Authentic Leadership Quotes

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7 Effective Ways to Make Others Feel Important 1. Use their name. 2. Express sincere gratitude. 3. Do more listening than talking. 4. Talk more about them than about you. 5. Be authentically interested. 6. Be sincere in your praise. 7. Show you care.
Roy T. Bennett (The Light in the Heart)
Our power lies in our small daily choices, one after another, to create eternal ripples of a life well lived.
Mollie Marti
You can only lead from the front.
Graeme Rodaughan (The Day Guard (The Metaframe War, #4))
Accountable Authentic Collaborative Courageous Passionate Lifelong learner Welcomes feedback Biased toward action Solution oriented Change agent
Susan Scott (Fierce Leadership: A Bold Alternative to the Worst "Best" Practices of Business Today)
Presenting leadership as a list of carefully defined qualities (like strategic, analytical, and performance-oriented) no longer holds. Instead, true leadership stems from individuality that is honestly and sometimes imperfectly expressed.... Leaders should strive for authenticity over perfection.
Sheryl Sandberg (Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead)
High above the noise and fear mongering of critics and cynics softly speaks your true self.
Mollie Marti
When you can truly understand how others experience your behavior, without defending or judging, you then have the ability to produce a breakthrough in your leadership and team. Everything starts with your self-awareness. You cannot take charge without taking accountability, and you cannot take accountability without understanding how you avoid it.
Loretta Malandro (Fearless Leadership: How to Overcome Behavioral Blindspots and Transform Your Organization)
The role of leaders is not to get other people to follow them but to empower others to lead.
Bill George (True North: Discover Your Authentic Leadership)
Compassionate leaders honor the complexity of human relationships, nurture authenticity and create common grounds for blooming great ideas of individuals.
Amit Ray (Mindfulness Meditation for Corporate Leadership and Management)
In a world full of lions and tigers entertaining the masses, have you ever seen a wolf performing in a circus?
Akilnathan Logeswaran
What does sincerity mean if it is chosen as deliberate strategy?
Rick Perlstein (The Invisible Bridge: The Fall of Nixon and the Rise of Reagan)
To truly motivate others 1) discover what their motives, desires & drivers are 2) genuinely connect with and support them from the heart.
Rasheed Ogunlaru
A company can’t have a great culture without authentic leadership. #MagneticAdvantage
Pascha Moore Kelley (The Magnetic Advantage: How Great Companies Attract, Retain & Engage The Best People)
In an age when nations and individuals routinely exchange murder for murder, when the healing grace of authentic spirituality is usurped by the divisive politics of religious organizations, and when broken hearts bleed pain in darkness without the relief of compassion, the voice of an exceptional poet producing exceptional work is not something the world can afford to dismiss.
Aberjhani (The American Poet Who Went Home Again)
Leadership is a journey, not a destination. It is a marathon, not a sprint. It is a process, not an outcome. (quoting John Donahoe)
Bill George (True North: Discover Your Authentic Leadership)
I don't want to be rich and famous but I want to die knowing I stood infront of a broken man and gave him one reason to smile again.
Nikki Rowe
Life is not about who you know, but rather about who knows you & what you stand for. Show the world with presence, actions & the way you lead your life, who you are.
Akilnathan Logeswaran
Authentic leaders are often accused of being "controlling" by those who idly sit by and do nothing
John Paul Warren
It’s the great temptation for small groups of people to slide into a state where they’re not quite telling each other the truth and they’re not quite celebrating each other. Instead, they tolerate each other, they accommodate each other, and they settle for sitting on the unspoken matters that separate them.
Bill Hybels (Axiom: Powerful Leadership Proverbs)
You have to imprint your own style. People like authentic personalities.
Dexter Hawk (25 Things to Say to the Interviewer, to Get the Job You Want: Being Qualified Isn't Enough)
Telling people what to do is showmanship. Showing people how to do it is leadership.
Janna Cachola
Too often we think sharing our weaknesses will cause us to lose respect. We think making our weaknesses know will cause us to lose the honour to be able to proclaim the Word of God in our congregations or our businesses. I know longer believe that is true. Not today, in our post modern culture. What I do believe is the more you tell the truth about yourself – appropriately, winsomely, age-appropriately, within a context – the more effective your leadership will become, the more you will develop a true leading character. The more you tell of your own failure of character, the more God will use that for His purposes.
