Corporation Leadership Quotes

We've searched our database for all the quotes and captions related to Corporation Leadership. Here they are! All 100 of them:

A vision without execution is an hallucination.
Jeffrey E. Garten (The Mind Of The CEO: The World's Business Leaders Talk About Leadership, Responsibility The Future Of The Corporation, And What Keeps Them Up At Night)
As more and more artificial intelligence is entering into the world, more and more emotional intelligence must enter into leadership.
Amit Ray (Mindfulness Meditation for Corporate Leadership and Management)
A system is corrupt when it is strictly profit-driven, not driven to serve the best interests of its people.
Suzy Kassem (Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem)
When picking a leader, choose a peacemaker. One who unites, not divides. A cultured leader who supports the arts and true freedom of speech, not censorship.
Suzy Kassem (Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem)
Great leaders have three things; inner light, inner vision, and inner strength.
Amit Ray (Mindfulness Meditation for Corporate Leadership and Management)
You are not alone in the struggles of life. Entire cosmos is with you. It evolves through the way you face and overcome challenges of life. Use everything in your advantage.
Amit Ray (Mindfulness Meditation for Corporate Leadership and Management)
People want guidance, not rhetoric. They need to know what the plan of action is, and how it will be implemented. They want to be given responsibility to help solve the problem and authority to act on it.
Howard Schultz (Pour Your Heart Into It: How Starbucks Built a Company One Cup at a Time)
Leadership grows like tall trees. It needs both toughness and flexibility - toughness for accountability - flexibility to adapt changes with a compassionate & caring heart for self and others.
Amit Ray (Mindfulness Meditation for Corporate Leadership and Management)
Mindful leadership keeps you cool and energetic in any situation, so that you can make the best possible decisions.
Amit Ray (Mindfulness Meditation for Corporate Leadership and Management)
Pick a leader who will make their citizens proud. One who will stir the hearts of the people, so that the sons and daughters of a given nation strive to emulate their leader's greatness. Only then will a nation be truly great, when a leader inspires and produces citizens worthy of becoming future leaders, honorable decision makers and peacemakers. And in these times, a great leader must be extremely brave. Their leadership must be steered only by their conscience, not a bribe.
Suzy Kassem (Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem)
MORGAN: Help me out here. THEO: What's up? MORGAN: Don't make me spell it out, Theo. THEO: Oh. MORGAN:Just talk dirty for a while. THEO: Blue-sky thinking. Thought shower. Full spectrum leadership. MORGAN: NOT corporate dirty. Sex dirty. THEO: I wouldn't know where to start.
Con Riley (After Ben (Seattle Stories, #1))
Pick a leader who will keep jobs in your country by offering companies incentives to hire only within their borders, not one who allows corporations to outsource jobs for cheaper labor when there is a national employment crisis. Choose a leader who will invest in building bridges, not walls. Books, not weapons. Morality, not corruption. Intellectualism and wisdom, not ignorance. Stability, not fear and terror. Peace, not chaos. Love, not hate. Convergence, not segregation. Tolerance, not discrimination. Fairness, not hypocrisy. Substance, not superficiality. Character, not immaturity. Transparency, not secrecy. Justice, not lawlessness. Environmental improvement and preservation, not destruction. Truth, not lies.
