Good leaders must know how to reward those who succeed and know when to retrain, move, or fire ineffective staff.
COLIN POWELLI have never seen a good organization where the standards weren’t high.
More Colin Powell Quotes
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Leadership is all about people. It is not about organizations. It is not about plans. It is not about strategies. It is all about people-motivating people to get the job done. You have to be people-centered.
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It is good if your enemy underestimates you. The dumber they think you are the more surprised they are when you kill them.
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Trying to get everyone to like you is a sign of mediocrity.
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Bad news isn’t wine. It doesn’t improve with age.
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Don’t be buffaloed by experts and elites. Experts often possess more data than judgment. Elites can become so inbred that they produce hemophiliacs who bleed to death as soon as they are nicked by the real world.
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The chief condition on which, life, health and vigor depend on, is action. It is by action that an organism develops its faculties, increases its energy, and attains the fulfillment of its destiny.
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Always be looking for the opportunities, and always be optimistic about what you can do with that opportunity.
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A mirror reflects a man’s face, but what he is really like is shown by the kind of friends he chooses.
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Look for intelligence and judgment and, most critically, a capacity to anticipate, to see around corners. Also look for loyalty, integrity, a high energy drive, a balanced ego and the drive to get things done.
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One of the greatest talents of all is the talent to recognize and to develop talent in others.
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Effective leaders are made, not born. They learn from trial and error, and from experience.
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Endeavors succeed or fail because of the people involved.
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Be careful what you choose: You may get it.
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You know you’re a good leader when people follow you out of curiosity.
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Leaders have followers. The primary role of a leader is to convey to those followers a sense of purpose, vision, and mission.
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Every organization should tolerate rebels who tell the emperor he has no clothes.
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As a leader you set the tone for your entire team. Communicate your vision.
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Have a sense of humor to break the tension in times of great toil.
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The best way to create a winning team is to train them, give them everything they need to get the job done and second, make sure they know what the job is and what the job will be. So you connect strategy to resources.
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Pissing people off doesn’t mean you’re doing the right things, but doing the right things will almost inevitably piss people off.
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Being responsible sometimes means pissing people off.
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You can’t get it all done yourself. The best leaders are not afraid of picking people who are better than they are and who may one day replace them.
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When you wrestle with a pig, he has fun, and you just end up dirty.
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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’.
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My responsibility, our responsibility as lucky Americans, is to try to give back to this country as much as it has given us, as we continue our American journey together.
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The commander in the field is always right and the rear echelon is wrong, unless proved otherwise.
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