leader, who talks little,
When his work is done, his aim fulfilled,
They will also say, ‘We did this ourselves.’
Lao Tzu, Chinese founder of Taoism, author (6th Century BC)
We can’t all be heroes because somebody has to sit on the kerb and clap as they go by.
Will Rogers, US actor, humorist (1879-1935)
The graveyards are full of indispensable men.
Charles de Gaulle, French President, general (1890-1970)
A politician thinks of the next election - a statesman of the next generation.
James Freeman Clarke, US minister, theologian, author (1810-1888)
Life is like a dogsled team. If you ain’t the lead dog, the scenery never changes.
Lewis Grizzard, US columnist, humorist (1946-1994)
Be willing to make decisions. That’s the most important quality in a good leader.
George S Patton, US general (1885-1945)
Eagles don’t flock – you have to find them one at a time.
Henry Ross Perot, US executive, Presidential candidate (b. 1930)
A good leader is a person who takes a little more than his share of the blame and a little less than his share of the credit.
John C Maxwell, US clergyman, author (b. 1947)
Make a careful list of all things done to you that you abhorred. Don’t do them to others, ever. Make another list of things done to you that you loved. Do them to others, always.
Dee Hock, US financial business executive (b. 1929)
Learning
I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it.
Pablo Picasso, Spanish painter (1881-1973)
The difference between what the most and the least learned people know is inexpressibly trivial in relation to that which is unknown.
Albert Einstein, German physicist (1879-1955)
At the core of active learning is a deceptively simple requirement; students must be personally invested in the learning process.
David Garvin, US academic, business author
Sit down before a fact as a little child, be prepared to give up every preconceived notion, follow humbly wherever and whatever abyss nature leads or you shall learn nothing.
Thomas Henry Huxley, British biologist, philosopher (1825-1895)
Learn to Unlearn.
R D Laing, British psychiatrist (1927-1989)
Prepare yourself in the subject so well that it shall be always on tap: then in the classroom trust your spontaneity and fling away all further care.
William James, US philosopher, psychologist (1842-1910)
The ability to learn faster than the competition is often the only sustainable competitive advantage a company can have.
Arie de Geus, Dutch oil executive, management presenter (b. 1930)
Over the long run, superior performance depends on superior learning.
Peter Senge, US management author, presenter (b. 1947)
The illiterate of the future will not be the person who cannot read. It will be the person who does not know how to learn.
Alvin Toffler, US management author, editor (b. 1928)
In a time of drastic change it is the learners who inherit the future. The learned usually find themselves equipped to live in a world that no longer exists.
Eric Hoffer, US philosopher, author, longshoreman (1902-1983)