Quotes About Leadership

placing her because of the way she said "my boys" as the heart and soul of the school, the Woman Who Knew Everybody And Everything. He always felt blessed when he met up with such women because they were generally the key to unlocking the secret doors to an institution.

There were five commissioners.

Jed McCarthy liked the way the situation was shaping up. He considered himself a kind of master of managing group dynamics, and he had once again proved himself right. He tried not to act too smug or vainglorious about it, although it wasn't easy.

We used to have a pretty good country. At least I think we did. Then something happened. It's our fault 'cause we let it. We used to be a people who had a government," he said, looking up, his eyes fierce again. "Now it's the other way around.

It is not power that corrupts but fear. Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who are subject to it. —Aung San Suu Kyi, "Freedom from Fear

with the very long-term political class.

It's easier to reach for the stars when you stand on the shoulders of giants.

Politics is like dice: the better the player, the worse the man.

Morgan laughed. 'Captain Grenville doesn't know the Mary Rose, though at least he's a seaman, unlike some of the captains. Most are knighted gentlemen, you see, to put us in awe.' Like Sir Franklin with the soldiers, I thought

ON FRIDAY, AUGUST 3, 1492, Don Cristóbal Colón—newly entitled as High Admiral and newly appointed a noble of our court—departs the port of Palos. He travels with three ships—the Niña, the Pinta, and the Santa María. Serenaded by his crew, he stands at the prow of the Santa María, the wind ruffling his silvery hair. He looks ahead, always ahead, to the horizon.

Do What Steve Jobs Did, Not What He Said

Why bother hiring a hotshot if the bulk of their time is spent doing administrative work?

Perhaps Marshall's most striking habit was his insistence on leaving the office each day at 5:30 p.m. In an age before cell phones and email, Marshall didn't put in a second shift late into the night once he got home. Having experienced burnout earlier in his career, he felt it was important to relax in the evening. "A man who worked himself to tatters on minor details had no ability to handle the more vital issues of war," he once said.

Richard II's famous lament: "I live with bread like you, feel want, / Taste grief, need friends: subjected thus, / How can you say to me, I am a king?"18

The 4 Disciplines of Execution,

To ask a CEO to spend four hours thinking deeply about a single problem is a waste of what makes him or her valuable. It's better to hire three smart subordinates to think deeply about the problem and then bring their solutions to the executive for a final decision.

The Innovators, Isaacson later

A leader needs the guts to stand alone and look ridiculous,

Discipline #4: Create a Cadence of Accountability

Microsoft CEO Bill Gates famously conducted "Think Weeks" twice a year, during which he would isolate himself (often in a lakeside cottage) to do nothing but read and think big thoughts.

A good chief executive is essentially a hard-to-automate decision engine,

In response to Rose's trademark ambiguous grunt, Martin defended his advice: "If somebody's thinking, 'How can I be really good?' people are going to come to you.

No one ever changed the world, created a new industry, or amassed a fortune due to their fast email response time.

The 4DX framework is based on the fundamental premise that execution is more difficult than strategizing.