The best way to lead people into the future is to connect with them deeply in the present.
It always takes a group of people working together with a common purpose in an atmosphere of trust and collaboration to get extraordinary things done.
It is striking how our language reveals the visual nature of our thoughts about the future state of affairs. When we invent the future, we try to get a mental picture of what things will be like long before we have begun the journey. Visions are our windows on the world of tomorrow.
Leadership isn’t the private reserve of a few charismatic men and women. It’s a process ordinary people use when they’re bringing forth the best from themselves and others. Liberate the leader in everyone, and extraordinary things happen.
A leader with integrity has one self, at home and at work, with family and with colleagues. He or she has a unifying set of values that guide choices of action regardless of the situation.
Do what you say you will do.
Only those leaders who act boldly in times of crisis and change are willingly followed.
Leaders must know where they are going if they expect others to willingly join them on the journey.
If we’re going to be authentic in our leadership, we will have to be willing to serve, and we have to be willing to suffer.
There’s nothing more demoralizing than a leader who can’t clearly articulate why we’re doing what we’re doing.
There is no freeway to the future, no paved highway from here to there. There is only wilderness, uncertain terrain. There are no roadmaps, no signposts. So pioneering leaders rely upon a compass and a dream.
The word “story” is short for the word “history.” They both have the same root and fundamentally mean the same thing. A story is a narrative on an event or series of events, just like history.
You can’t lead others to places you don’t want to go yourself. If you don’t feel a burning passion for something, how in the world can you inspire and encourage others to share it?
Leadership is a relationship between those who aspire to lead and those who choose to follow.