Dan B. Allender (Leading Character)
Yes, in all my research, the greatest leaders looked inward and were able to tell a good story with authenticity and passion.
Depak Chopras
It's not about who you think you know, but about who actually knows you.
Akilnathan Logeswaran
There’s no degree or certification for being a badass. You can just choose to be one.
Leslie Ehm (Swagger: Unleash Everything You Are and Become Everything You Want)
You are not your history. You are the stories you tell yourself.
Leslie Ehm (Swagger: Unleash Everything You Are and Become Everything You Want)
The self-employed need business strategies that are relationship-based, not transactional, authentic to who you are, and right-sized for small business.
Jeffrey Shaw (The Self-Employed Life: Business and Personal Development Strategies That Create Sustainable Success)
The greatest crisis in the world today is a crisis of leadership, and the greatest crisis of leadership is a crisis of character.
Aubrey Malphurs (Being Leaders: The Nature of Authentic Christian Leadership)
Through real-life stories, Kristin Kaufman illustrates the core idea of being present in the moment and opening oneself up to new ideas in order to become an authentic leader in life.
Stephen R. Covey
You can continue to cry over the same pain & complain about the same situations or you can expand your mind and you can grow. Maybe im not alone when I say, sometimes we all get a little confused and feel like we owe it to the people and places to try harder when in reality, most of the time lessons become lifelong if we don't learn the art of peaceful detachment early in the game.
Nikki Rowe
The power of this new era is simple: if you want to (need to, must!) lead, then you can. It’s easier than ever and we need you. But if this isn’t the right moment, if this isn’t the right cause, then hold off. Generous and authentic leadership will always defeat the selfish efforts of someone doing it just because she can.
Seth Godin (Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us)
Authentic leaders inspire us to engage with each other in powerful dreams that make the impossible possible. We are called on to persevere despite failure and pursue a purpose beyond the paycheck. This is at the core of innovation. It requires aligning the dreams of each individual to the broader dream of the organization.
Henna Inam (Wired for Authenticity: Seven Practices to Inspire, Adapt, & Lead)
True leadership can only be achieved when one looks within oneself and commits to authenticity. It gives us the courage to stand at the front and influence others to willingly follow; it gives us the courage to learn, inspire, demand the best and shape the future.
Sameh Elsayed
Authenticity is not possible without embracing the “and” within us. Our minds like to categorize things into neatly labeled boxes. Am I right, or is she right? Let’s stretch our minds to I can be right and so can she. Embracing the “and” is like yoga for the brain. When we train ourselves to hold paradoxes by stretching ourselves out of the boxes our minds create, we stretch into new possibilities and adapt more quickly in a fast-changing world.
Henna Inam (Wired for Authenticity: Seven Practices to Inspire, Adapt, & Lead)
If you try to be everything to everyone, you become nothing.
Yuri van der Sluis
How we enter and honor our relationships, treat others and ourselves, give and receive—these are all measures of life lived with integrity.
Sabrina Horn (Make It, Don't Fake It: Leading with Authenticity for Real Business Success)
It’s okay to not be okay all the time.
Minter Dial (You Lead: How Being Yourself Makes You a Better Leader)
You wouldn't pick up someone else's baggage off the carousel. So why do it in life?
Leslie Ehm (Swagger: Unleash Everything You Are and Become Everything You Want)
Authenticity is the language of visionaries.
Andrena Sawyer
It is the mentor’s responsibility to create a safe and trusting space that enables a mentee to stretch and step outside their comfort zone, take risks, and show up authentically.
Lisa Fain (Bridging Differences for Better Mentoring: Lean Forward, Learn, Leverage)
Authenticity is our natural state of being. The authentic self is a state of being where we are centered, creative, adaptive, and inspired.
Henna Inam (Wired for Authenticity: Seven Practices to Inspire, Adapt, & Lead)
successful leadership takes conscious development and requires being true to your life story.
Bill George (True North: Discover Your Authentic Leadership (J-B Warren Bennis Series Book 143))
The Law of Familiarity. People feel comfortable with who and what they know.