Suzy Kassem (Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem)
A NATION'S GREATNESS DEPENDS ON ITS LEADER To vastly improve your country and truly make it great again, start by choosing a better leader. Do not let the media or the establishment make you pick from the people they choose, but instead choose from those they do not pick. Pick a leader from among the people who is heart-driven, one who identifies with the common man on the street and understands what the country needs on every level. Do not pick a leader who is only money-driven and does not understand or identify with the common man, but only what corporations need on every level. Pick a peacemaker. One who unites, not divides. A cultured leader who supports the arts and true freedom of speech, not censorship. Pick a leader who will not only bail out banks and airlines, but also families from losing their homes -- or jobs due to their companies moving to other countries. Pick a leader who will fund schools, not limit spending on education and allow libraries to close. Pick a leader who chooses diplomacy over war. An honest broker in foreign relations. A leader with integrity, one who says what they mean, keeps their word and does not lie to their people. Pick a leader who is strong and confident, yet humble. Intelligent, but not sly. A leader who encourages diversity, not racism. One who understands the needs of the farmer, the teacher, the doctor, and the environmentalist -- not only the banker, the oil tycoon, the weapons developer, or the insurance and pharmaceutical lobbyist. Pick a leader who will keep jobs in your country by offering companies incentives to hire only within their borders, not one who allows corporations to outsource jobs for cheaper labor when there is a national employment crisis. Choose a leader who will invest in building bridges, not walls. Books, not weapons. Morality, not corruption. Intellectualism and wisdom, not ignorance. Stability, not fear and terror. Peace, not chaos. Love, not hate. Convergence, not segregation. Tolerance, not discrimination. Fairness, not hypocrisy. Substance, not superficiality. Character, not immaturity. Transparency, not secrecy. Justice, not lawlessness. Environmental improvement and preservation, not destruction. Truth, not lies. Most importantly, a great leader must serve the best interests of the people first, not those of multinational corporations. Human life should never be sacrificed for monetary profit. There are no exceptions. In addition, a leader should always be open to criticism, not silencing dissent. Any leader who does not tolerate criticism from the public is afraid of their dirty hands to be revealed under heavy light. And such a leader is dangerous, because they only feel secure in the darkness. Only a leader who is free from corruption welcomes scrutiny; for scrutiny allows a good leader to be an even greater leader. And lastly, pick a leader who will make their citizens proud. One who will stir the hearts of the people, so that the sons and daughters of a given nation strive to emulate their leader's greatness. Only then will a nation be truly great, when a leader inspires and produces citizens worthy of becoming future leaders, honorable decision makers and peacemakers. And in these times, a great leader must be extremely brave. Their leadership must be steered only by their conscience, not a bribe.
Suzy Kassem (Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem)
Leadership is not just some empty formulas but establishing deep connection at soul levels through service, integrity, passion, perseverance and equanimity.
Amit Ray (Mindfulness Meditation for Corporate Leadership and Management)
Decisions of character come from understanding that they are accountable to God only, not to family, spouses, religious leaders, corporations, public opinion or your own ego.
Shannon L. Alder
Great leaders know that under the turmoil of chaos and change, there is a beauty of patterns and designs.
Amit Ray (Mindfulness Meditation for Corporate Leadership and Management)
Life is a balance between emotional intelligence quotient (EQ) and intelligence quotient (IQ).
Amit Ray (Mindfulness Meditation for Corporate Leadership and Management)
Being Fair and Consistent is the Hallmark of Effective and Non-discriminating Policies. If you are going to set up rules that all have to abide by, then you have to enforce it to all. Or it becomes targeting and discriminating. For consumer brands, it means you lose your integrity as a brand. You lose your effectiveness to keep the loyalty of your vendors, authors, and partners. - Strong by Kailin Gow
Kailin Gow
If you have an employee with a great attitude but no training or skills versus one with a poor attitude with some education or training. Take the employee with the great attitude for they can be trained. Poor attitude is like a tumor. It can spread. Attitude is harder to change than someone's skills level. - Strong by Kailin Gow on Hiring Good People and Casting Good People
Kailin Gow
A system is corrupt when it is strictly profit-driven, not driven to serve the best interests of its people, but those of multinational corporations.
Suzy Kassem (Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem)
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)
Mindful leaders know how to repeat success patterns and overcome failure patterns.
Amit Ray (Mindfulness Meditation for Corporate Leadership and Management)
Someday daughters will be trained just as sons by their parents to assume leadership positions. There are the exceptions today where a daughter assumes leadership over a state or corporation, but those are still exceptions today. A shame since women have overtaken men in being the dominant consumers and decision makers in the family. - Strong by Kailin Gow on Raising a Strong Woman Leader
Kailin Gow
In essence, leadership is the sense of calling to a higher purpose.
Amit Ray (Mindfulness Meditation for Corporate Leadership and Management)
Mindfulness is observing and asking why. Millions saw the apple fall but Newton asked why.
