quotes
of the day
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.
Nelson Mandela 1918-, anti-apartheid activist, 1993 Nobel Peace Prize winner and President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999
To do great things is difficult; but to command great things is more difficult
Friedrich Nietzsche 1844-1900, German philosopher
I claim not to have controlled events, but confess plainly that events have controlled me
Abraham Lincoln 1809-1865, sixteenth American president
A leader is a dealer in hope
Napoléon Bonaparte 1769-1821, French General and Emperor
COMMUNICATIONS AND SKILLS QUOTES
When I am at Milan, I do as they do at Milan; but when I go to Rome, I do as Rome does
St. Augustine 354-430, Roman theologist and philosopher
Speak when you are angry, and you will make the best speech you will ever regret
Ambrose Bierce
If at first the idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it
Albert Einstein 1879-1955; German-born American theoretical physicist
The most important thing in communication is hearing what isn’t said
Peter F. Drucker 1909-2005, American management guru
All my life, I’ve always wanted to be somebody, but I see now I should have been more specific
Lily Tomlin (1939-), American actress and comedian as Chrissy in The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe (1985)
Be concise in your writing and talking, especially when giving instructions to others
Epictetus 50-120, Greek stoic philosopher
I wish people who have trouble communicating would just shut up
Tom Lehrer 1928-, American songwriter, satirist, pianist, mathematician and singer
I believe in the discipline of silence, and could talk for hours about it
G.B. Shaw 1856-1950, Irish critic and poet
Think like a wise man but communicate in the language of the people
William Butler Yeats 1865 – 1939
I worry incessantly that I might be too clear
Alan Greenspan
You can have brilliant ideas, but if you can’t get them across, your ideas won’t get you anywhere
Lee Iacocca 1924- , former CEO of Ford and famous for reviving the Chrysler brand
CHANGES MANAGEMENT QUOTES
Wisdom lies neither in fixity nor in change, but in the dialectic between the two
Octavio Paz 1914-1998, Mexican poet and essayist
Chaos often breeds life, when order breeds habit
Henry Brooks Adams 1838-1919, American writer and historian
It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change
Charles Darwin 1809-1882, English biologist and father of the evolution theory
One of the things I learnt when I was negotiating was that until I changed myself I could not change others
Nelson Mandela 1918-, Nobel prize winner, South African statesman and President since 1994
It’s been a long time coming. But I know a change is gonna come
Sam Cooke 1931-1964, American musician
Kaizen is like a hotbed that nurtures small and ongoing changes, while innovation is like magma that appears in abrupt eruptions from time to time
Masaaki Imai, Japanese change and quality management guru
Management is, above all, a practice where art, science, and craft meet
Henry Mintzberg 1939- , renowned academic and writer on business and management
Constant dripping hollows out a stone
Lucretius 98-55 BC, Roman poet
Social organizations are flagrantly open systems in that the input of energies and the conversion of output into further energetic input consists of transactions between the organization and its environment
Daniel Katz and Robert L. Kahn in The Social Psychology of Organizations (1966)
Meetings are indispensable when you don’t want to do anything
John Kenneth Galbraith
We started off trying to set up a small anarchist community, but people wouldn’t obey the rules
Alan Bennett
Change is good – you go first
Kenneth F Murphy 1955-, former SVP HR of Altria Group and writer
People don’t resist change. They resist being changed!
Peter Senge, management writer famous for the notion of the learning organization
All things are in a state of flux
Heraclites 540BC-480BC, Greek Philosopher
Be the change you want to see in the world
Mahatma Gandhi 1869-1948, political and spiritual leader of India
Nothing is permanent, but change
Heraclitus 535–475 BCE, pre-Socratic Ionian philosopher
Manager quotes
However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results
Sir Winston Churchill 1874-1965, English statesman
There is always a better strategy than the one you have; you just haven’t thought of it yet
Sir Brian Pitman, former CEO of Lloyds TSB, Harvard Business Review, April 2003
Unless a variety of opinions are laid before us, we have no opportunity of selection, but are bound of necessity to adopt the particular view which may have been brought forward
Herodotus, 5th century BC, Greek historian
The processes used to arrive at the total strategy are typically fragmented, evolutionary, and largely intuitive
James Quinn in Strategic Change: Logical Incrementalism, 1978
In real life, strategy is actually very straightforward. You pick a general direction and implement like hell
Jack Welch in Winning, 2005
How many senior executives discuss the crucial distinction between competitive strategy at the level of a business and competitive strategy at the level of an entire company?
