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Leadership Ideas Quotations
Contact Us Tom Stevens Esquare Leadership LLC 919 245-1026 800 727-9788 or email
Tom Stevens
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RESOLVING ISSUES QUOTES
The whole problem with the
world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but
wiser people so full of doubts.
No problem is so
formidable that you can't walk away from it.
The real problem is not
whether machines think but whether men do.
The direct use of force is
such a poor solution to any problem, it is generally employed only by small
children and large nations.
The significant problems
we have cannot be solved at the same level of thinking with which we created
them.
We are continually faced
with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as insoluble
problems.
When I'm working on a
problem, I never think about beauty. I think only how to solve the problem.
But when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is
wrong.
If knowledge can create
problems, it is not through ignorance that we can solve them.
An undefined problem has
an infinite number of solutions.
Computers can figure out
all kinds of problems, except the things in the world that just don't add
up.
There is always a
well-known solution to every human problem--neat, plausible, and wrong.
The problem with any
unwritten law is that you don't know where to go to erase it.
If the only tool you have
is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.
The greatest challenge to
any thinker is stating the problem in a way that will allow a solution.
It is characteristic of
all deep human problems that they are not to be approached without some
humor and some bewilderment.
I loathe the expression
"What makes him tick." It is the American mind, looking for simple and
singular solution, that uses the foolish expression. A person not only
ticks, he also chimes and strikes the hour, falls and breaks and has to be
put together again, and sometimes stops like an electric clock in a
thunderstorm.
Always bear in mind that
your own resolution to succeed is more important than any one thing. INNOVATION QUOTES
The world
leaders in innovation and creativity will also be world leaders in
everything else.
It is better
to have enough ideas for some of them to be wrong, than to be always right
by having no ideas at all.
Innovators
are inevitably controversial.
It is of
interest to note that while some dolphins are reported to have learned
English – up to 50
words used in
correct context – no human has been reported to have learned dolphinese.
The process
of innovation is, of course, never ending.
Invention breeds invention.
We cannot
innovate without opening the door to havoc.
You can't
dig a new well by digging the same hole deeper.
Innovation: A change that creates a new dimension of
performance.
'WASTE NOT' QUOTES
Nothing is a waste of time
if you use the experience wisely.
The most wasted of all
days is one without laughter.
You ask me why I do not
write something....I think one's feelings waste themselves in words, they
ought all to be distilled into actions and into actions which bring results.
Half the money I spend on
advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don't know which half.
Waste not fresh tears over
old griefs.
Make it a rule of life
never to regret and never to look back. Regret is an appalling waste of
energy; you can't build on it; it's only for wallowing in.
The secret of all power is
- save your force. If you want high pressure you must choke off waste.
The world is wide, and I
will not waste my life in friction when it could be turned into momentum.
Waste no more time talking
about great souls and how they should be. Become one yourself!
It is a waste of energy to
be angry with a man who behaves badly, just as it is to be angry with a car
that won't go.
Your time is limited, so
don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which
is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise
of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have
the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know
what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.
Nobody has things just as
he would like them. The thing to do is to make a success with what material
I have. It is a sheer waste of time and soulpower to imagine what I would do
if things were different. They are not different.
There's no correlation
between creativity and equipment ownership. None. Zilch. Nada. Actually, as
the artist gets more into his thing, and as he gets more successful, his
number of tools tends to go down. He knows what works for him. Expending
mental energy on stuff wastes time.
Wanting to be someone
you're not is a waste of the person you are.
VISION QUOTES
A vision without action is
called a daydream; but then again, action without a vision is called a
nightmare.
Every person takes the
limits of their own field of vision for the limits of the world.
Every moment is a golden
one for him who has the vision to recognize it as such.
You are not here merely to
make a living. You are here to enable the world to live more amply, with
greater vision, and with a finer spirit of hope and achievement. You are
here to enrich the world. You impoverish yourself if you forget this errand.
Anyone who limits her
vision to memories of yesterday is already dead.
The difference between
visionaries and dreamers is that visionaries make the dreams come true.
I dream, I test my dreams
against my beliefs, I dare to take risks, and I execute my vision to make
those dreams come true.
