Quotes About Leadership

Collins would have had to resolve within himself the tensions of his dual role. Head of a democratic Government, head of a secret society which in fact regarded itself as a Government within a Government. Conspirator versus democrat. Destroyer versus builder. He might not have been able to resolve these conflicts and might have disintegrated in drink or disillusionment.

Collins' comment was: 'a captain who sent his crew to sea, and tried to direct operations from dry land'.

With Collins gone the major political personality left in the Free State was on the other side, de Valera.

Sean Etchingham said of them, 'the women in the Dail will show they are the best men in it'.

a local priest, Canon Cohalan of Bandon, preached a famous sermon in which he thundered: 'The day Michael Collins was killed where was de Valera?

de Valera had better fortune in efforts to regain power. His pacific arguments of August had not found acceptance. A line more likely to secure extremist support was again espoused with such success that by January 1923 he had regained influence once more with the Republican military leadership to a point where he was in a position to draft a statement for Liam Lynch rejecting peace proposals.

There was Brigade Major Montgomery, later Field Marshal Montgomery of El Alamein, who wrote of his Irish experiences: 'My whole attention was given to defeating the rebels. It never bothered me a bit how many houses were burned.

I submit it is not in the competence of the President to choose his own procedure. This is either a constitutional body or it is not. If it is an autocracy let you say so and we will leave it.

Dealing with police and politics were the pivotal props of the system...

to paraphrase Lincoln's remark when Grant's drinking was reported to him, if Collins did drink as heavily as alleged I would seriously advocate that the cadets in the Irish Army Staff college be instructed to partake of a few glasses of his favourite John Jameson

From the very beginning and indeed prior to anybody going out I knew very well what to expect from the people in command in the U.S.A. However, the best not the worst must be made of them, and there is little doubt that eventually things will be all right.

very similar to his conduct at the Republican Convention in Chicago. There he was more concerned to show that he was the leader of Irish opinion than with the possible benefits to Ireland of the Cohalan-sponsored resolution.

Unlike de Valera whose talent lay in getting and holding power, Collins asked himself the question, 'All this for what?', and tried to provide the answers.

One of the things about leadership is that you've got to show up. And if you want to be president of the United States you've got to make a case to the American people that Barack Obama needs to be dismissed from his position.

Good managers succeed because of, not in spite of, their teams and raise their game by raising the game of the whole team, not by distancing themselves from them in pointing out their errors.

Americans accept that gangsters are running the government.

Is Walt turning over in his grave? A man named Joe Roth runs Disney right now-he gave me the go-ahead and total freedom to do whatever I wanted to do.

His [Luke]letter went something like this: "Dear Mr President, Thank you for introducing me to the Hall of Famers and for showing me the Oval Office. I think if I work really hard I will have a chance for both." The next time I saw the president I told him about my son's ambitious plans. His response was beautiful: "Never get between a boy and his dreams

You make decisions, not suggestions; you know the answer while everyone else is still asking questions.

He never sees problems, only situations to resolve, and when he finds the solution, he doesn't waste time explaining it. He just says, "I got this.

When you're an A+ person, you want A+ people around you, and everyone has to be accountable for doing A+ work.

That's what champions do; they put people in place to get results and make everyone else around them look better.

Cleaner's attitude can be summed up in three words: I own this. He walks in with confidence and leaves with results. A Cleaner has the guts and the vision to steer everything to his advantage.

Nice, smart people succeed.