Do not follow where the path may lead, instead create a path and leave a trail.
The future is not some place we are going to, but one we are creating. The paths to it are made, not found, and the activity of the making of them changes both the maker and the destination: (Commission for the Future 1989)
The first responsibility of the leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. In between, the leader is a servant.
The signs of leadership are among the followers. Are they reaching their potential? Are they learning? Are they achieving the desired results? Are they serving? Do they manage change gracefully, and do they manage conflict?
Leaders don't inflict pain, they bear it.
Leaders respect people.
Leadership is about relationships.
Relationships count more than structure.
Good communication means a respect for individuals. Good communication is an ethical question.
The best communication forces you to listen. Information is power, but it is pointless if hoarded. Power must be shared for an organization or a relationship to work.
A vision without a task is but a dream A task without a vision is a drudgery A vision with a task can change the world. The Mt Abu Declaration
The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it.
Our chief want in life is somebody who will make us do what we can. Ralph Waldo Emerson
The speed of the leader determines the rate of the pack.
Adversity reveals genius, prosperity conceals it. Horace
The price of greatness is responsibility. Winston Churchill
Man's mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions. Oliver Wendell Holmes
Destiny is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of choice.
People forget how fast you did a job—but they remember how well you did it. Howard W. Newton
If you have tried to do something and failed, you are vastly better off than if you have tried to do nothing and succeeded
IF YOU ARE THINKING 1 YEAR AHEAD, PLANT A SEED. IF YOU ARE THINKING 10 YEARS AHEAD, PLANT A TREE. IF YOU ARE THINKING 100 YEARS AHEAD. . . EDUCATE THE PEOPLE.
Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor, the enemy of the people. It will keep you in service your whole life. Anne Lamott
People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don’t believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and if they can’t find them, make them. George Bernard Shaw
The conflict between what one is and who one is expected to be touches all of us. Merle Shain
It is better to err on the side of sharing information than to risk leaving someone in the dark. Information is Power, but it is pointless power if it is hoarded. Power must be shared for an organization or relationship to work.
Leadership: finding a parade and putting yourself in front of it.
You can only follow a confused person for so long.
Listen honey---I know about STRESSED ... It's desserts spelled backwards.
Everything that I do best is something I never thought I could do
Change is like going to heaven, everyone agrees that it is a good idea, but no one wants to start the process.
We can be a victim of change or an agent of change
The best way for you to predict the future is for you to create it.
Pain is mandatory---suffering is optional
One who learns from one who is learning, drinks from a running stream (Indian saying)
Expediency does not substitute for effectiveness nor commitment Christine Milne
If it is your intention to drown, do not torture yourself with shallow water Balkan Proverb
We cannot hope to build a better world without improving the individual. To this end, each of us must work towards his/her own highest development, accepting their share of responsibility in the general life of humankind. Marie Curie
Barriers to Innovation... 1. Feelings of Isolation 2. Time Delays 3. Failure to establish a NEED for the innovation 4. Ineffective communication between innovators and others 5. Staff mobility 6. Time, Turnover, Burnout— 7. $
Leaders are people who go their own way without caring, or even looking to see whether anyone is following them. 'Leadership qualities' are not the qualities that enable people to attract followers, but those that enable them to do without them. John Holt
The responsibility of the guide is not to give the answers but to raise the questions, suggest directions to explore and to offer support. Leading with Soul
Which book is my boss going to read on holiday this year? that's what I worry about. What new fad or theory is he going to pick up and try to impose on us when he gets back? Manager in a large services company
Eight Steps to Transforming Your Organization 1. Establishing a sense of urgency 2. Forming a powerful guiding coalition 3. Creating a vision 4. Communicating the vision 5. Empowering others to act on the vision 6. Planning for and creating short-term wins 7. Consolidating improvements and producing still more change 8. Institutionalizing new approaches John Kotter
Top-down change programmes all emphasise the importance of decisive inspirational leadership (Leader as hero, Vision, Drive, 'They' are the problem, Training) and share five key characteristics: * vision * telling people what that vision is * top management determination * planning and programming The ‘Bottom-up’ approach has the following features: * Leader as facilitator * Awareness * Release * 'We' need to change * Reflection
Just when you thought total quality management was dying away, along comes business process reengineering. Whatever the cynicism about the formulas, the conferences continue to be full, the books keep selling. The idea that someone somewhere already has the answer to your problem, that you take it and plug it into your organisation like a domestic appliance, continues to be attractive. Our view is that successful organisations do not deny or seek to destroy the inheritance of the past. Instead, they seek to build on it. They attempt to understand in depth why they have been successful and they try to do more of it. They are respectful of the learning accumulated from experience, much of which they recognise is not made explicit at the top of the organisation. They acknowledge their faults but try to see them in balance with their good qualities. Their desire to change is based on selfconfidence and self-belief, not denigration of what they have been.
Leaders who lean into the future... share a number of specific characteristics: * Operational credibility * Being 'connected' to their organisations * Leading by example * Consistency under pressure
Any phenomenon implies and generates its opposite. Day and night, hot and cold, good and evil, life and death, figure and ground, positive and negative, are pairs of self-defining opposites. In each case the existence of one side depends on the other. We cannot know what is cold without knowing what is hot. We cannot conceive of day without knowing night. good defines evil and life defines death. Opposites are intertwined in a state of tension that also defines a state of harmony and wholeness. Gareth Morgan
Chrysler's turnaround resulted not from a grand corporate strategy handed down from on high, but from top management's decision to employ the wisdom already embedded in the organisation‌it was a story of how middle managers deep in the organisation glimpsed the way forward, and how their superiors eventually understood what they were doing and gave them the tools they needed.
You cannot step twice into the same river, for other waters are continually flowing on‌ Everything flows and nothing abides; everything gives way and nothing stays fixed‌ Cool things become warm, the warm grows cool; the moist dries, the parched becomes moist‌ It is in changing that things find repose. Heraclitus
My experience is that Kaizen [continuous improvement] comes naturally to people on the shop floor. When you encourage workers to improve quality they always ask: 'why didn't you do it before? For years we've pointed out the mistakes that are being made but no one listened to us. Peter Willats, founder of the Kaizen Institute of Europe The pride is naturally there; the job of managers is to release it. Often our systems of measurement and our short term horizons get in the way. We have to‌clear them out of the way. Barry Morgans of IBM
Small opportunities are often the beginning of great enterprises. Demosthenes
All things are difficult before they are easy. John Norley
For more WISE WORDS www.julieboyd.com.au office@julieboyd.com.au