C.K. Prahalad and Gary Hamel, in their article: The core competence of the corporation, 1990
What’s the use of running if you are not on the right road
German proverb
I claim not to have controlled events, but confess plainly that events have controlled me
Abraham Lincoln 1809-1865, sixteenth American president
Perception is strong and sight weak. In strategy it is important to see distant things as if they were close and to take a distanced view of close things
Miyamoto Musashi 1584-1645, legendary Japanese swordsman
Do not repeat the tactics which have gained you one victory, but let your methods be regulated by the infinite variety of circumstances
Sun Tzu c. 490 BC, Chinese military strategist
HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT QUOTES
The only vital value an enterprise has is the experience, skills, innovativeness and insights of its people
Leif Edvinsson, Swedish Intellectual Capital guru in Corporate Longitude (2002)
The soft stuff is always harder than the hard stuff
Roger Enrico, Vice Chairman of PepsiCo, referring to areas like HRM as opposed to quantitative factors in Fortune, November 27th, 1995
I believe in the adage: Hire people smarter than you and get out of their way
Howard Schultze, CEO of coffee chain Starbucks (1994)
Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugared water or do you want a chance to change the world?
Steve Jobs of Apple Computer, inviting John Scully, then President of PepsiCo, to join Apple in Fortune, September 14th, 1987
The Baring family lost its bank because the management overempowered one individual, Nick Leeson
John Micklethwait in The Witch Doctors (1996)
Take our 20 best people away, and I will tell you that Microsoft would become an unimportant company
Bill Gates, CEO of Microsoft in Fortune, November 25th, 1996
True motivation comes from achievement, personal development, job satisfaction, and recognition
Frederick Herzberg 1923-2000, US psychlogist
If an institution wants to be adaptive, it has to let go of some control and trust that people will work on the right things in the right way
Robert B. Shapiro, CEO of chemical company Monsanto in Harvard Business Review, Jan-Feb 1997
Always recognize that human individuals are ends, and do not use them as means to your end
Immanuel Kant 1724-1804, German philosopher
LEADERSHIP QUOTES
Know thyself
Plato 428 BC-347 BC, ancient Greek philosopher
If you are not criticized, you may not be doing much
Donald Rumsfeld 1932-, American Republican politician and businessman
Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things
Peter F. Drucker 1909-2005, American management guru
Anyone can hold the helm when the sea is calm
Publilius Syrus 1st century BC, Latin writer of maxims
All of the great leaders have had one characteristic in common: it was the willingness to confront unequivocally the major anxiety of their people in their time. This, and not much else, is the essence of leadership
John Kenneth Galbraith 1908-2006, influential Canadian-American Keynesian economist
Honest disagreement is often a good sign of progress
Mahatma Gandhi 1869, 1948, Indian deep thinker and constant experimenter
The boss drives people; the leader coaches them.
The boss depends on authority; the leader on good will.
The boss inspires fear; the leader inspires enthusiasm.
The boss says ‘I’; the leader says ‘we.’
The boss fixes the blame for the breakdown; the leader fixes the breakdown.
The boss knows how it is done; the leader shows how.
The boss says ‘go’; the leader says ‘let’s go!’
- Gordon Selfridge 1864-1947, American-British retail magnate
A leader is best when people barely know he exists
Lao Tzu 4th century BC, ancient Chinese philosopher
All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing
Edmund Burke 1729 – 1797, Irish-born English political writer
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. When that happens people feel centered and that gives their work meaning
Warren G. Bennis 1925 – , American leadership scholar, consultant and writer
Personal leadership is the process of keeping your vision and values before you and aligning your life to be congruent with them
Stephen Covey, American leadership consultant and writer
Treating people with respect will gain one wide acceptance and improve the business
Tao Zhu Gong 500BC, Assistant to the Emperor of Yue, 2nd Business Principle
Leadership is not about being nice. it’s about being right and being strong
Paul Keating 1944-, Australian statesman and Prime Minister in Time, January 9th, 1995
To the person who does not know where he wants to go there is no favorable wind
Lucius Annaeus Seneca 5BC-65AD, Roman tragedian, philosopher, and counselor to Nero