Michelle Tillis Lederman (The 11 Laws of Likability: Relationship Networking . . . Because People Do Business with People They Like)
Down with, "Fake it, till you make it." Up with, "Make it so you don't have to fake it!
Raju Mandhyan
Authentic leadership is leadership that endures, because it exists as a function of the individual rather than a crowd of borrowed opinions.
Azim Jamal & Brian Tracy (What You Seek Is Seeking You)
Genuine, authentic leadership infuses meaning into your life, because you know that your efforts count and that you are serving the needs of others as well as your own.
Mark Sanborn (You Don't Need a Title to Be a Leader: How Anyone, Anywhere, Can Make a Positive Difference)
The reality is that no one can be authentic by trying to be like someone else. There is no doubt you can learn from their experiences, but there is no way you can be successful trying to be like them. People trust you when you are genuine and authentic, not an imitation.
Bill George (True North: Discover Your Authentic Leadership (J-B Warren Bennis Series Book 143))
A title or promotion does not make anyone a leader. Leadership emerges from the character, qualities, and capacities of the individual. Make no mistake about it, authentic leadership is personal.
George B. Bradt (The New Leader's 100-Day Action Plan: How to Take Charge, Build Your Team, and Get Immediate Results)
Don’t believe everything you think. Our minds are thought-creating machines. Most of these thoughts are fear-based. Our authentic self has the power to pick the thoughts that best serve us and those we lead.
Henna Inam (Wired for Authenticity: Seven Practices to Inspire, Adapt, & Lead)
Authentic Leaders are not afraid to show emotion and vulnerability as they share in the challenges with their team. Developing a solid foundation of trust with open and honest communication is critical to authentic leadership.
Farshad Asl (The "No Excuses" Mindset: A Life of Purpose, Passion, and Clarity)
When an actor reaches down into his emotional well and pulls up a deeply personal response, the audience can sense something special is going on. They may not know exactly what they're seeing, but they recognize it as authentic.
Martin Sheen (Along the Way: The Journey of a Father and Son)
The common soldiers did not blame him for his excessive grief. They knew him. They knew his flaws. Indeed, I think they loved him all the more because he was flawed, as they were, and did not hide his passionate, blemished nature.
Geraldine Brooks (The Secret Chord)
But such people (Moderate Conservatives) aren't liberal. What they are is corporate. Their habits and opinions owe far more to the standards of courtesy and taste that prevail within the white-collar world than they do to Franklin Roosevelt and the United Mine Workers. We live in a time, after all, when hard-nosed bosses compose awestruck disquisitions on the nature of 'change,' punk rockers dispense leadership secrets, shallow profundities about authenticity sell luxury cars, tech billionaires build rock'n'roll musuems, management theorists ponder the nature of coolness, and a former lyricist fro the Grateful Dead hail the dawn of New Economy capitalism from the heights of Davos. Coversvatives may not understand why, but business culture had melded with counterculture for reasons having a great deal to do with business culture's usual priority - profit.
Thomas Frank
Positive energy is unleashed when leaders give themselves permission to connect and express themselves from the core of who they are. When leaders practice authenticity, creativity, engagement, confidence, and a sense of inner resourcefulness emerge.
Henna Inam (Wired for Authenticity: Seven Practices to Inspire, Adapt, & Lead)
Rudeness is not cool. Defeating tiny guys is not cool. Close-following is not cool. Young is cool. Risk taking is cool. Winning is cool. Polite is cool. Defeating bigger, unsympathetic guys is cool. Inventing is cool. Explorers are cool. Conquerors are not cool. Obsessing over competitors is not cool. Empowering others is cool. Capturing all the value only for the company is not cool. Leadership is cool. Conviction is cool. Straightforwardness is cool. Pandering to the crowd is not cool. Hypocrisy is not cool. Authenticity is cool. Thinking big is cool. The unexpected is cool. Missionaries are cool. Mercenaries are not cool.
Brad Stone (The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon)
that leaders inspire trust, be authentic, tell the truth, serve others (particularly those who work for and with them), be modest and self-effacing, exhibit empathic understanding and emotional intelligence, and other similar seemingly sensible nostrums.
