A leader’s formula
Leadership is a practice and we can all be students.
Good leaders ask great questions that inspire others to dream more, think more, learn more, do more, and become more.
Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power.
Effective leadership is not about making speeches or being liked; leadership is defined by results not attributes.
Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.
The most important thing in communication is to hear what isn't being said.
Efficiency is doing the thing right. Effectiveness is doing the right thing.
Let him that would move the world first move himself.
Becoming a leader is the same as becoming a fully integrated human being
Leaders must always operate with the understanding that they are part of something greater than themselves and their own personal interests.
Leadership requires finding the equilibrium in the dichotomy of many seemingly contradictory qualities, between one extreme and another.
We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak.
Integrity is congruence between what you know, what you profess, and what you do.
I realized that the past failures had strengthened me, taught me that no one is immune from mistakes. True leaders must learn from their failures, use the lessons to motivate themselves, and not be afraid to try again or make the next tough decision.
Each aspect within us needs understanding and compassion. If we are unwilling to give it to ourselves how can we expect the world to give it to us?
Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success; leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall.
Seek first to understand, then to be understood.
Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply.
You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.
Knowledge isn’t power until it is applied.
And that’s what is so insidious about talk. Anyone can talk about himself or herself. Even a child knows how to gossip and chatter. Most people are decent at hype and sales. So what is scarce and rare? Silence. The ability to deliberately keep yourself out of the conversation and subsist without its validation. Silence is the respite of the confident and the strong.
What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say.
Powerful people initiate speech more often, talk more overall, and make more eye contact while they’re speaking than powerless people do. When we feel powerful, we speak more slowly and take more time. We don’t rush. We’re not afraid to pause. We feel entitled to the time we’re using.
A confident person — knowing and believing in her identity — carries tools, not weapons.
It’s about knowing who you are, what you stand for, and then having the courage to be yourself—in every situation rather than only when it’s convenient. It’s about being real, consistent, and congruent so who you are on the inside is reflected by the way you perform on the outside.
Leaders create leaders by passing on responsibility, creating ownership, accountability and trust.
Humility does not mean weakness, but its opposite. Leaders with mana understand the strength of humility. It allows them to connect with their deepest values and the wider world.
Impressing people is utterly different from being truly impressive.
Greatness comes from humble beginnings; it comes from grunt work. It means you’re the least important person in the room—until you change that with results.
We learn that the more we are true to ourselves, the more we can connect with and contribute to the world.
Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be; just be one.
People with humility don’t think less of themselves; they just think of themselves less.
People with humility don’t think less of themselves; they just think of themselves less.
Exemplary leaders know that if they want to gain commitment and achieve the highest standards, they must be models of the behavior they expect of others.
Leading by example is more effective than leading by command.
Leaders must always operate with the understanding that they are part of something greater than themselves and their own personal interests.
A good leader has nothing to prove, but everything to prove.
Teaching people doesn’t subtract value from what you do, it actually adds to it. When you teach someone how to do your work, you are, in effect, generating more interest in your work. People feel closer to your work because you’re letting them in on what you know.
Being charismatic does not depend on how much time you have but on how fully present you are in each interaction.
Goodwill means that you wish someone well without necessarily knowing how they’re feeling. Empathy means that you understand what they feel; perhaps you’ve had a similar experience in the past. Compassion is empathy plus goodwill: you understand how they feel, and you wish them well.
Many great leaders understand intuitively that they need to work hard to create a sense of safety in others. In this way, great leaders are often humble leaders, thereby reducing the status threat. Great leaders provide clear expectations and talk a lot about the future, helping to increase certainty. Great leaders let others take charge and make decisions, increasing autonomy. Great leaders often have a strong presence, which comes from working hard to be authentic and real with other people, to create a sense of relatedness. And great leaders keep their promises, taking care to be perceived as fair.
Greatness will not magically appear in your life without significant accountability, focus, and optimism on your part. Are you ready to commit fully to turning your potential into a leadership performance that will propel you to greatness.
I begin with humility, I act with humility, I end with humility. Humility leads to clarity. Humility leads to an open mind and a forgiving heart. With an open mind and a forgiving heart, I see every person as superior to me in some way; with every person as my teacher, I grow in wisdom. As I grow in wisdom, humility becomes ever more my guide. I begin with humility, I act with humility, I end with humility.
Human nature dictates that it is virtually impossible to accept advice from someone unless you feel that that person understands you.
The manager asks how and when; the leader asks what and why.
The manager accepts the status quo; the leader challenges it.
The manager has a short-range view; the leader has a long-range perspective.
The manager has his eye on the bottom line; the leader has his eye on the horizon.
Time is an unrenewable resource. You can’t get it back. All these things we’ve done to exchange information, to access information at our fingertips, have actually taken away our time for restoring the soul. You’re giving away your soul’s ability to be moved. If we’d spend more time in solitude, we’d value ourselves more.
A leader has not only permission, but a responsibility, to seek out periods of solitude.
A leader needs to have presence, to show up to the moment grounded in one’s self, as centered as one can be, ready to hear, to listen, to discern.
A man is not called wise because he talks and talks again; but if he is peaceful, loving and fearless then he is in truth called wise.
Self-leadership always precedes team leadership.
Esse quam videri. ("To be, rather than to seem.")
True leaders must learn from their failures, use the lessons to motivate themselves, and not be afraid to try again or make the next tough decision.
Listening and trying to understand the needs of those we would communicate with seems to me to be the essential prerequisite of any real communication. And we might as well aim for real communication.
Listening is where love begins: listening to ourselves and then to our neighbors.
A lot of people have lived richer lives because someone who cared took the time to listen.
Men cannot know each other till they have ‘eaten salt together’.
As growth-minded leaders, they start with a belief in human potential and development—both their own and other people’s. Instead of using the company as a vehicle for their greatness, they use it as an engine of growth—for themselves, the employees, and the company as a whole.
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