The bravest are surely
those who have the clearest vision of what is before them, glory and danger
alike, and yet notwithstanding, go out to meet it.
Man's mind, once stretched
by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions.
The
third-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking with the majority.
CULTIVATE EXCELLENCE QUOTES
The shepherd always tries
to persuade the sheep that their interests and his own are the same.
Trust men and they will be
true to you; treat them greatly, and they will show themselves great.
One machine can do the
work of fifty ordinary men. No machine can do the work of one extraordinary
man.
My main job was developing
talent. I was a gardener providing water and other nourishment to our top
750 people. Of course, I had to pull out some weeds, too.
To cultivate kindness is a
valuable part of the business of life.
You can have everything in
life that you want if you will just help enough other people get what they
want.
The unfortunate need
people who will be kind to them; the prosperous need people to be kind to.
As you begin to nourish
creativity in one area of your life, it begins to flourish in other areas.
You have to assume that
you're in business for the long haul. That belief will drive you to build
value.
Whatever we plant in our
subconscious mind and nourish with repetition and emotion will one day
become a reality.
A good objective of
leadership is to help those who are doing poorly to do well and to help
those who are doing well to do even better.
Every great man is always
being helped by everybody; for his gift is to get good out of all things and
all persons.
The achievements of an
organization are the results of the combined effort of each individual.
CHANGE & TRANSITION QUOTES
We all have big changes in
our lives that are more or less a second chance.
It's not that some people
have willpower and some don't. It's that some people are ready to change and
others are not.
Disconnecting from change
does not recapture the past. It loses the future.
When you are through
changing, you are through.
Change always comes
bearing gifts.
Those who expect moments
of change to be comfortable and free of conflict have not learned their
history.
Turbulence is life force.
It is opportunity. Let's love turbulence and use it for change.
What is required for
effective change is continuity of sincere effort to release and let go of
inefficient thought patterns from the past.
Some people change when
they see the light, others when they feel the heat.
Nothing is easy to the
unwilling.
It is never too late to
become what you might have been.
Only in growth, reform,
and change, paradoxically enough, is true security to be found.
To change one's life: 1.
Start immediately, 2. Do it flamboyantly, 3. No exceptions.
Become a student of
change. It is the only thing that will remain constant.
Your current safe
boundaries were once unknown frontiers.
Things alter for the worse
spontaneously, if they be not altered for the better designedly.
Nothing changes more constantly than the past; for the past
that influences our lives does not consist of what happened, but of what men
believe happened.
I am a man
of fixed and unbending principles, the first of which is to be flexible at
all times.
There is
nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in
which you yourself have altered.
Any
transition serious enough to alter your definition of self will require not
just small adjustments in your way of living and thinking but a full-on
metamorphosis.
If we don't
change direction soon, we'll end up where we're going.
All things
must change to something new, to something strange.
Change your
thoughts and you change your world.
Life is like
and ever-shifting kaleidoscope - a slight change,
What's the
use of a good quotation if you can't change it?
All appears
to change when we change.
It is not the strongest in the species that survive, nor the
most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.
The time to change is when you don't have to; when you're on
the crest of the wave, not the trough.
Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you
just sit there.
Some people change jobs, mates and friends, but never think
of changing themselves.
Human
beings, by changing the inner attitudes of their minds, can change the outer
aspects of their lives. TEAMWORK QUOTES
If everyone is moving
forward together, then success takes care of itself.
If you can laugh together,
you can work together.
Teamwork is so important
that it is virtually impossible for you to reach the heights of your
capabilities or make the money that you want without becoming very good at
it.
Individual commitment to a
group effort -- that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society
work, a civilization work.
Your most precious
possession is not your financial assets. Your most precious possession is
the people you have working there, and what they carry around in their
heads, and their ability to work together.
I never did anything
alone. Whatever was accomplished in this country was accomplished
collectively.
A team effort is a lot of
people doing what I say.
Trust men and they will be
true to you; treat them greatly, and they will show themselves great.
Enthusiasm is the way you
trigger other people's emotions so they instinctively help and support you. It is amazing what can be accomplished when nobody cares about who gets the credit.