Jeffrey Pfeffer (Leadership BS: Fixing Workplaces and Careers One Truth at a Time)
Many great leaders understand intuitively that they need to work hard to create a sense of safety in others. In this way, great leaders are often humble leaders, thereby reducing the status threat. Great leaders provide clear expectations and talk a lot about the future, helping to increase certainty. Great leaders let others take charge and make decisions, increasing autonomy. Great leaders often have a strong presence, which comes from working hard to be authentic and real with other people, to create a sense of relatedness. And great leaders keep their promises, taking care to be perceived as fair.
David Rock (Your Brain at Work: Strategies for Overcoming Distraction, Regaining Focus, and Working Smarter All Day Long)
Most of us want to be authentic. Yet, we are not who we think we are. We are made up of a rich array of facets and possibilities, many of which we ignore because we label them as “bad”. We create a cardboard cutout image of ourselves to look good to others. The discord between who we are and the image we have to live up to slowly kills our aliveness. When we suppress parts of ourselves, it lowers our mojo, sense of fulfillment, leadership effectiveness and impact in the workplace.
Henna Inam (Wired for Authenticity: Seven Practices to Inspire, Adapt, & Lead)
There are no self made heroes or leaders. No matter how rugged or self assured, everyone requires a cast of players - friends, mentors, lovers, critics, villains and supporters - who call, invite, seduce, goad and encourage them to finally step into their true power. We are all heroes and leaders in some way, and we all need each other.
Jacob Nordby
Be true to yourself-at the core of your leadership are your values and morals.
Artika Tyner
Be true to your authenticity and innovate with brave ammunition.
K. Abernathy Can You Action Past Your Devil's Advocate
Pursuing purpose with passion • Practicing solid values • Leading with heart • Establishing enduring relationships • Demonstrating self-discipline
Bill George (True North: Discover Your Authentic Leadership (J-B Warren Bennis Series Book 143))
Begin each day with a promise to self to be grateful ,be kind .be authentic your day will meet your intent ~bns
Bluenscottish
Accepting your shadow side is an essential part of being authentic.
Bill George (Authentic Leadership: Rediscovering the Secrets to Creating Lasting Value)
There are fewer things more poisonous than unresolved issues, resentment, and distrust within a leadership team.
Sabrina Horn (Make It, Don't Fake It: Leading with Authenticity for Real Business Success)
You might think that, as an executive, admitting mistakes shows weakness, but handled in the right way, it actually shows strength.
Sabrina Horn (Make It, Don't Fake It: Leading with Authenticity for Real Business Success)
Your ability and desire to try things out, make mistakes and, at times, make a fool of yourself, are a big part of why being imperfect will be core to your long-term success.
Minter Dial (You Lead: How Being Yourself Makes You a Better Leader)
It’s important to recognize that your intention counts immeasurably.
Minter Dial (You Lead: How Being Yourself Makes You a Better Leader)
Customer service has become absolutely strategic.
Minter Dial (You Lead: How Being Yourself Makes You a Better Leader)
The leader who is able to embrace his or her imperfections is the one who will most likely inspire sustainable and healthy success.
Minter Dial (You Lead: How Being Yourself Makes You a Better Leader)
Those who know how to make connections, to connect the dots, ideas and people will be those who know how to surf on the wave of change that is ahead.
Minter Dial (You Lead: How Being Yourself Makes You a Better Leader)
Empathy is a superpower for doping your team’s engagement.
Minter Dial (You Lead: How Being Yourself Makes You a Better Leader)
You need to get ahead of the curve and put forward the best version of you, otherwise others will write their version of you for you.
Minter Dial (You Lead: How Being Yourself Makes You a Better Leader)
We will need to embrace the messiness while seeking order.
Minter Dial (You Lead: How Being Yourself Makes You a Better Leader)
Your number one fans ought to be your employees, starting with yourself.
Minter Dial (You Lead: How Being Yourself Makes You a Better Leader)
You must be a steward of your employees’ time.
Minter Dial (You Lead: How Being Yourself Makes You a Better Leader)
If there’s more than one ‘version’ of you, one of them is lying.
Leslie Ehm (Swagger: Unleash Everything You Are and Become Everything You Want)
There’s no such thing as “sounding smart”. Smart is either knowing or seeking to know.
