These are the quotes I noted while reading Developing the Leader Within You by John C. Maxwell:
- Management is the process of assuring that the program and objectives of the organization are implemented. Leadership, on the other hand, has to do with casting vision and motivating people.
- Leadership is influence. He who thinketh he leadeth and hath no one following him is only taking a walk.
- Leadership is the ability to obtain followers.
- People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.
- You can love people without leading them, but you cannot lead people without loving them.
- Success can be defined as the progressive realization of a predetermined goal.
- The Pareto Principle: 20% of your priorities will give you 80% of your production. IF you spend your time, energy, money, and personnel on the top 20% of your priorities.
- 20% of the people in an organization will be responsible for 80% of the company’s success.
- You cannot overestimate the unimportance of practically everything. The petty and the mundane steal much of our time.
- All true leaders have learned to say ‘No’ to the good in order to say ‘Yes’ to the best.
- “The reason most major goals are not achieved is that we spend our time doing second things first.” – Robert J. McKain
- Efficiency is the foundation for survival. Effectiveness is the foundation of success.
- We are all faced with conflicting desires. No one, no matter how “spiritual,” can avoid this battle. Integrity is the factor that determines which one will prevail. We struggle daily with situations that demand decisions between what we want to do and what we ought to do. Integrity establishes the ground rules for resolving these tensions. It determines who we are and how we will respond before the conflict even appears. Integrity welds what we say, think, and do into a whole person so that permission is never granted for one of those to be out of sync.
- What people need is not a motto to say, but a model to see.
- Everything rises and falls on leadership. The secret to rising and not falling is integrity.
- “Every great institution is the lengthened shadow of a single man.” – Emerson
- “People’s minds are changed through observation and not argument.” – Will Rogers
- Leaders must live by higher standards than their followers.
- “The measure of a man’s real character is what he would do if he would never be found out.” – Thomas Macauley
- In quality control, we are not concerned about the product. We are concerned about the process. If the process is right, the product is guaranteed.
- Effective leadership is not based on being clever; it is primarily on being consistent. Leaders who are sincere don’t have to advertise the fact.
- We have become a nation of imitators, but there are few leaders worth imitating.
- If you want to continue leading, you must continue changing.
- People will not change until they perceive that the advantages of changing outweigh the disadvantages of continuing with the way things are. What leaders sometimes fail to recognize is that the followers will always weigh the advantage/disadvantage issue in the light of personal gain/loss, not organization gain/loss.
- The wrong decision at the wrong time = disaster.
- The wrong decision at the right time = mistake.
- The right decision at the wrong time = unacceptance.
- The right decision at the right time = success.
- People change when they hurt enough they have to change; learn enough they want to change; receive enough they are able to change.
- “Son, wherever I sit is the head of the table.”
- “I’ve learned a lot and most of it doesn’t apply anymore.” – Charles Exley
- It’s a fact that when you’re through changing, you’re through.
- In times like these it is always helpful to remember that there have always been times like these.
- Only problem you have is the one you allow to be a problem because of your wrong reaction to it.
- If I can’t do something about a problem, it’s not my problem.
- Be careful in resigning yourself to the position that there is no answer to a problem. Someone else may come along with a solution.
- Great leaders are seldom blind-sided. They realize that the punch that knocks them out is seldom the hard one-it’s the one they didn’t see coming.
- “You’ll find no easy problems ever come to the President of the United States. If they are easy to solve, somebody else has solved them.” That statement should be true of every leader.
- If I could do anything for people, I would help them change their perspectives, not their problems.
- A policy should never be held on to and defended when it impedes the program and delays the change needed to make progress.
- Never allow others to think you always have the best answers. This will only make them dependent on you.
- “I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it.” Charles Swindoll
- Leadership has less to do with position than it does with disposition.
- 15% of success is due to technical training. The other 85% is due to personality.
- “God chooses what we go through. We choose how we go through it.” – Hugh Downs
- “I distinctly remember forgetting that.”
- I may not be able to change the world I see around me, but I can change the way I see the world within me.
- Forget motivation. Just do it.
- You’re more likely to act yourself into feeling that feel yourself into action. So act!
- If we help them change their behaviors, the attitudes will change on their own.
