by Adam L Stanley | Oct 30, 2014 | Leadership, Relationships, Teamwork
Inspiration and courage must come from every level of your business if you are to be successful.
Most of us have read dozens of articles about amazing leaders and superstar management teams that make all the difference. And I do completely agree that success without good leadership at the top is near impossible. But a recipe for personal failure is to expect all wisdom and guidance to come from on high. I continue to hear people ask for vision and inspiration from the top. And, yes, I agree this is critical. But it is important we remember just how inspirational we can be to each other. A group of smart people in a room thinking positively and acting on such positive thinking can go so far.
I often talk about leaders at all levels and encourage you to be the leader that drives the change you want to be. There are people out there that are looking to YOU to make them feel purpose, to make them want to stick it out and fight as hard as necessary to get things done. Yes, they will enjoy watching CEO videos, seeing values presentations, and the like, and they will get vision and inspiration from there. But YOU have the power to influence daily and I urge you to do so.
Be well. Lead on.
Adam
Adam L. Stanley
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by Adam L Stanley | Sep 16, 2011 | Leadership
Search the net and you will find thousands of articles, books, and blogs about leadership. And throughout the ages, men and women have written and spoken about leadership. So there is a treasure trove of quotes out there on leadership. I still feel the best way to learn to be a better leader is to be a leader and that successes, failures, and time are the best teachers of leadership. That said, I’ve done my searching and found my top 12 quotes on leadership. I wanted to share them with you.
Adam’s 12 Favorite Quotes on Leadership
12. “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
11. “It is better to lead from behind and to put others in front, especially when you celebrate victory when nice things occur. You take the front line when there is danger. Then people will appreciate your leadership.” ~ Nelson Mandela
10. “It is no use walking anywhere to preach unless our walking is our preaching.”
St. Francis of Assisi
9. “The leader has to be practical and a realist, yet must talk the language of the visionary and the idealist.” Eric Hoffer
8. “To lead people, walk beside them … As for the best leaders, the people do not notice their existence. The next best, the people honor and praise. The next, the people fear; and the next, the people hate … When the best leader’s work is done the people say, ‘We did it ourselves!'”
Lao-tsu
7. “The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good people to do what he wants done, and self-restraint to keep from meddling with them while they do it.”
Theodore Roosevelt
6. “Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success; leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall.”
Stephen R. Covey
5. “Leadership is solving problems. The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help or concluded you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership.”
Colin Powell
4. “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” John Quincy Adams
3. “Trust men and they will be true to you: treat them greatly and they will show themselves great.” Ralph Waldo Emerson
2. “Leaders establish the vision for the future and set the strategy for getting there; they cause change. They motivate and inspire others to go in the right direction and they, along with everyone else, sacrifice to get there.” John Kotter
1. “We are tired of leaders we fear, tired of leaders we love, and are tired of leaders who let us take liberties with them. What we need for leaders are men of the heart who are so helpful that they, in effect, do away with the need of their jobs. But leaders like that are never out of a job, never out of followers. Strange as it sounds, great leaders gain authority by giving it away.”
Admiral James B. Stockdale
Listening to what others have said and applying their basic ideas to your specific circumstances is like having a “cheat sheet” in your back pocket. Look at this list and see if any of them resonate with you. Do they look familiar to you as a leader or a team member working with a leader? Would your team, as in the comic below, laugh when discussing your leadership skills? Or are you gaining authority by giving it away, leading with trust, vision, and integrity.
Be Well! Lead On.
Adam
Leadership Skills – Does your team laugh at your leadership?
