LEADERHIP QUOTES, SET TWO The greatest obstacle to progress is not the absence of knowledge, but the illusion of knowledge. Daniel Boorstin The Key Reporter Go ahead and do it, apologize later. ADM Grace Hopper I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand. Chinese Proverb We shall build good ships here; at a profit if we can, at a loss if we must, but always good ships. Collis P. Huntington You must walk into your job, every day, willing to be fired. Rob Gray If you don't know where you are going, it doesn't matter what road you take. Lewis Carroll The worst sin towards our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them; that's the essence of inhumanity. George Bernard Shaw The Devil's Disciple If it were desired to reduce man to nothing, it would be necessary only to give his work a character of uselessness. Fyodor Dostoevski House of the Dead If you treat a man as he is, he will remain as he is; if you treat him as if he were what he could be, he will become what he could be. Goethe If you expect and reward mediocrity, that's what you'll get; however, if you expect and reward excellence and quality, you have a probability of getting it. Mark Silber, Ph.D. Life is tough, it's tougher if you're stupid. John Wayne Leadership is not a spectator sport. Kouzes and Posner Throughout history, every great leader has learned that, concommitantly with leaving their footprints in the sands of time, they must invariably leave a few noseprints as well. A. D. Mullen, Jr. We must not cease from exploration and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we began and to know the place for the first time. T. S. Eliot We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit. Aristotle They cannot take away our self respect if we do not give it to them. Gandhi Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason why so few engage in it. Henry Ford Behavior can not and will not change until you blow the soot out of the chimney first. Sigmund Freud If you could freeze the moment, it would quickly dissipate, because the essence of gratification is the process. Exhilaration is not found in static perfection, but in affirmation of the process. Alfred N. Whitehead The significant problems we have cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them. Albert Einstein There are no absolute truths when dealing with data, only truthful insights into the process. Bill Ballew, BMC(SW), USN There go my people, I must find out where they are going so I can lead them. Alexandre Ledru-Rollin The Ten Commandments of Leadership 1. Thou cannot accomplish the goals of the organization. You must depend upon those with whom you work. 2. Thou cannot do all of the process activities. You must delegate authority and responsibility. 3. Thou cannot succeed without environmental support. You must seek feedback from the environment and you must represent your organization to the environment. 4. Thou cannot assume you are the only intelligent being in the organization. You must involve other organizational members in the organizational functions. 5. Thou cannot survive without feedback to members. Evaluation and discussion are critical. 6. Thou cannot survive without feedback from members. You must create a climate of trust and show a willingness to listen. 7. Thou cannot satisfy all the people all the time. But you should upset the right people for the right reason. 8. Thou cannot keep your position forever. You must leave it for the right cause at the right time. 9. Thou cannot expect everything to go right all of the time. You must not take events personally or allow others to take them personally. 10. Thou cannot ignore your personal and professional needs. You must maintain your integrity and self in all situations. excerpted from The Leadership Challenge by Kouzes & Posner Let us admit the case of the conservative; if we once start thinking, no one can guarantee where we shall come out; except that many ends, objects and institutions are doomed. Every thinker puts some portion of an apparently stable world in peril, and no one can wholly predict what will emerge in its place. John Dewey Few people think more than two or three times a year. I've made an international reputation for myself by thinking once or twice a week. George Bernard Shaw The spirit of the age is filled with disdain for thinking. Albert Schweitzer Ours is the age that is proud of machines that think and suspicious of men who try to. H. Mumford Jones Mind, n. A mysterious form of matter secreted by the brain. Brain, n. An apparatus with which we think that we think. Ambrose Bierce When the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to treat everything as if it were a nail. Abraham Maslow The obscure we see eventually. The completely apparent takes longer. E. R. Murrow Anger gets us into trouble. Pride keeps us there. Anonymous Man is not rational - merely capable of it. Jonathan Swift To understand is hard. Once one understands, action is easy. Sun Yat Sen The uncreative mind can spot wrong answers, but it takes a very creative mind to spot wrong questions. Antony Jay Man's mind, stretched to a new idea, never goes back to its original dimension. Oliver Wendell Holmes It takes a very unusual mind to make an analysis of the obvious. Alfred North Whitehead Take care of the means, and the end will take care of itself. Gandhi One definition of insanity is to do the same thing, day-after-day, expecting different results. Mark Silber, Ph.D. He who will not reason is a bigot, he who cannot is a fool; he who dares not is a slave. William Drummond We have met the enemy and they is us. Pogo You can't be motivated by self-interests and expect to be a leader. The instant you feel exempt from the standards of the organization, you cease to be a leader. A leader galvanizes people by living their shared vision. Cheryl Breetwor ShareData Corp. The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. Albert Einstein