Amit Ray (Mindfulness Meditation for Corporate Leadership and Management)
When you cross your comfort zone, fear zone, learning zone and growth zone, you will enter into the zone of leadership.
Amit Ray (Mindfulness Meditation for Corporate Leadership and Management)
Profitability. Growth. Quality. Exceeding customer expectations. These are not examples of values. These are examples of corporate strategies being sold to you as values.
Stan Slap
Endangering human life for profit should be a universal crime.
Suzy Kassem (Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem)
Mindfulness improves your capacity for self-discovery and empowerment.
Amit Ray (Mindfulness Meditation for Corporate Leadership and Management)
To be an enduring, great company, you have to build a mechanism for preventing or solving problems that will long outlast any one individual leader.
Howard Schultz (Pour Your Heart Into It: How Starbucks Built a Company One Cup at a Time)
You can’t move up in the staircase of leadership unless you are emotionally intelligent.
Amit Ray (Mindfulness Meditation for Corporate Leadership and Management)
Don't just climb the corporate ladder, master it! And if anyone tries to push you off, show them who's boss and climb even higher.
Shubham Shukla (Career's Quest: Proven Strategies for Mastering Success in Your Profession: Networking and Building Professional Relationships)
A "matriarchal world" does not mean matrilineal or that one queen shall rule the world. It simply means "a world in which a Mother's Heart leads all social institutions, corporations, and governments." All humans-men, women, or transgender-can embody a mother's heart if they so choose. We are destined for extinction as a human race unless a mother's heart assumes leadership of the world.
Ananda Karunesh (A Thousand Seeds of Joy: Teachings of Lakshmi and Saraswati (Ascended Goddesses Series Book 1))
Pick a leader who will not only bail out banks and airlines, but also families from losing their homes -- or jobs due to their companies moving to other countries. Pick a leader who will fund schools, not limit spending on education and allow libraries to close. Pick a leader who chooses diplomacy over war. An honest broker in foreign relations. A leader with integrity, one who says what they mean, keeps their word and does not lie to their people. Pick a leader who is strong and confident, yet humble. Intelligent, but not sly. A leader who encourages diversity, not racism. One who understands the needs of the farmer, the teacher, the doctor, and the environmentalist -- not only the banker, the oil tycoon, the weapons developer, or the insurance and pharmaceutical lobbyist.
Suzy Kassem (Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem)
Effective decision-making can be seen as an optimal link between memory of the past, ground-realities of the present and insights of the future.
Amit Ray (Mindfulness Meditation for Corporate Leadership and Management)
Businesses, like people, should have multiple sources of income.
Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr.
We are constantly evolving as we are interacting with the world. Mindfulness and growth mindset drives our evolution faster and on right tracks.
Amit Ray (Mindfulness Meditation for Corporate Leadership and Management)
Step out of your comfort zone and you will find the magic.
Amit Ray (Mindfulness Meditation for Corporate Leadership and Management)
The decisions we make in the boardroom eventually show themselves in the company's performance.
Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr.
A compassionate leader always feel motivated to bring happiness and relieve the suffering of customers, investors, suppliers, employees, government and the communities.
Amit Ray (Mindfulness Meditation for Corporate Leadership and Management)
Compassionate leaders know their stakeholders and address their concerns, their hopes, dreams and fears.
Amit Ray (Mindfulness Meditation for Corporate Leadership and Management)
Create gaps between stimulus and reaction and the gap will show you the path.
Amit Ray (Mindfulness Meditation for Corporate Leadership and Management)
As you get connection with the higher source, your creativity increases
Amit Ray (Mindfulness Meditation for Corporate Leadership and Management)
The study of modern mindfulness meditation and emotional intelligence is deeply rooted in the ancient Vipassana meditation techniques.
Amit Ray (Mindfulness Meditation for Corporate Leadership and Management)
The workplace is like a battlefield, and you need to be a warrior to survive. So arm yourself with knowledge and fight for your place in the corporate world.
Shubham Shukla (Career's Quest: Proven Strategies for Mastering Success in Your Profession: Networking and Building Professional Relationships)
Drop the fear. What you fear most, can be a repeated theme in your life.
