“Just do good work. Work, and do it well. Don’t put too much thought into what it is and what it can do for you and how it will be perceived before you even make it. You don’t have control over those other things. Learn your stuff. Do it well. Show up on time. You’ll work”. Actor Steve Zahn quoted in the May 2011 American Way magazine describing advice from older actors he’s worked with including Tom Hanks.
Put People at the Heart
Good leaders make people feel that they’re at the very heart of things, not at the periphery. Everyone feels that he or she makes a difference to the success of the organization. What happens people feel centered and that gives their work meaning – Warren Bennis
Are You a Leader or a Tyrant?
When we as leaders get in the habit of thinking that other people are there to support our success, we’re actually notleaders, we’re tyrants. Only when we go through the emotional, psychological and spiritual transformation to realize our role is to serve others, do we deserve to be called a leader. – Dee Hock, founder and former CEO of VISA
Truman’s One Sentence Success Formula
Work hard, do your best, keep your word, never get too big for your britches, trust in God, have no fear and never forget a friend. Harry S. Truman
Team Leadership
My philosophy of leadership is that four or five of us can come up with a much better decision than just I can alone. And if you follow that philosophy, you’ll probably have a very good, talented management group around you. People can always perform a whole lot better than how you think they’re going to perform. You need to really give them the opportunity to do that.
Shivan S. Subramaniam, chairman and CEO of FM Global
Humility, the Basic Leadership Virtue
Benedict believed the basic leadership virtue was humility. Leaders had to demonstrate competence and ambition, but their passion was to derive from a desire to improve and contribute to the health of the organization, not from individual ego. He believed that true humility was a skill one had to learn and practice.
John Mount, in a Forbes.com review of the book The Benedictine Rule of Leadership: Classic Management Secrets You Can Use Today
by Craig and Oliver Galbraith
Leaders Doing the Wrong Things Well
“Leadership guru Warren Bennis spent years researching leaders. He wrote in Why Leaders Can’t Lead: ‘Leaders do the right thing; managers do things right. Both roles are crucial, but differ profoundly. I often observe people in top positions doing the wrong thing well.'”
Harvey Mackey, “Uncommon Leadership: It Has Common Traits,”Leadership Excellence,” July 2010
The Best Executive
The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint to keep from meddling with them while they do it. – Theodore Roosevelt
Kotter: Great Leaders Have Emotional Impact
Great leaders tell stories that create pictures in our minds and have emotional impact. Martin Luther King Jr., had a dream, not a strategy or a goal, and he showed us his dream, his picture of the future. People change when they see something visual (the vision) that touches their feelings, challenges their thinking, and incites actions. People may realize the need for change, but not do anything differently because they lack the passion to break out of the routines or habit patterns. The momentum of ‘how we’ve done things’ tends to make our future look like our past.
The ability to move people emotionally is a special gift. Few of us are born with it, but we can learn it. John P. Kotter
A Daring Adventure or Nothing
Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure.
Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.
Helen Keller