Leslie Ehm (Swagger: Unleash Everything You Are and Become Everything You Want)
To have swagger, your intention has to outweigh your fear.
Leslie Ehm (Swagger: Unleash Everything You Are and Become Everything You Want)
Swagger requires you to let your guard down. If nothing can get in, then nothing can get out.
Leslie Ehm (Swagger: Unleash Everything You Are and Become Everything You Want)
When you filter your truth through the lens of approval, you only say things you’ve seen approved of in the past.
Leslie Ehm (Swagger: Unleash Everything You Are and Become Everything You Want)
When you confess your mess, you invite everyone else to say “ME TOO!” That’s connection.
Leslie Ehm (Swagger: Unleash Everything You Are and Become Everything You Want)
Stop waiting for someone to tell you it’s OK to be yourself. Swagger needs no permission.
Leslie Ehm (Swagger: Unleash Everything You Are and Become Everything You Want)
When you have a strong company culture it will shine through your brand and you can authentically say, “This is what our brand is about.
Amber Hurdle (The Bombshell Business Woman: How to Become a Bold, Brave Female Entrepreneur)
Branding is fascinating. Creating a brand that is authentic and timeless is what entrepreneurs dream of. Dare to be different, dare to dream.
Independent Zen
Love for others is the foundation of leadership. Simplicity is the language of leadership. Authenticity is the true character of leadership.
Farshad Asl (The "No Excuses" Mindset: Mastermind Edition)
True North is the internal compass that guides you successfully through life.
Bill George (True North: Discover Your Authentic Leadership (J-B Warren Bennis Series Book 143))
Fame requires every kind of excess. I mean true fame, a devouring neon, not the somber renown of waning statesmen or chinless kings. I mean long journeys across gray space. I mean danger, the edge of every void, the circumstance of one man imparting an erotic terror to the dreams of the republic. Understand the man who must inhabit these extreme regions, monstrous and vulval, damp with memories of violation. Even if half-mad he is absorbed into the public's total madness; even if fully rational, a bureaucrat in hell, a secret genius of survival, he is sure to be destroyed by the public's contempt for survivors. Fame, this special kind, feeds itself on outrage, on what the counselors of lesser men would consider bad publicity-hysteria in limousines, knife fights in the audience, bizarre litigation, treachery, pandemonium and drugs. Perhaps the only natural law attaching to true fame is that the famous man is compelled, eventually, to commit suicide. (Is it clear I was a hero of rock'n'roll?) Toward the end of the final tour it became apparent that our audience wanted more than music, more even than its own reduplicated noise. It's possible the culture had reached its limit, a point of severe tension. There was less sense of simple visceral abandon at our concerts during these last weeks. Few cases of arson and vandalism. Fewer still of rape. No smoke bombs or threats of worse explosives. Our followers, in their isolation, were not concerned with precedent now. They were free of old saints and martyrs, but fearfully so, left with their own unlabeled flesh. Those without tickets didn't storm the barricades, and during a performance the boys and girls directly below us, scratching at the stage, were less murderous in their love of me, as if realizing finally that my death, to be authentic, must be self-willed- a succesful piece of instruction only if it occured by my own hand, preferrably ina foreign city. I began to think their education would not be complete until they outdid me as a teacher, until one day they merely pantomimed the kind of massive response the group was used to getting. As we performed they would dance, collapse, clutch each other, wave their arms, all the while making absolutely no sound. We would stand in the incandescent pit of a huge stadium filled with wildly rippling bodies, all totally silent. Our recent music, deprived of people's screams, was next to meaningless, and there would have been no choice but to stop playing. A profound joke it would have been. A lesson in something or other. In Houston I left the group, saying nothing, and boarded a plane for New York City, that contaminated shrine, place of my birth. I knew Azarian would assume leadership of the band, his body being prettiest. As to the rest, I left them to their respective uproars- news media, promotion people, agents, accountants, various members of the managerial peerage. The public would come closer to understanding my disappearance than anyone else. It was not quite as total as the act they needed and nobody could be sure whether I was gone for good. For my closest followers, it foreshadowed a period of waiting. Either I'd return with a new language for them to speak or they'd seek a divine silence attendant to my own. I took a taxi past the cemetaries toward Manhattan, tides of ash-light breaking across the spires. new York seemed older than the cities of Europe, a sadistic gift of the sixteenth century, ever on the verge of plague. The cab driver was young, however, a freckled kid with a moderate orange Afro. I told him to take the tunnel. Is there a tunnel?" he said.