Amit Ray (Mindfulness Meditation for Corporate Leadership and Management)
Empowerment includes growth mindset, positive thinking, acceptance of new challenge, learning and positive self-image.
Amit Ray (Mindfulness Meditation for Corporate Leadership and Management)
Vipassan meditation is the best way to unlearn old habits of basal ganglia and amygdala, and strengthen the neocortex of the brain.
Amit Ray (Mindfulness Meditation for Corporate Leadership and Management)
Changes are like clouds on the sky- come and go. Leadership is like riding on a plane to enjoy the clouds.
Amit Ray (Mindfulness Meditation for Corporate Leadership and Management)
Adaptability and change management requires strong emotional and social intelligence. It is a part of inside-out leadership.
Amit Ray (Mindfulness Meditation for Corporate Leadership and Management)
The more we practice mindfulness the more we understand the emotional dynamics of the self and others.
Amit Ray (Mindfulness Meditation for Corporate Leadership and Management)
Mindfulness gives us the power to understand our deep connection with the trees, flowers, stars, sun and the moon.
Amit Ray (Mindfulness Meditation for Corporate Leadership and Management)
Om meditation eliminates rigid and fixed views about the world. It creates a spacious, flexible and open views about the world.
Amit Ray (Mindfulness Meditation for Corporate Leadership and Management)
The only way to keep yourself productive is by having at least a month's work in front of you.
Radhakrishnan Pillai (Corporate Chanakya on Leadership)
You are blessed, You are great. You are not alone. You are powerful.
Amit Ray (Mindfulness Meditation for Corporate Leadership and Management)
Leadership is not a position but an energy that people love, trust and follow.
Amit Ray (Mindfulness Meditation for Corporate Leadership and Management)
Excellence comes when we balance quality with quantity.
Amit Ray (Mindfulness Meditation for Corporate Leadership and Management)
Then, in the 1980's, came the paroxysm of downsizing, and the very nature of the corporation was thrown into doubt. In what began almost as a fad and quickly matured into an unshakable habit, companies were 'restructuring,' 'reengineering,' and generally cutting as many jobs as possible, white collar as well as blue . . . The New York Times captured the new corporate order succintly in 1987, reporting that it 'eschews loyalty to workers, products, corporate structures, businesses, factories, communities, even the nation. All such allegiances are viewed as expendable under the new rules. With survival at stake, only market leadership, strong profits and a high stock price can be allowed to matter'.
Barbara Ehrenreich (Bright-Sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America)
Understand your purpose and the belief-energy. Belief energy is the core of leadership and success. Design your belief energy for higher purpose and values. Belief energy can inspire and motivate you and others. Articulate, communicate and radiate your positive belief energy.
Amit Ray (Mindfulness Meditation for Corporate Leadership and Management)
Inside mind there are two parts: the controlling mind (ego), and the relaxed but aware mind (self). The controlling mind is the overthinking mind. It is the ego. It tries too much and has many doubts and conflicts. It overthinks and overdoes. It is full with excessive possessiveness and attachments. On the other-hand, the relaxed but aware mind has the natural ability to face and overcome the problems of life with awareness and efficiency.
Amit Ray (Mindfulness Meditation for Corporate Leadership and Management)
A smart entrepreneur pivots when circumstances pivot. When everything around you changes, you gotta change to adapt. Either you pivot and profit from the change, or you procrastinate and are forced to change eventually. And when you're forced to change, there's usually a loss not a profit.
Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr.
The key to overcome crisis is patience, courage, self-discipline, adaptation and alertness.
Amit Ray (Mindfulness Meditation for Corporate Leadership and Management)
Leadership needs continuous learning from experience. Every time you learn something new, you re-wire your brain.
Amit Ray (Mindfulness Meditation for Corporate Leadership and Management)
In every change, ignite the new levels of creativity from the golden state of mind shake up long-standing beliefs with conviction and allow the sparks to fly.
Amit Ray (Mindfulness Meditation for Corporate Leadership and Management)
You need to find out, what you love most from the core of your heart, and for success you need to invest your time and energy on that.