~ Robert Yates
It's easy to figure out
who isn't a team player. They'll constantly remind the coach just how good
they are.
None of us is as smart as
all of us.
Many ideas grow better
when transplanted into another mind than in the one where they sprung up.
Find that special person
who is the heart of the team-- they can bring out the best in everybody
else.
If he works for you, then
you work for him.
Teams are successful when
they are focused, have a short cycle time, and are supported by the
executives
Without forgiveness, there
can be no real freedom to act within a group.
Synergy — the bonus that
is achieved when things work together harmoniously.
I've always found that the
speed of the boss is the speed of the team. QUESTION? QUOTES
To be on a quest is
nothing more or less than to become an asker of questions.
Computers are useless.
They can only give you answers.
One who asks a question is
a fool for five minutes; one who does not ask a question remains a fool
forever.
We learn more by looking
for the answer to a question and not finding it than we do from learning the
answer itself.
What do you want to
achieve or avoid? The answers to this question are objectives. How will you
go about achieving your desire results? The answer to this you can call
strategy.
To every answer you can
find a new question.
He must be very ignorant
for he answers every question he is asked.
Judge a man by his
questions rather than his answers.
The way to develop
decisiveness is to start right where you are, with the very next question
you face.
The question should be, is
it worth trying to do, not can it be done.
Successful people ask
better questions, and as a result, they get better answers.
A major stimulant to
creative thinking is focused questions. There is something about a
well-worded question that often penetrates to the heart of the matter and
triggers new ideas and insights.
Questions focus our
thinking. Ask empowering questions like: What's good about this? What's not
perfect about it yet? What am I going to do next time? How can I do this and
have fun doing it?
The uncreative mind can
spot wrong answers, but it takes a very creative mind to spot wrong
questions.
You can tell whether a man
is clever by his answers. You can tell whether a man is wise by his
questions.
The greatest gift is not
being afraid to question. COLLABORATION QUOTES
Divide and rule, a sound motto. Unite and lead, a better one.
Though force can protect in emergency, only justice,
fairness, consideration and co-operation can finally lead men to the dawn of
eternal peace.
Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress,
and working together is success.
Clearly no group can as an entity create ideas. Only
individuals can do this. A group of individuals may, however, stimulate one
another in the creation of ideas.
One can be very happy without demanding that others agree
with them.
No matter what accomplishments you make, somebody helped you.
Imagine what a harmonious world it could be if every single
person, both young and old shared a little of what he is good at doing.
Power consists in one's capacity to link his will with the
purpose of others, to lead by reason and a gift of cooperation.
If two men
on the same job agree all the time, then one is useless. If they disagree
all the time, both are useless. COMMUNICATION QUOTES
Be sincere; be brief; be seated.
When people talk, listen completely. Most people never
listen.
Did you ever notice how difficult it is to argue with someone
who is not obsessed with being right?
Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak.
Regardless
of the changes in technology, the market for well-crafted messages will
always have an audience.
The best
time to hold your tongue is the time you feel you must say something or
bust.
Nothing is
so simple that it cannot be misunderstood.
Honest
disagreement is often a good sign of progress.
You can have
brilliant ideas, but if you can't get them across, your ideas won't get you
anywhere.
Not only to
say the right thing in the right place, but far more difficult, to leave
unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment.
Once a human being has arrived on this earth, communication
is the largest single factor determining what kinds of relationships he
makes with others and what happens to him in the world about him.
Be amusing: never tell unkind stories; above all, never tell
long ones.
Do not say a little in many words but a great deal in a few.
Communication works for those who work at it.
Speak when you are angry - and you'll make the best speech
you'll ever regret.
The art of
COMMUNICATION is the language of leadership.
To be brief
is almost a condition of being inspired.
Conversation would be vastly improved by the constant use of
four simple words: I do not know.
Be still when you have nothing to say; when genuine passion
moves you, say what you've got to say, and say it hot.
Our opinions do not really blossom into fruition until we
have expressed them to someone else.
The opposite
of talking isn’t listening. The opposite of talking is waiting.
Whatever you say, say it with conviction.
