Leadership Quotes - Page 70

A word of encouragement from a teacher to a child can change a life. A word of encouragement from a spouse can save a marriage. A word of encouragement from a leader can inspire a person to reach her potential.

Live to learn and you will really learn to live.

You must do right before you feel good.

Leaders are creatures of their environment, but unlike most creatures, they are also movers of it. As movers of and within the organization, they push it forward, at the same time shaping it as much as it shapes them.

Time is neutral and does not change things. With courage and initiative, leaders change things.

Listen more than you talk.

What we need is new leadership that takes conservative principles and applies them so that people can rise up.

Dictators are rulers who always look good until the last ten minutes.

Challenge is the opportunity for greatness. People do their best when there is an opportunity to change how things currently stand. Maintaining the status quo facilitates mediocrity. Those who embrace this practice do not wish to rest on their laurels. They motivate others to exceed their limits and look for innovative ways to improve the organization.

A leader has to appear consistent. That doesn't mean he has to be consistent.

The art of communication is the language of leadership.

We have no patent on anything we do and anything we do can be copied by anyone else. But you can't copy the heart and the soul and the conscience of the company.

To 'turn around' is to end up facing the same way. Maybe that is the problem, all the turning organizations around.

The principal problem I had during the five years I ran the Caisse - and I bet you that it will be the same problem for my successor - is the retention, recruitment and training of competent personnel.

I can honestly say that I was never affected by the question of the success of an undertaking. If I felt it was the right thing to do, I was for it regardless of the possible outcome.

I have no idea what I did. I heard people talk about dead leg, shake, change of pace and all that, but I did things without thinking about them.

I don't know, but I stepped on a scale that gives fortunes and the card read Come back in 15 minutes alone.

Give as few orders as possible," his father had told him once long ago. "Once you've given orders on a subject, you must always give orders on that subject.

The leader personifies the certitude of the creed and the defiance and grandeur of power. He articulates and justifies the resentment damned up in the souls of the frustrated. He kindles the vision of a breath-taking future so as to justify the sacrifice of a transitory present. He stages a world of make-believe so indispensable for the realization of self-sacrifice and united action.

Successful leaders develop effective strategies for maintaining their boundaries. ... Most time bandits don't know any better. And being a time bandit is a matter of context. One person's time bandit is another person's pleasant diversion. ... Instead of gritting our teeth to be polite and resenting the time bandit for holding us up, the best choice is to be honest. We cannot expect another person to honor our needs unless we affirm them ourselves.

Substance and content over style and hype any day.

We do not need international help to stop corruption, we need strong Louisiana Leadership.

Leaders grasp nettles.

Big thinkers are specialists in creating positive, forward-looking, optimistic pictures in their own minds and in the minds of others.

The worst type of employee you can have is one who has mentally quit and is still physically coming to work every day.