Amit Ray (Mindfulness Meditation for Corporate Leadership and Management)
Design your belief for higher purpose and values. Articulate and communicate your belief energy. Belief energy is the core of leadership and success. 
Amit Ray (Mindfulness Meditation for Corporate Leadership and Management)
Overactive ego chakras kill objectivity, but mindfulness activates the win-win leadership chakras and brings collective and shared leadership.
Amit Ray (Mindfulness Meditation for Corporate Leadership and Management)
Forgiveness is not just a spiritual quality but management and leadership quality because forgiveness releases the trapped negative energies and can help you to move ahead.
Amit Ray (Mindfulness Meditation for Corporate Leadership and Management)
The paradox of change is that while everyone says they want change, not many people actually like it, and even less want to lead it.
Sean A. Culey (Transition Point: From Steam to the Singularity)
Лидерите трябва да действат и да оформят културата, която да изкорени предразсъдъците и да създаде среда, в която всеки може ефективно да отстоява себе си.
Сатя Надела (Hit Refresh: The Quest to Rediscover Microsoft's Soul and Imagine a Better Future for Everyone)
Winning is a habit - leadership is calmly maintaining that habit against all odds.
Amit Ray (Mindfulness Meditation for Corporate Leadership and Management)
To catch the butterflies of your dreams you have to come out of your comfort zone, out of your fear zone.
Amit Ray (Mindfulness Meditation for Corporate Leadership and Management)
I have found that there are three key steps to identifying your own core personal projects. First, think back to what you loved to do when you were a child. How did you answer the question of what you wanted to be when you grew up? The specific answer you gave may have been off the mark, but the underlying impulse was not. If you wanted to be a fireman, what did a fireman mean to you? A good man who rescued people in distress? A daredevil? Or the simple pleasure of operating a truck? If you wanted to be a dancer, was it because you got to wear a costume, or because you craved applause, or was it the pure joy of twirling around at lightning speed? You may have known more about who you were then than you do now. Second, pay attention to the work you gravitate to. At my law firm I never once volunteered to take on an extra corporate legal assignment, but I did spend a lot of time doing pro bono work for a nonprofit women’s leadership organization. I also sat on several law firm committees dedicated to mentoring, training, and personal development for young lawyers in the firm. Now, as you can probably tell from this book, I am not the committee type. But the goals of those committees lit me up, so that’s what I did. Finally, pay attention to what you envy. Jealousy is an ugly emotion, but it tells the truth. You mostly envy those who have what you desire.
Susan Cain (Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking)
You can never grow and lead if you don't know how to train.
honeya
Every crisis demands self-discipline, patience, early adaptation and adjustment to the changing situation.
Amit Ray (Mindfulness Meditation for Corporate Leadership and Management)
Leadership is igniting the creative magic within you that adds joy and value to you and others.
Amit Ray (Mindfulness Meditation for Corporate Leadership and Management)
Emotional intelligence is the foundation of leadership. It balances flexibility with toughness, vision with passion, compassion with justice.
Amit Ray (Mindfulness Meditation for Corporate Leadership and Management)
The ability to make risk scenario simulations is a profoundly helpful to company leadership to engage in risk management.
Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr.
The ability to make risk scenario simulations is a profoundly helpful way for company leadership to engage in risk management.
Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr.
If You Respect Their Preparation, You never Drop the Baton
Vineet Raj Kapoor
People are an organization's most valuable asset and the key to its success. - Dave Bookbinder
Dave Bookbinder (The NEW ROI: Return on Individuals)
Every moment brings new gifts, new possibilities. Our thoughts and actions give them shapes and realities.
Amit Ray (Mindfulness Meditation for Corporate Leadership and Management)
Political victories that undermine trust in politics shouldn’t be considered victories; they’re net losses for society. Record corporate profits achieved by eroding the public’s trust in business aren’t successes; they’re derelictions of duty. Lobbying and campaign donations that result in laws and regulations favoring the lobbyists and donors aren’t triumphs if they weaken public confidence in our democracy; they, too, are abject failures of leadership.