Silence
gives consent, or a horrible feeling that nobody's EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE & FEELINGS QUOTES
The most
important single ingredient in the formula of success is knowing how to get
along with people.
We talk
about the quality of product and service. What about the quality of our
relationships and the quality of our communications and the quality of our
promises to each other?
If you wish
your merit to be known, acknowledge that of other people.
Lead the life that will make you kindly and friendly to
everyone about you, and you will be surprised what a happy life you will
lead.
Some people think only intellect counts: knowing how to solve
problems, knowing how to get by, knowing how to identify an advantage and
seize it. But the functions of intellect are insufficient without courage,
love, friendship, compassion and empathy.
The great gift of human beings is that we have the power of
empathy.
It is
impossible to estimate how many good ideas are abandoned every day as a
result of difficult-to-manage relationships.
There must
be love – without love you will be merely skillful.
Happiness is
when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.
Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an
understanding of ourselves.
Successful people have cultivated the habit of never denying to themselves
their true feelings and attitudes. They have no need for pretenses.
Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind
don't matter, and those who matter don't mind.
All great discoveries are made by men whose feelings run ahead of their
thinking.
Our feelings are our most genuine paths to knowledge.
Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a
present
You cannot make yourself feel something you do not feel, but
you can make yourself do right in spite of your feelings.
Peace comes from feelings of satisfaction when working with
joy, living with hope, loving with abandonment.
Eyes that do not cry, do not see.
We think too much and feel too little.
Unconditional acceptance of feeling then allows the person maximum learning,
evolvement, and attunement.
It isn't intellect that connects us to other people; it is feeling.
If you think feeling good is a result of doing well, you've got it backward.
Thanks to the configuration of the human nervous system, the emotions have
to be in place first.
We know too much and feel too little. At least, we feel too
little of those creative emotions from which a good life springs.
Our feelings are our most genuine paths to knowledge.
INFLUENCE QUOTES
It takes tremendous discipline to control the influence, the
power you have over other people's lives.
Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no
influence on society.
In the study of one's personal language and self talk it can
be observed that what one thinks and talks about to himself tends to become
the deciding influences in his life. For what the mind attends to, the mind
considers.
If you would persuade, you must appeal to interest rather
than intellect.
No distance of place or lapse of time can lessen the
friendship of those who are thoroughly persuaded of each other's worth.
Life happens too fast for you ever to think about it. If you
could just persuade people of this, but they insist on amassing information.
What is
uttered from the heart alone, Will win the hearts of others to yours.
LEADERSHIP QUOTES
Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.
Remember that it is far better to follow well than to lead
indifferently.
Leadership
can be thought of as a capacity to define oneself to others in a way that
clarifies and expands a vision of the future.
If your
actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more,
you are a leader.
Good-to-Great leaders never wanted to become larger-than-life heroes. They
were seemingly ordinary people quietly producing extraordinary results.
The only
safe ship in a storm is leadership.
Inventories
can be managed, but people must be led.
Leaders
shouldn't attach moral significance to their ideas: Do that, and you can't
compromise.
I start with
the premise that the function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not
more followers.
The first
task of a leader is to keep hope alive.
Management
is a set of processes that can keep a complicated system of people and
technology running smoothly.
A Leader is
someone you choose to follow to a place you wouldn't go by yourself.
Leadership
is defined by results, not attributes.
There are many elements to a campaign. Leadership is number
one. Everything else is number two.
I am more afraid of an army of 100 sheep led by a lion than
an army of 100 lions led by a sheep.
The very essence of leadership is that you have to have
vision. You can't blow an uncertain trumpet.
Leadership is action, not position.
The moment you stop learning, you stop leading.
If a man
knows not what harbor he seeks, any wind is the right wind.
Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it
happen.
Long-range planning works best in the short term.
It is better
to have one person working with you than having three people working for
you.
You are much
more successful coming in and finding out what's going right and nurturing
that.
His mother
had often said, When you choose an action, you choose the consequences of
that action. She had emphasized the corollary of this axiom even more
vehemently: when you desired a consequence you had damned well better take
the action that would create it.
Whenever you find that you are on the side of the majority,
it is time to reform.
