Quotes about Leadership

We're into managing with efficiency, setting and achieving goals before we have even clarified our values.

Proactive people have a Circle of Concern that is at least as big as their Circle of Influence, accepting the responsibility to use their influence effectively.

There are organizations that talk a lot about the customer and then completely neglect the people that deal with the customer—the employees. The PC principle is to always treat your employees exactly as you want them to treat your best customers.

Creating the unity necessary to run an effective business or a family or a marriage requires great personal strength and courage.

The PC principle is to always treat your employees exactly as you want them to treat your best customers. You can buy a person's hand, but you can't buy his heart. His heart is where his enthusiasm, his loyalty is.

I'm convinced that too often parents are also trapped in the management paradigm, thinking of control, efficiency, and rules instead of direction, purpose, and family feeling. And leadership is even more lacking in our personal lives. We're into managing with efficiency, setting and achieving goals before we have even clarified our values.

In fact, our most difficult experiences become the crucibles that forge our character and develop the internal powers, the freedom to handle difficult circumstances in the future and to inspire others to do so as well.

Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind®. Another Quadrant II activity is to take the time and initiative to develop a mission statement based on principles. A good mission statement is the key that effective people use to discern which things are important—

Trust is the highest form of human motivation. It brings out the very best in people.

Again, you simply can't think efficiency with people. You think effectiveness with people and efficiency with things. I've tried to be "efficient" with a disagreeing or disagreeable person and it simply doesn't work. I've tried to give ten minutes of "quality time" to a child or an employee to solve a problem, only to discover such "efficiency" creates new problems and seldom resolves the deepest concern.

If you want to get something done, give it to a busy man.

Successful families don't just happen. They take every bit of energy, talent, vision, determination, and rescue efforts a person can muster. They take prioritizing, planning, and sacrificing. They require family members to be willing to say, "I'm sorry," and to do whatever is needed to make adjustments. Yes, in times of storm or calm, families need someone who is prepared to step up, not give up. Someone who is ready to lead.