Quotes About Leadership

When I was your age we had men in the church—don't frown, it makes me want to clout you—men I say—make what you like of the word-heads of a parish, masters, my boy, rulers.  They could hold a whole country together, that sort could—with a mere lift of the chin.  Oh, I know what you're going to say: they fed well, drank good wine and didn't object to a game of cards.  Well, what of it?

War is too important a matter to be left to the military.

Show my head to the people, it is worth seeing.

A statesman is a politician who places himself at the service of the nation. A politician is a statesman who places the nation at his service.

People would say you look weak if you're not cursing the opposition and driving around in a big black car while always wearing a tie. Above all, to be 'strong' you're always supposed to be giving orders.

At Ogilvy & Mather, founder David Mather established the practice of sending each new branch head a nested set of wooden dolls—each doll opens to reveal a smaller replica of the doll. Inside the smallest is a message: "If each of us hires people who are smaller than we are, we shall become a company of dwarfs; but if each of us hires people who are bigger than we are, Ogilvy & Mather will become a company of giants."1

People don't become leaders because they never fail. They become leaders because of the way they respond to failure.

If you are a leader, the people are your work.

One of the hardest choices for technical stars who become leaders is losing touch with the latest in technology.

In the seed model, Leadership is the process of creating an environment in which people become empowered.

you don't have to be a boss to be a leader

problem-solving leaders have one thing in common: a faith that there's always a better way

Why is it that we reward programmers who work all night to remove the errors they put into their programs, or managers who make drastic organizational changes to resolve the crises their poor management has created? Why not reward the programmers who design so well that they don't have dramatic errors, and managers whose organizations stay out of crisis mode? Organizing

When people who are driven by a vision see something wrong, they might say to their teammates, "I feel bad because we're not building the kind of system we can be proud of. What shall we do so we don't feel this way?" On

If your whole team consists of novice programmers, your expertise will give you considerable power; but if the other team members are also experts, they will attach less importance to your technical expertise. In that case, they'll pay more attention to organizational power, like the power to acquire extra hardware, to extend the schedule, or to capture a more interesting assignment.

Effective leaders often have to act even when they don't understand all possible factors

If you are a good leader, Who talks little, They will say, When your work is done, And your aim fulfilled, "We did it ourselves." - Lao Tse

In the popular image, a problem-solving leader is a solitary genius, but the true leader prefers to produce a success.

Books are no substitute for experience working with people, so now that you've read this book on leadership, go out and interact with people before you read any more.

Blaming someone else will only put the solution further out of reach.

If you are a leader, the people are your work. There is no other work worth doing.* One

Never turn your back on government.

If you want to know a king, see how he treats his defeated foes. All are gracious to their equals; one in a thousand is gracious to an enemy he has conquered.

Benedict's resignation was a selfless act since he had come to realize he was not capable of leading the modern church and making the tough decisions that were needed. "It wasn't one thing, but a whole combination of them," concluded Paolo Rodari, Il Foglio's veteran Vatican reporter. Vatileaks, said Rodari, "was a constant drumbeat on the Pope."33