The most
pathetic person in the world is someone who has sight but no vision.
OPPORTUNITY QUOTES
When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often
we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been
opened for us.
Trouble is only opportunity in work clothes.
Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in
overalls and looks like work.
The Chinese use two brush strokes to write the word 'crisis.'
One brush stroke stands for danger; the other for opportunity. In a crisis,
be aware of the danger - but recognize the opportunity.
A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds.
A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an
optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.
Opportunity may knock only once, but temptation leans on the
doorbell.
Ability is of little account without opportunity.
Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.
Unless you are prepared yourself to profit by your chance,
the opportunity will only make you ridiculous. A great occasion is valuable
to you in proportion as you have educated yourself to make use of it.
It is better to be prepared for an opportunity and not have
one than to have an opportunity and not be prepared.
Men make history, and not the other way around. In periods
where there is no leadership, society stands still. Progress occurs when
courageous, skillful leaders seize the opportunity to change things for the
better.
Many of us have heard opportunity knocking at our door, but
by the time we unhooked the chain, pushed back the bolt, turned two locks,
and shuts off the burglar alarm - it was gone.
Next to knowing when to seize an opportunity, the most
important thing in life is to know when to forego an advantage.
The lure of the distant and the difficult is deceptive. The
great opportunity is where you are.
PERSEVERANCE QUOTES
Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of
the overcoming of it.
Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through
experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition
inspired, and success achieved.
We could never learn to be brave and patient, if there were
only joy in the world.
Energy and
persistence conquer all things.
I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my
chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble.
When we do
the best we can, we never know what miracle is wrought in our life, or the
life of another.
I would like
to beg you…to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to
try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books
written in a very foreign language. Don’t search for the answers, which
could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them.
And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then,
someday in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live
your way into the answer.
WISDOM & KNOWLEDGE QUOTES
He who knows others is wise;
An
investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.
It is
unwise to be too sure of one's own wisdom. It is healthy to be reminded that
the strongest might weaken and the wisest might err.
The most
important contribution management needs to make in the 21st century is...to
increase the productivity of Knowledge Work and the Knowledge Worker.
The mind is
not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled.
Any man
worth his salt will stick up for what he believes right, but it takes a
slightly bigger man to acknowledge instantly and without reservation that he
is in error.
There are no
mistakes so great as that of being always right.
Too many
people overvalue what they are not and undervalue what they are.
It’s not
what you know that hurts – it’s what you know that ain’t so.
Always do right; this will gratify some people, and astonish
the rest.
The renewal
of societies and organizations can go forward only if someone cares. Apathy
and lowered motivation are the most widely noted characteristics of a
civilization on the downward path.
Too much of a good thing is wonderful.
When you come to a fork in the road, take it.
The older I
get, the more I listen to people who don't say much.
The time is
always right to do what is right.
The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new
landscapes, but in having new eyes.
Virtue and genuine graces in themselves speak what no words
can utter.
Truth is the
strongest and most powerful weapon a man can use, whether he is fighting for
a reform or fighting for a sale.
Decide what
you want, decide what you are willing to exchange for it. Establish your
priorities and go to work.
My opinion, my conviction, gains immensely in strength and
sureness the minute a second mind as adopted it.
The secret
of joy in work is contained in one word - excellence. To know how to do
something well is to enjoy it.
What lies
before us and what lies behind us are small matters compared to what lies
within us. And when we bring what is within us out into the world, miracles
happen.
To be what
we are, and to become what we are capable of becoming, is the only end in
life.
People are
like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but
when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a
light from within.
You see
things; and you say, 'Why?' But I dream things that never were; and I say,
"Why not?"
Why not go
out on a limb? Isn't that where the fruit is?
The key to
realizing a dream is to focus not on success but significance - and then
even the small steps and little victories along your path will take on
greater meaning.
If your
daily life seems poor, do not blame it; blame yourself, tell yourself that
you are not poet enough to call forth its riches.
I can’t give
you any advice but this: to go into yourself and see how deep the place is
from which your life flows; at its source you will find the answer to the
question of whether you must create.
Art too is
just one way of living…
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