Robert B. Reich (The Common Good)
In the popular imagination, Asian Americans inhabit a vague purgatorial status: not white enough nor black enough; distrusted by African Americans, ignored by whites, unless we’re being used by whites to keep the black man down. We are the carpenter ants of the service industry, the apparatchiks of the corporate world, we are math-crunching middle managers who keep the corporate wheels greased but who never get promoted since we don’t have the right ‘face’ for leadership. We have a content problem. They think we have no inner resources. But while I may look impassive, I'm frantically paddling my feet underwater, always overcompensating to hide my devouring feelings of inadequacy. There's a ton of literature on the self-hating Jew and the self-hating African American, but not enough has been said about the self-hating Asian. Racial self hatred is seeing yourself whites see you, which turns you into your own worst enemy. Your only defence is to be hard on yourself, which becomes compulsive, and therefore a comfort: to peck yourself to death.
Cathy Park Hong (Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning)
Unless you go out of your comfort zone. Unless you challenge yourself, you cannot grow. Leadership is the art of growing by pushing yourself past your own physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual limits.
Amit Ray (Mindfulness Meditation for Corporate Leadership and Management)
Joel Bakan, author of The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power argues that if corporations have 'person hood' under the law, then it makes sense to question what kind of people they are. He posits that corporations behave with all the classical signs of sociopathy: they are inherently amoral, they elevate their own interests above all others', and they disregard moral and sometimes legal limits on their behavior in pursuit of their own advancement. Organizations of this type would thrive under the leadership of people who have the same traits: sociopaths.
M.E. Thomas (Confessions of a Sociopath: A Life Spent Hiding in Plain Sight)
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
When spirituality becomes spiritualization, life in the body becomes carnality. When ministers and priests live their ministry mostly in their heads and relate to the Gospel as a set of valuable ideas to be announced, the body quickly takes revenge by screaming loudly for affection and intimacy. Christian leaders are called to live the Incarnation, that is, to live in the body, not only in their own bodies but also in the corporate body of the community, and to discover there the presence of the Holy Spirit.
Henri J.M. Nouwen (In the Name of Jesus: Reflections on Christian Leadership)
Every coach, every executive, every leader: They all know right from wrong. Even those Enron guys. When someone uncovers a scandal in their company, I don't think they can say, "I didn't know that was going on." They're just saying they're too dumb to do their job! And if they really are too dumb, then why are they getting paid millions of dollars to do it? They know what's going on.
Bo Schembechler (Bo's Lasting Lessons: The Legendary Coach Teaches the Timeless Fundamentals of Leadership)
We have a crisis of leadership in America because our overwhelming power and wealth, earned under earlier generations of leaders, made us complacent, and for too long we have been training leaders who only know how to keep the routine going. Who can answer questions, but don’t know how to ask them. Who can fulfill goals, but don’t know how to set them. Who think about how to get things done, but not whether they’re worth doing in the first place. What we have now are the greatest technocrats the world has ever seen, people who have been trained to be incredibly good at one specific thing, but who have no interest in anything beyond their area of exper­tise. What we don’t have are leaders. What we don’t have, in other words, are thinkers. People who can think for themselves. People who can formulate a new direction: for the country, for a corporation or a college, for the Army—a new way of doing things, a new way of looking at things. People, in other words, with vision.
William Deresiewicz
Bob Iger, Disney's chief operating officer, had to step in and do damage control. He was as sensible and solid as those around him were volatile. His background was in television; he had been president of the ABC network, which was acquired in 1996 by Disney. His reputation was as an corporate suit, and he excelled at deft management, but he also had a sharp eye for talent, a good-humored ability to understand people, and a quiet flair that he was secure enough to keep muted. Unlike Eisner and Jobs, he had a disciplined calm, which helped him deal with large egos. " Steve did some grandstanding by announcing that he was ending talks with us," Iger later recalled. " We went into crisis mode and I developed some talking points to settle things down.
