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Excellence is not an exception, it is a prevailing attitude.

Colin Powell

Leaders have followers. The primary role of a leader is to convey to those followers a sense of purpose, vision, and mission.
COLIN POWELL

Follow Leadership Mission Primary Purpose Role Vision
If everybody trusts one another, then the person who didn’t prevail will faithfully execute the decision as if it was their idea.
COLIN POWELL

Decision Execution Faith Ideas Oneself Person Trust
Excellence is not an exception, it is a prevailing attitude.
COLIN POWELL

Attitude Excellence Prevail
If you get the dirty end of the stick, sharpen it and turn it into a useful tool.
COLIN POWELL

Dirty End Tools Yourself
Trust is the glue that holds an org together & the lubricant that moves it forward.
COLIN POWELL

Hold Move Togetherness Trust
Trust is the essence of Leadership.
COLIN POWELL

Essence Leadership Trust
The most important thing I learned is that soldiers watch what their leaders do. You can give them classes and lecture them forever, but it is your personal example they will follow.
COLIN POWELL

Follow Forever Important Learning Personal Soldier
Have a sense of humor to break the tension in times of great toil.
COLIN POWELL

Break Greatness Hard Time Tension Time
In other words, don’t expect to always be great. Disappointments, failures and setbacks are a normal part of the lifecycle of a unit or a company and what the leader has to do is constantly be up and say ‘we have a problem, let’s go and get it’.
COLIN POWELL

Disappointment Expectation Failure Greatness Himself Problem Word
Maybe we don’t put our young people in situations often enough where they’re allowed to fail. When you fail you gain experience, and with enough experience, you don’t fail as often.
COLIN POWELL

Allow Enough Experience Failure People Situation Young Yourself
Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier.
COLIN POWELL

Force Multiply Optimism
All values are important, everyone who has ever touched my life in some way was a mentor for good or bad. Life is a blend, and a person is a blend of all the influences that have touched their lives.
COLIN POWELL

Important Influence Life Live Touch Value
Always show more kindness than seems necessary, because the person receiving it needs it more than you will ever know.
COLIN POWELL

Kindness Necessary Need Yourself
Bad news isn’t wine. It doesn’t improve with age.
COLIN POWELL

Age Bad Improvement News Wine
You don’t know what you can get away with until you try.
COLIN POWELL

Ability Let Go Try Yourself
What could be more important than equipping the next generation with the character and competence they need to become successful
COLIN POWELL

Generation Important Need Success

Excellence is not an exception, it is a prevailing attitude.

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Excellence is not an exception, it is a prevailing attitude.

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