Quotes About Leadership

We have to do more than just elect a new President if we truly want to change this country.

In George Bush you get experience, and with me you get - The Future!

One word sums up probably the responsibility of any vice president, and that one word is to be prepared.

We see elected officials pounding their chests, saying their vision of America represents the only real patriotism. To them I say that patriotism is not a cudgel. It is not an arms race.

People can disagree politically and philosophically on all the issues that confront our nation, but if more of our elected officials had served in causes other than their own advancement, I believe they would approach their jobs with less certainty in their own assumptions and more sympathy for the needs of others.

I worry that our nation today suffers from a deficit of empathy, and this is especially true of many in positions of national leadership

God forbid, but if this nation ultimately fails, I believe it will be because opinions, propaganda, and superstitions replaced facts as the basis for our governance.

We live in debt to those who have served and died, a debt tallied in blood. And too often our political leaders who commit our young men, and now young women, into war do not take this truth into account with an adequate fullness of measure.

It should be clear to our political leaders that a new energy strategy could be the next technological revolution America could lead. But we are ceding the momentum to others such as China. Our planet and our national prosperity are already suffering from the decline in our leadership.

But why, some say, the moon? Why choose this as our goal? . . . We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win.

George Washington, in his famous Farewell Address, warned future generations "to guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism.

But there should be no dispute that if American schools don't improve, America will lose its world leadership.

Looking back, the only ones who really paid for Abu Ghraib were the enlisted personnel, who were following orders, and General Taguba, who brought the problem to light.

Our planet and our national prosperity are already suffering from the decline in our leadership.

Some lead by example, like Rand Fishkin of Moz (formerly SEOmoz), who says his goal is to create a hundred new millionaires — then issued additional stock grants for every Moz employee as a part of the Series B funding, directly out of his personal holdings, to ensure that a financing round wouldn't be dilutive.

The CEO's greatest influence on the company isn't her contributions to the product, the strategy, or even getting the company funded. The CEO's greatest contribution to the company is the wizardry required to hire a team that is going to be amazingly effective at executing the company's strategy. Great CEOs hire teams that are far better than they have any right to expect. Put succinctly, a core competency for a CEO is to "date up." This

Who was Hitler?' I said. Tyrena smiled slightly. 'An Old Earth politician who did some writing.

People who spend most of their time putting out fires are usually also the arsonists.

That's what real leadership is: Creating and clarifying the vision (the "what"), and giving that vision greater context and importance (the "why") for all Whos involved. Once the "what" and "why" have clearly been established, the specified "Who" or "Whos" have all they need to go about executing the "How." All the leader needs to do at that point is support and encourage the Who(s) through the process.

That's what real leadership is: Creating and clarifying the vision (the "what"), and giving that vision greater context and importance (the "why") for all Whos involved.

10x quality and transformation is how you race to the top. 2x quantity and competition is how you race to the bottom.

In the book The Dip, Seth Godin explains the importance and benefits of becoming the best in the world at what you do. As Godin explains in The Dip: "The rewards are heavily skewed, so much so that it's typical for #1 to get ten times the benefit of #10, and a hundred times the benefit of #100.

When one understands more fully the symbiosis of leader and follower, then perhaps Smith will seem less a puzzle and more like a person fulfilling his own needs through his followers. Shamans, prophets, heroes, and charismatic leaders are in important ways social constructs,2 because they mirror back to their followers what is demanded of them.

Linus Torvalds, the creator of Linux, is an expert of understatement in his leadership of Linux development community. When eager programmers would ask him, '"What part of Linux should I work on?' his answer would usually be, '"Let me know when you find out' (p.286).