Walter Isaacson (Steve Jobs)
Younger managers learn quickly that, whatever the public protestations to the contrary, bosses generally want pliable and agreeable subordinates, especially during periods of crisis. Clique leaders want dependable, loyal allies. Thos who regularly raise objections to what a boss or a clique leader really desires run the risk of being considered problems themselves and of being labeled "outspoken," or "nonconstructive," or "doomsayers," "naysayers," or "crepehangers.
Robert Jackall (Moral Mazes: The World of Corporate Managers)
How do tyrants hold on to power for so long? For that matter, why is the tenure of successful democratic leaders so brief? How can countries with such misguided and corrupt economic policies survive for so long? Why are countries that are prone to natural disasters so often unprepared when they happen? And how can lands rich with natural resources at the same time support populations stricken with poverty? Equally, we may well wonder: Why are Wall Street executives so politically tone-deaf that they dole out billions in bonuses while plunging the global economy into recession? Why is the leadership of a corporation, on whose shoulders so much responsibility rests, decided by so few people? Why are failed CEOs retained and paid handsomely even as their company’s shareholders lose their shirts? In
Bruce Bueno de Mesquita (The Dictator's Handbook: Why Bad Behavior is Almost Always Good Politics)
In accordance with the prevailing conceptions in the U.S., there is no infringement on democracy if a few corporations control the information system: in fact, that is the essence of democracy. In the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, the leading figure of the public relations industry, Edward Bernays, explains that “the very essence of the democratic process” is “the freedom to persuade and suggest,” what he calls “the engineering of consent.” “A leader,” he continues, “frequently cannot wait for the people to arrive at even general understanding … Democratic leaders must play their part in … engineering … consent to socially constructive goals and values,” applying “scientific principles and tried practices to the task of getting people to support ideas and programs”; and although it remains unsaid, it is evident enough that those who control resources will be in a position to judge what is “socially constructive,” to engineer consent through the media, and to implement policy through the mechanisms of the state. If the freedom to persuade happens to be concentrated in a few hands, we must recognize that such is the nature of a free society.
Noam Chomsky (Necessary Illusions: Thought Control in Democratic Societies)
Decisions made by political leaders, as well as heads of large corporations, affect all of us. If these are made from a place where empathy does not reside, it will not end well. When empathy isn’t present in leadership, decisions are made that hold money and power as the greatest priority instead of the people who reside here and the planet that feeds and shelters us.
Debbie Mirza (The Covert Passive Aggressive Narcissist: Recognizing the Traits and Finding Healing After Hidden Emotional and Psychological Abuse (The Narcissism Series Book 1))
The most feared situation is to end up inadvertently in the wrong place at the wrong time and get blamed. Yet this is exactly what happens in a structure that systematically diffuses responsibility. It is because managers fear blame-time that they diffuse responsibility; however such a diffusion inevitably means that someone, somewhere is going to become a scapegoat when things go wrong.
Robert Jackall (Moral Mazes: The World of Corporate Managers)
There is a theory about human behavior called the 10-80-10 principle. I speak of it often when I talk to corporate groups or business leaders. It is the best strategy I know for getting the most out of your team. Think of your team or your organization as a big circle. At the very center of it, the nucleus, are the top 10 percenters, people who give all they've got all the time, who are the essence of self-discipline, self-respect, and the relentless persuit of improvement. They are the elite- the most powerful component of any organization. They are the people I love to coach. Outside the nucleus are the 80 percenters. They are the majority- people who go to work, do a good job, and are relatively reliable. The 80 percenters are for the most part trustworthy and dutiful, but they simply don't have the drive and the unbending will that the nucleus guys do. They just don't burn as hot. The final 10 percenters are uninterested or defiant. They are on the periphery, mostly just coasting through life, not caring about reaching their potential or honoring the gifts they've been given. They are coach killers. The leadership challenge is to move as many of the 80 percenters into the nucleus as you can.
