Money motivates neither the best people, nor the best in people. It can move the body and influence the mind, but it cannot touch the heart or move the spirit; that is reserved for belief, principle, and morality.
If you look to lead, invest at least 40% of your time managing yourself - your ethics, character, principles, purpose, motivation, and conduct. Invest at least 30% managing those with authority over you, and 15% managing your peers.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Effective leadership requires significant investment in self-management and relationship management.
In this quote, Dee Hock emphasizes the importance of self-awareness and personal development in leadership. By allocating time to manage one's own ethics, character, and motivation, a leader sets a strong foundation for influencing and guiding others. Furthermore, understanding and managing relationships with those in authority and peers is essential for successful leadership dynamics, underscoring that leadership is as much about managing oneself as it is about managing others.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a team meeting to emphasize the importance of personal responsibility in leadership.
More from Dee Hock
All quotes →Making good judgments when one has complete data, facts, and knowledge is not leadership - it's bookkeeping
We are now at a point in time when the ability to receive, utilize, store, transform and transmit data - the lowest cognitive form - has expanded literally beyond comprehension. Understanding and wisdom are largely forgotten as we struggle under an avalanche of data and information.
You learn nothing form your successes except to think too much of yourself. It is from failure that all growth comes, provided you can recognize it, admit it, learn from it, rise above it, and then try again.
It is not making better people of others that management is about. It's about making a better person of self. Income, power, and titles have nothing to do with that.
Never hire or promote in your own image. It is foolish to replicate your strength and idiotic to replicate your weakness. It is essential to employ, trust, and reward those whose perspective, ability, and judgment are radically different from yours. It is also rare, for it requires uncommon humility, tolerance, and wisdom.
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