Don DeLillo
For those of you who really want to give critical thought to your unique leadership style and foster genuine followership, learn from what’s out there and weave it into something meaningful and authentic.
Stacy Feiner (Talent Mindset)
Leadership is the sum total of who you are. Leaders are developed not simply born and we can all develop ourselves to be able to guide others. Anyone who follows their internal compass can become an authentic leader.
Bill George (True North: Discover Your Authentic Leadership)
Where there is no rest there is energy. Where there is no disruption there is normality. Where there is no profit there is bankruptcy. Where there is no gain there is insolvency. Where there is no injury there is safety. Where there is no team there is individuality. Where there is no hindrance there is opportunity. Where there is no injury there is safety. Where there is no sense there is inefficiency. Where there is no failiure there is competency. Where there is no decline there is industry. Where there is no strength there is infirmity. Where there is no idleness there is activity. Where there is no weakness there is intensity. Where there is no failiure there is industry. Where there is no leadership there is anarchy. Where there is no repetition there is originality. Where there is no increase there is deficiency. Where there is no ignorance there is capacity. Where there is no impotence there is ability. Where there is no falseness there is authenticity. Where there is no excellence there is mediocrity. Where there is no mistake there is quality. Where there is no amatuer there is ingenuity. Where there is no error there is mastery. Where there is no defect there is virtuosity.
Matshona Dhliwayo
An honorable leader must demonstrate a willingness to reveal his or her ‘inner self’ to their team. It builds trust and trust is essential. It’s also a sign of strength and authenticity, and people are attracted to those who are ‘real’ and authentic.
Lee Ellis (Leading with Honor: Leadership Lessons from the Hanoi Hilton)
and in life. I’ve noticed that leadership is not a skill. It’s character. Successful, happy, and fulfilled people embody core values such as honor, courage, and commitment to personal excellence. Real leaders command from the heart. They’ve developed an ethical code that makes them both a good teammate and a good leader. When things go wrong, they look within and seek to be better people. Authentic leadership starts with knowing your stand—your purpose in life, against which you will measure all decisions.
Anonymous
We live in an age where people pride themselves on individualism and the concept of living authentically. The human race strives towards self-help and desires nothing if not constant self-improvement both inward and outward. So, I ask you, what can be more authentic than learning the truth? How can one form their unique self without first knowing more possibilities? How can a person truly strive for such grandiose dreams of self-improvement without the ability to listen to the advice and knowledge of others?
Spencer Fraseur (The Irrational Mind: How To Fight Back Against The Hidden Forces That Affect Our Decision Making)
Be authentically you. The world doesn’t revolve around you, but it depends on you. Be consistent. Be your best self. Show up every day like the sunrise, wearing your finest garment, and be ready to shine brightly in every life and every circumstance that you touch.
