Quotes About Leadership

Being a good lead is all about switching hats: knowing which level of abstraction to work at to solve a problem. It's rarely a question of intelligence; instead, it's picking the right perspective to use on a particular challenge.

Someone has to define what we're trying to get to and clarify which ideas are both more and less important in completing that vision.

The responsibility of people in power is to continually eliminate useless traditions and introduce valuable ones.

Starting a company, or even a project team, is an exceedingly hard challenge, but in the scramble to survive, founders often hire to solve immediate needs and simultaneously create long-term problems.

I couldn't help but consider what Washington Roebling, one of the engineers of the Brooklyn Bridge, once wrote: "Man is after all a finite being in capacities and powers of doing actual work. But when it comes to planning, one mind can in a few hours think out enough work to keep a thousand men employed for years."2

No matter how many golden lectures a leader gives imploring people to "Be collaborative" or "Work as a team," if the people hired have destructive habits, the lecture will lose.

It's a great bullshit test of any boss who says, "X is important." If she doesn't match that statement with resources, she's incompetent, insincere, or both.

a leader in a crisis situation has better odds of success if she can see emotional patterns and make use of different ways to manage them.

Many smart people can recognize when there is a problem, but few expend the energy to find a solution, and then summon the courage to do it.

For every awkward debate on a P2, there was often a private Skype chat where it was resolved. Matt set good examples for praising in public and critiquing in private.

good thinking wins,

Persuasion is stronger than dictation

One side effect of having teams is there will always be things that fall through the cracks. Teams create territories.

Politics is a kind of problem solving. No matter what organizational challenge you face, and how frustrating it might be, it's just another kind of problem to solve.

Succession planning must be part of any long-term leader's thinking, and it has to be done now.

A good sign as a leader is when output is high and meetings are short.

Look for smart ways around a problem or faster ways to resolve them. Make effective use of the people around you instead of assuming you have to do everything yourself.

meetings can be used to stay ahead, flagging issues before they become blockers.

Knowing how much friction is needed and when to apply it is the skill that successful leaders, from the coach of a competitive basketball team to the conductor of an orchestra, must master.

Avoid letting anyone in your sphere of influence flail or panic. Stay calm, help others to stay calm, and work together

The responsibility of people in power is to continually eliminate useless traditions and introduce valuable ones. An organization where nothing ever changes is not a workplace but a living museum.

After years of leading projects, the best thing I've learned is that I have to periodically shift between thinking small (bazaar) and thinking long term (cathedral).

I'd take a great team with bad methods over a lousy team with great methods any day.

It's deep in human nature to look to the top to define our own behavior,