Quotes on Leadership

As much as you need a strong personality to build a business from scratch, you also must understand the art of delegation. I have to be good at helping people run the individual businesses, and I have to be willing to step back. The company must be set up so it can continue without me.

Leadership defines what the future should look like, aligns people with that vision, and inspires them to make it happen despite the obstacles.

Winning companies win because they have good leaders who nurture the development of other leaders at all levels of the organization.

Two commanders on the same field are always one too many.

Noone's a leader if there are no followers.

To force a lawyer on a defendant can only lead him to believe that the law contrives against him.

The group will not prosper if the leader grabs the lion's share of the credit for the good work that has been done.

What matters is working with a few close friends, people you respect, knowing that if times did turn bad these people would hold together.

The real beginning of influence comes as others sense you are being influenced by them - when they feel understood by you - that you have listened deeply and sincerely, and that you are open.

If I were to command a general to turn into a seagull, and if the general did not obey, that would not be the general's fault. It would be mine.

Being captive to quarterly earnings isn't consistent with long-term value creation. This pressure and the short term focus of equity markets make it difficult for a public company to invest for long-term success, and tend to force company leaders to sacrifice long-term results to protect current earnings.

We are now spending half a trillion dollars on foreign oil, importing 62 percent of the oil we use, and we haven't had the leadership in D.C. to do anything about it. We've got to move to other sources of energy. But we've gotten way behind, and will continue to pay the fiddler. It's not a good future.

Many are stubborn in pursuit of the path they have chosen, few in pursuit of the goal.

To succeed in life, we must stay within our strength zone but continually move outside our comfort zone.

Successful people do what is right no matter how they feel, and by doing right, they feel good.

The only job security you have today os your commitment to continuous personal improvement.

Knowledge people and service people learn the most when they teach .

The greater a man is in power above others, the more he ought to excel them in virtue. None ought to govern who is not better than the governed.

There's nothing more demoralizing than a leader who can't clearly articulate why we're doing what we're doing.

The man who occupies the first place seldom plays the principal part.

In the realm of ideas everything depends on enthusiasm... in the real world all rests on perseverance.