Quotes About Leadership

Project leaders must be champions of technical excellence; they must support and advocate technical excellence while maintaining a watchful eye on other project objectives.

Effective project leaders focus on people, product, and process—in that order. Without the right people, nothing gets built. Without a laser focus on product value, extraneous activities creep in. Without a minimum process framework, there can be inefficiency and possibly a little chaos.

At any organizational level people are leaders not because of what they do, but because of who they are.

If we want to build great products, we need great people. If we want to attract and keep great people, we need great principles.

Self-organizing teams form the core of APM. They blend freedom and responsibility, flexibility and structure. In the face of inconsistency and ambiguity, the teams strive to consistently deliver on the product vision within the project constraints. Accomplishing this requires teams with a self-organizing structure and self-disciplined individual team members. Building this kind of team is the core of an agile project leader's job.

Innovative ideas aren't generated in structured, authoritarian environments but in an adaptive culture based on the principles of self-organization and self-discipline.

Agile organizations must adhere to the same values as agile teams: • Delivering value over meeting constraints • Leading the team over managing tasks • Adapting to change over conforming to plans Executives and managers need to lead their organizations in living these values and taking actions based on them—and one of the critical areas on which they need to take action is measuring performance in ways that encourage their organizations to embrace agility.

Some people say we need a third party. I wish we had a second one.

Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men's blood. —Daniel H. Burnham

We saw what happened in Jimmy Carter's administration. President Carter was a good man with the best of intentions. But he came to Washington without a good working relationship with Democratic members of Congress, which played a big part in his administration's problems.

Employees take weekends off, entrepreneurs dont.

Aspire to be the leader your team wants and the brand deserves.

Whatever your level of leadership, use your influence to move the company from strategy-based to culture-focused.

Even if your company is experiencing good times now, the business will eventually be at risk if the leadership culture is not strong or aligned.

Strong cultures are to organizations what breathing life-giving oxygen is to the body, while weak ones are like poisonous carbon monoxide. Don't ignore the cultural health of the business.

Being a leader on a quest to amp up your company's culture might be one of the hardest things you will ever do, but the journey is so worth it. It can be life-changing.

Surround yourself with the right people and you'll have the right culture.

The greatest accelerant to a cultural flame is leadership.

Now and forever, culture is only as strong or weak as the employees that make up the organization.

Are you surrounded by rock stars or lip-synchers?

Become a culture catalyst. While protecting the company's heritage, take bold risks that other people only dream about or are too scared to try.

A single leader with a great idea can start a cultural revolution.

Get in the game. Regardless of your leadership level, real culture change only happens by thinking differently, acting on those new ideas and fearlessly defending the decisions later.

Part of a leader's groundwork is in honing work ethic.