More than anything else today, followers believe they are part of a system, a process that lacks heart. If there is one thing a leader can do to connect with followers at a human, or better still a spiritual level, it is to become engaged with them fully, to share experiences and emotions, and to set aside the processes of leadership we have learned by rote.
– Lance Secreton
Life is the leader’s laboratory, and exemplary leaders use it to conduct as many experiments as possible. Try, fail, learn. Try, fail, learn. Try, fail, learn. That’s the leader’s mantra. Leaders are learners. They learn from their failures as well as their successes, and they make it possible for others to do the same.
– James Kouzes and Barry Posner
The role of Leadership is to elicit the leadership in your followers
– Paradigms of Leadership
It is absolutely necessary for me to have persons that can think for me, as well as execute orders.
– George Washington
Every man of action has a strong dose of egotism, pride, hardness, and cunning. But all those things will be forgiven him, indeed, they will be regarded as high qualities, if he can make them the means to achieve great ends.
– Charles De Gaulle
Whether our task is fighting poverty, stemming the spread of disease or saving innocent lives from mass murder, we have seen that we cannot succeed without the leadership of the strong and the engagement of all.
– Kofi Annan
… as you can see; when you get there, you’ll be able to see further.
– J. P. Morgan
…of change, learners inherit the Earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists
– Eric Hoffer
.. is being taken at the issues of power and authority, and people are beginning to learn, however haltingly, to relate to one another in less coercive and more creatively supporting ways. A new moral principle is emerging, which holds that the only authority deserving of one’s allegiance is that which is freely and knowingly granted by the led to the leader in response to, and in proportion to, the clearly evident servant stature of the leader. Those who choose to follow this principle will not casually accept the authority of existing institutions. Rather, they will freely respond only to individuals who are chosen as leaders because they are proven and trusted as servants. To the extent that this principle prevails in the future, the only truly viable institutions will be those that are predominantly servant led.
– Robert Greenleaf
… of quality. Some people aren’t used to an environment where excellence is expected.
– Steve Jobs
Leadership Licks 