- What I assume about people is what I look for. What I look for is what I find. What I find influences my response. Therefore, negative assumptions about others will stimulate negative leadership of them. Positive assumptions about others will stimulate positive leadership of them.
- People tend to become what the most important people in their lives think they will become.
- You’ve got to give loyalty down before you give loyalty up.
- People must buy into you before they buy into your dreams. High morale in an organization comes from having faith in the person at the top.
- Failure is the opportunity to begin again more intelligently.
- The 10 Commandments of Confrontation (page 124)
- “The biggest mistake you can make in trying to talk convincingly is to put your highest priority on expressing your ideas and feelings.” – David Burns
- The first question a leader should ask is: “How can I help make those around me more successful?”
- “What would be worse than being born blind? To have sight without vision.” – Helen Keller
- People do not follow a dream in itself. They follow the leader who has that dream and the ability to communicate it effectively.
- We see what we are prepared to see, not what it is. Every successful leader understands this about people and asks 3 questions: What do others see; why do they see it that way; and how can I change their perception?
- “Man who says, ‘it cannot be done’ should not interrupt man who is doing it.” – Chinese Proverb
- A great teacher never strives to explain his vision; he simply invites you to stand beside him and see for yourself. However, great leaders explain their vision by painting a picture for the people.
- People carry pictures of other people and things they love. Put what is important to the people within the frame of the vision and you will have transferred the vision to the people.
- Winners don’t waste time in unproductive thought.
- Listen with eyes of reality.
- Lead with eyes of discernment.
- Live with eyes of vision.
- The leader with vision believes not only that what he envisions can be done, but that it must be done.
- All great leaders have understood that their number one responsibility was for their own discipline and personal growth.
- More potential leaders fail because of inner issues than outer ones.
- When we are foolish, we want to conquer the world. When we are wise, we want to conquer ourselves.
- What you are going to be tomorrow, you are becoming today.
- Having it all doesn’t mean having it all at once.
- “It is easier to suppress the first desire than to satisfy all that follow it.” – Ben Franklin
- Efficiency = doing things right
- Effectiveness = doing the right things
- Effecticiency = doing the right things right
- “The price of greatness is responsibility” – Winston Churchill
- “I believe that every right implies a responsibility; every opportunity, an obligation; every possession, a duty.” – John D. Rockefeller, Jr.
- “Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.” – Abe Lincoln
- The danger of power lies in the fact that those who are vested with it tend to make its preservation their first concern.
- History tells us that power leads to the abuse of power, and abuse of power leads to loss of power.
- “There is no party, no Chief Executive, no Cabinet, no legislature in this or any other nation, wise enough to govern without constant exposure to informed criticism.” – Hubert H. Humphrey
- Success depends not merely on how well you do the things you enjoy, but how conscientiously you perform those duties you don’t.
- “The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him.” – Niccolo Machiavelli
- 3 areas are crucial to the leader’s authority and success:
- Finance
- Personnel
- Planning
- “Eagles don’t flock. You have to find them one at a time.” – H. Ross Perot
- Top 20 personal requirements I look for in a potential staff member:
- Positive Attitude
- High energy Level
- Personal Warmth
- Integrity
- Responsible
- Good Self-image
- Mental Horsepower
- Leadership Ability
- Followership Ability
- Absence of Personal Problems
- People Skills
- Sense of Humor
- Resilience
- Track Record
- Great Desire
- Self-discipline
- Creative
- Flexibility
- Sees “Big Picture”
- Intuitive
- When you cannot afford to hire the best, hire the young who are going to be the best.
- People who play it safe continually miss opportunities and seldom make progress.
- Winning teams are seldom more talented than losing teams. But they are always more committed.
- Although the Boston Celtics have won sixteen championships, they have never had the league’s leading scorer and never paid a player based on his individual statistics.
- Too many think that if they “stay put” they can stay on top. That’s not true.
- All too often, employees expect to be evaluated on the basis of how much effort they are putting into the job, rather than what they are accomplishing.
- The person who knows how will always have a job, but the person who knows why will always be the boss.
Though I know that I do many things well, even excelling in multiple areas, I will forever be in a state of calling for growth in all. – Matthew