Urban Meyer (Above the Line: Lessons in Leadership and Life from a Championship Season)
Corporate elites said they needed free-trade agreements, so they got them. Manufacturers said they needed tax breaks and public-money incentives in order to keep their plants operating in the United States, so they got them. Banks and financiers needed looser regulations, so they got them. Employers said they needed weaker unions—or no unions at all—so they got them. Private equity firms said they needed carried interest and secrecy, so they got them. Everybody, including Lancastrians themselves, said they needed lower taxes, so they got them. What did Lancaster and a hundred other towns like it get? Job losses, slashed wages, poor civic leadership, social dysfunction, drugs. Having helped wreck small towns, some conservatives were now telling the people in them to pack up and leave. The reality of “Real America” had become a “negative asset.” The “vicious, selfish culture” didn’t come from small towns, or even from Hollywood or “the media.” It came from a thirty-five-year program of exploitation and value destruction in the service of “returns.” America had fetishized cash until it became synonymous with virtue.
Brian Alexander (Glass House: The 1% Economy and the Shattering of the All-American Town)
Another great example of the power of vulnerability -- this time in a corporation -- is the leadership approach taken by Lululemon's CEO, Christine Day. In a video interview with CNN Money, Day explained that she was once a very bright, smart executive who "majored in being right." Her transformation came when she realized that getting people to engage and take ownership wasn't about "the teling" but about letting them come into the idea in a purpose-led way, and that her job was creating the space for others to perform. She chracterized this change as the shift from "having the best idea or problem solving" to "being the best leader of people.
Brené Brown (Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead)
Qualities such as honesty, determination, and a cheerful acceptance of stress, which can all be identified through probing questionnaires and interviews, may be more important to the company in the long run than one's college grade-point average or years of "related experience." Every business is only as good as the people it brings into the organization. The corporate trainer should feel his job is the most important in the company, because it is. Exalt seniority-publicly, shamelessly, and with enough fanfare to raise goosebumps on the flesh of the most cynical spectator. And, after the ceremony, there should be some sort of permanent display so that employees passing by are continuously reminded of their own achievements and the achievements of others. The manager must freely share his expertise-not only about company procedures and products and services but also with regard to the supervisory skills he has worked so hard to acquire. If his attitude is, "Let them go out and get their own MBAs," the personnel under his authority will never have the full benefit of his experience. Without it, they will perform at a lower standard than is possible, jeopardizing the manager's own success. Should a CEO proclaim that there is no higher calling than being an employee of his organization? Perhaps not-for fear of being misunderstood-but it's certainly all right to think it. In fact, a CEO who does not feel this way should look for another company to manage-one that actually does contribute toward a better life for all. Every corporate leader should communicate to his workforce that its efforts are important and that employees should be very proud of what they do-for the company, for themselves, and, literally, for the world. If any employee is embarrassed to tell his friends what he does for a living, there has been a failure of leadership at his workplace. Loyalty is not demanded; it is created. Why can't a CEO put out his own suggested reading list to reinforce the corporate vision and core values? An attractive display at every employee lounge of books to be freely borrowed, or purchased, will generate interest and participation. Of course, the program has to be purely voluntary, but many employees will wish to be conversant with the material others are talking about. The books will be another point of contact between individuals, who might find themselves conversing on topics other than the weekend football games. By simply distributing the list and displaying the books prominently, the CEO will set into motion a chain of events that can greatly benefit the workplace. For a very cost-effective investment, management will have yet another way to strengthen the corporate message. The very existence of many companies hangs not on the decisions of their visionary CEOs and energetic managers but on the behavior of its receptionists, retail clerks, delivery drivers, and service personnel. The manager must put himself and his people through progressively challenging courage-building experiences. He must make these a mandatory group experience, and he must lead the way. People who have confronted the fear of public speaking, and have learned to master it, find that their new confidence manifests itself in every other facet of the professional and personal lives. Managers who hold weekly meetings in which everyone takes on progressively more difficult speaking or presentation assignments will see personalities revolutionized before their eyes. Command from a forward position, which means from the thick of it. No soldier will ever be inspired to advance into a hail of bullets by orders phoned in on the radio from the safety of a remote command post; he is inspired to follow the officer in front of him. It is much more effective to get your personnel to follow you than to push them forward from behind a desk. The more important the mission, the more important it is to be at the front.
Dan Carrison (Semper Fi: Business Leadership the Marine Corps Way)