Janet Autherine (Island Mindfulness: How to Use the Transformational Power of Mindfulness to Create an Abundant Life)
Most churches do not grow beyond the spiritual health of their leadership. Many churches have a pastor who is trying to lead people to a Savior he has yet to personally encounter. If spiritual gifting is no proof of authentic faith, then certainly a job title isn't either. You must have a clear sense of calling before you enter ministry. Being a called man is a lonely job, and many times you feel like God has abandoned you in your ministry. Ministry is more than hard. Ministry is impossible. And unless we have a fire inside our bones compelling us, we simply will not survive. Pastoral ministry is a calling, not a career. It is not a job you pursue. If you don’t think demons are real, try planting a church! You won’t get very far in advancing God’s kingdom without feeling resistance from the enemy. If I fail to spend two hours in prayer each morning, the devil gets the victory through the day. Once a month I get away for the day, once a quarter I try to get out for two days, and once a year I try to get away for a week. The purpose of these times is rest, relaxation, and solitude with God. A pastor must always be fearless before his critics and fearful before his God. Let us tremble at the thought of neglecting the sheep. Remember that when Christ judges us, he will judge us with a special degree of strictness. The only way you will endure in ministry is if you determine to do so through the prevailing power of the Holy Spirit. The unsexy reality of the pastorate is that it involves hard work—the heavy-lifting, curse-ridden, unyielding employment of your whole person for the sake of the church. Pastoral ministry requires dogged, unyielding determination, and determination can only come from one source—God himself. Passive staff members must be motivated. Erring elders and deacons must be confronted. Divisive church members must be rebuked. Nobody enjoys doing such things (if you do, you should be not be a pastor!), but they are necessary in order to have a healthy church over the long haul. If you allow passivity, laziness, and sin to fester, you will soon despise the church you pastor. From the beginning of sacred Scripture (Gen. 2:17) to the end (Rev. 21:8), the penalty for sin is death. Therefore, if we sin, we should die. But it is Jesus, the sinless one, who dies in our place for our sins. The good news of the gospel is that Jesus died to take to himself the penalty of our sin. The Bible is not Christ-centered because it is generally about Jesus. It is Christ-centered because the Bible’s primary purpose, from beginning to end, is to point us toward the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus for the salvation and sanctification of sinners. Christ-centered preaching goes much further than merely providing suggestions for how to live; it points us to the very source of life and wisdom and explains how and why we have access to him. Felt needs are set into the context of the gospel, so that the Christian message is not reduced to making us feel better about ourselves. If you do not know how sinful you are, you feel no need of salvation. Sin-exposing preaching helps people come face-to-face with their sin and their great need for a Savior. We can worship in heaven, and we can talk to God in heaven, and we can read our Bibles in heaven, but we can’t share the gospel with our lost friends in heaven. “Would your city weep if your church did not exist?” It was crystal-clear for me. Somehow, through fear or insecurity, I had let my dreams for our church shrink. I had stopped thinking about the limitless things God could do and had been distracted by my own limitations. I prayed right there that God would forgive me of my small-mindedness. I asked God to forgive my lack of faith that God could use a man like me to bring the message of the gospel through our missionary church to our lost city. I begged God to renew my heart and mind with a vision for our city that was more like Christ's.
Darrin Patrick (Church Planter: The Man, The Message, The Mission)
The most important element of leadership effectiveness is authentically living the Vision of the company.  The values and ambitions of a company are not instilled entirely by what leaders say; they’re instilled primarily by what leaders do.  In a healthy company, there are no inconsistencies between what is said and what is believed deep down – the values come from within the leaders and imprint themselves on the organization through day-to-day activity.
Ted Kallman (The Nehemiah Effect: Ancient Wisdom from the World’s First Agile Projects)
Pleasure Principles What you pay attention to grows. This will be familiar to those who have read Emergent Strategy. Actually, all the emergent strategy principles also apply here! (Insert eggplant emoji). Tune into happiness, what satisfies you, what brings you joy. We become what we practice. I learned this through studying somatics! In his book The Leadership Dojo, Richard Strozzi-Heckler shares that “300 repetitions produce body memory … [and] 3,000 repetitions creates embodiment.”12 Yes is the way. When it was time to move to Detroit, when it was time to leave my last job, when it was time to pick up a meditation practice, time to swim, time to eat healthier, I knew because it gave me pleasure when I made and lived into the decision. Now I am letting that guide my choices for how I organize and for what I am aiming toward with my work—pleasure in the processes of my existence and states of my being. Yes is a future. When I feel pleasure, I know I am on the right track. Puerto Rican pleasure elder Idelisse Malave shared with me that her pleasure principle is “If it pleases me, I will.” When I am happy, it is good for the world.13 The deepest pleasure comes from riding the line between commitment and detachment.14 Commit yourself fully to the process, the journey, to bringing the best you can bring. Detach yourself from ego and outcomes. Make justice and liberation feel good. Your no makes the way for your yes. Boundaries create the container within which your yes is authentic. Being able to say no makes yes a choice. Moderation is key.15 The idea is not to be in a heady state of ecstasy at all times, but rather to learn how to sense when something is good for you, to be able to feel what enough is. Related: pleasure is not money. Pleasure is not even related to money, at least not in a positive way. Having resources to buy unlimited amounts of pleasure leads to excess, and excess totally destroys the spiritual experience of pleasure.
