Leadership is neither a rank nor a title. It is a choice. The choice to provide care and protection for those for whom we are responsible.
It’s better to have a great team than a team of greats.
Happy employees ensure happy customers. And happy customers ensure happy shareholders – in that order.
Vision is a destination – a fixed point to which we focus all effort. Strategy is a route – an adaptable path to get us where we want to go.
Customers will never love a company until its employees love it first.
Though there are lessons that can be learned about becoming a great leader, most exist inherently in the bellies of those who lead.
I never imagined working with CEOs, congressmen or the military, yet I make regular visits to the Pentagon, stop by the Capitol now and then and sit down with leaders of all kinds of companies.
Halloween is one of my favorite days of the year. I have a strict rule: I don’t work on Halloween and I won’t travel on Halloween. Not for any reason.
In the 1980s America reacted to the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan. We supported a war that left a nation torn to pieces. And as the last Soviet tank left the country, so did we.
Most years, if you were to ask me how much I make, the genuine answer is that I have no clue. I usually find out the answer to that question once a year, at tax time, when my accountant tells me.
TiVo and other digital recording devices have confounded advertisers. The ad industry sees the technology as a threat to their product.
Academic experts may not be good at doing what they are experts in themselves, but they are good at explaining the subject matter to others. They write books, teach courses and offer lessons and give steps others can follow.
Time and energy. Those are the most valuable sacrifices leaders can make.
All these companies that grew to any sizable proportions were all founded with a belief or a cause bigger than their products or services. It was their products or services that helped them bring that cause to life.
I’m investing in myself, I’m investing in others and I’m investing in my cause. I know if I persist it will pay back in dividends and it always does.
You have to have patience for exercise. You have to have patience for college. You have to have patience for relationships. Once the momentum gets going, it takes on a life of its own.
Good marketing speaks to human beings – the way human beings understand and take in information.
Leadership is a choice to protect the person to the left of us, and protect the person to the right of us, and sometimes that may come at a cost. It may cost us our benefits, it may cost us our comfort, it may sometimes cost us our perks, whatever it is, credit.
I don’t consider myself an expert in the why. I don’t consider myself an expert in leadership. I consider myself a student of leadership and I consider myself a student of the why. I’m constantly learning and I’m constantly looking for opportunities where it it will fail.
The leader’s job is to lead and protect. Not have all the answers, not know everything to do, not to micromanage and tell people what to do or how to do it. A leader’s job is to lead and protect. That’s their job, and it’s the people within the organization – their job is to get the work done.