Quotes About Action

Most leaders focus only on the third tactic. A bigger tribe somehow equals a better tribe. In fact, the first two tactics almost always lead to more impact. Every action you take as a leader can affect these three elements, and the challenge is to figure out which one to maximize.

People don't remember what they read, what they hear, or even what they see. If they're lucky, people remember what they do, but they're not very good at that either. We remember what we rehearse.

Lean in, back off, but don't do nothing.

Reacting, as Zig Ziglar has said, is what your body does when you take the wrong kind of medicine. Reacting is what politicians do all the time.

Organizations respond to competitive threats. Individuals respond to colleagues or to opportunities. Response is always better than reaction.

Initiating is really and truly difficult, and that's what leaders do.

Creativity Is an Action, Not a Feeling Marie Schacht points out that we can't always do much about how we feel, particularly when it's about something important. But we can always control our actions. Your work is too important to be left to how you feel today. On the other hand, committing to an action can change how we feel. If we act as though we trust the process and do the work, then the feelings will follow. Waiting for a feeling is a luxury we don't have time for.

Si no acabas, es como si no hubieras empezado; y si no empiezas, no avanzas

Leadership, on the other hand, is about creating change that you believe in.

The job is not the work.

El cambio no se realiza pidiendo permiso. El cambio se hace pidiendo disculpas después.

Hope is not the same as reassurance. Hope is trusting yourself to have a shot to make things better. But we can hope without reassurance. We can hope at the same time that we accept that what we're working on right now might not work.

The way we make things better is by caring enough about those we serve to imagine the story that they need to hear. We need to be generous enough to share that story, so they can take action that they'll be proud of.

The problem is obvious—if you spend all day hitting the ball back, you'll never end up serving.

el coste de equivocarse es inferior al coste de no hacer nada.

Everyone always acts in accordance with their internal narratives. You can't get someone to do something that they don't want to do, and most of the time, what people want to do is take action (or not take action) that reinforces their internal narratives.

1. There are three states of being. Not knowing, action and completion. 2. Accept that everything is a draft. It helps to get it done. 3. There is no editing stage. 4. Pretending you know what you're doing is almost the same as knowing what you are doing, so accept that you know what you're doing even if you don't and do it. 5. Banish procrastination. If you wait more than a week to get an idea done, abandon it.

6. The point of being done is not to finish but to get other things done. 7. Once you're done you can throw it away. 8. Laugh at perfection. It's boring and keeps you from being done. 9. People without dirty hands are wrong. Doing something makes you right. 10. Failure counts as done. So do mistakes. 11. Destruction is a variant of done.

Forward motion isn't the default state of any group of people, particularly groups with lots of people.

128. Intentional Action Has a Few Simple Elements Determine who it's for. Learn what they believe, what they fear, and what they want. Be prepared to describe the change you seek to make. At least to yourself. Care enough to commit to making that change. Ship work that resonates with the people it's for. Once you know whom it's for and what it's for, watch and learn to determine whether your intervention succeeded. Repeat.

We can schedule for it. Thursday, April 3rd, 3:05…start something. We can train for it, plan for it, announce it, and even hire for it. If initiating is as essential to the modern organization as it appears, we better be doing all of that and more.

No, the real reason is this: Meetings are a great place to hide. Meetings are where we go to wait for someone else to take responsibility. Meetings are a safe haven, a refuge from what might happen.

three steps: motivate, connect, and leverage.

The difference between backing off and doing nothing may appear subtle, but it's not. A leader who backs off is making a commitment to the power of the tribe, and is alert to the right moment to step back in. Someone who is doing nothing is merely hiding. Leadership is a choice. It's the choice to not do nothing. Lean in, back off, but don't do nothing.