Adrienne Maree Brown (Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good (Emergent Strategy Book 1))
Every human has a divine spark veiled by the layers of personality. Whether we call it Allah, Jesus, Elohim, Krishna, or any other name, that spark is the same and we are foolish not to realize our astounding potential. An essential spiritual practice is to observe and witness oneself continuously and compassionately, acknowledging and laughing at foibles and weaknesses while working relentlessly to evolve into higher consciousness. The light of persistent awareness is bound, little by little, to dissolve our false self and bring us closer to our authentic self. We may not become perfect human beings, but that is not the goal. The goal is to become more aligned with our higher self and expand our worldview as we learn to see the Face of God in everyone we meet. Institutions and those who serve institutions cannot be trusted to acknowledge their weaknesses and serve the common good, and we would be wise to emulate the Mulla’s healthy skepticism about their moral leadership. Our human understanding of divine verses, such as those in the Qur’an, can be less than divine. With grace and courage we must work to change or eliminate religious customs and scriptural interpretations that do not meet the test of divine compassion and generosity
Imam Jamal Rahman (Sacred Laughter of the Sufis: Awakening the Soul with the Mulla's Comic Teaching Stories and Other Islamic Wisdom)
The essence of Roosevelt’s leadership, I soon became convinced, lay in his enterprising use of the “bully pulpit,” a phrase he himself coined to describe the national platform the presidency provides to shape public sentiment and mobilize action. Early in Roosevelt’s tenure, Lyman Abbott, editor of The Outlook, joined a small group of friends in the president’s library to offer advice and criticism on a draft of his upcoming message to Congress. “He had just finished a paragraph of a distinctly ethical character,” Abbott recalled, “when he suddenly stopped, swung round in his swivel chair, and said, ‘I suppose my critics will call that preaching, but I have got such a bully pulpit.’ ” From this bully pulpit, Roosevelt would focus the charge of a national movement to apply an ethical framework, through government action, to the untrammeled growth of modern America. Roosevelt understood from the outset that this task hinged upon the need to develop powerfully reciprocal relationships with members of the national press. He called them by their first names, invited them to meals, took questions during his midday shave, welcomed their company at day’s end while he signed correspondence, and designated, for the first time, a special room for them in the West Wing. He brought them aboard his private railroad car during his regular swings around the country. At every village station, he reached the hearts of the gathered crowds with homespun language, aphorisms, and direct moral appeals. Accompanying reporters then extended the reach of Roosevelt’s words in national publications. Such extraordinary rapport with the press did not stem from calculation alone. Long before and after he was president, Roosevelt was an author and historian. From an early age, he read as he breathed. He knew and revered writers, and his relationship with journalists was authentically collegial. In a sense, he was one of them. While exploring Roosevelt’s relationship with the press, I was especially drawn to the remarkably rich connections he developed with a team of journalists—including Ida Tarbell, Ray Stannard Baker, Lincoln Steffens, and William Allen White—all working at McClure’s magazine, the most influential contemporary progressive publication. The restless enthusiasm and manic energy of their publisher and editor, S. S. McClure, infused the magazine with “a spark of genius,” even as he suffered from periodic nervous breakdowns. “The story is the thing,” Sam McClure responded when asked to account for the methodology behind his publication. He wanted his writers to begin their research without preconceived notions, to carry their readers through their own process of discovery. As they educated themselves about the social and economic inequities rampant in the wake of teeming industrialization, so they educated the entire country. Together, these investigative journalists, who would later appropriate Roosevelt’s derogatory term “muckraker” as “a badge of honor,” produced a series of exposés that uncovered the invisible web of corruption linking politics to business. McClure’s formula—giving his writers the time and resources they needed to produce extended, intensively researched articles—was soon adopted by rival magazines, creating what many considered a golden age of journalism. Collectively, this generation of gifted writers ushered in a new mode of investigative reporting that provided the necessary conditions to make a genuine bully pulpit of the American presidency. “It is hardly an exaggeration to say that the progressive mind was characteristically a journalistic mind,” the historian Richard Hofstadter observed, “and that its characteristic contribution was that of the socially responsible reporter-reformer.
Doris Kearns Goodwin (The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism)