Winning Quotes
"Every person in the world wants voice and dignity, and every person deserves them."
"Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others."
"Differentiation is just resource allocation, which is what good leaders do and, in fact, is one of the chief jobs they are paid to do."
"It’s not saying a mission shouldn’t be bold or aspirational."
"Leaders relentlessly upgrade their team, using every encounter as an opportunity to evaluate, coach, and build self-confidence."
"Leaders make sure people not only see the vision, they live and breathe it."
"Leaders get into everyone’s skin, exuding positive energy and optimism."
"Leaders establish trust with candor, transparency, and credit."
"Leaders have the courage to make unpopular decisions and gut calls."
"Leaders probe and push with a curiosity that borders on skepticism, making sure their questions are answered with action."
"Trust happens when leaders are transparent, candid, and keep their word. It’s that simple."
"Leaders never score off their own people by stealing an idea and claiming it as their own."
"Remember, when you were made a leader you weren’t given a crown, you were given a responsibility to bring out the best in others."
"You are not a leader to win a popularity contest—you are a leader to lead."
"If you’re left with that uh-oh feeling in your stomach, don’t hire the guy."
"Your job is to have all the questions. You have to be incredibly comfortable looking like the dumbest person in the room."
"Just because you’re the boss doesn’t mean you’re the source of all knowledge."
"The best HR people are a kind of hybrid: one part pastor, one part parent."
"Change for change’s sake is stupid and enervating."
"You pick a general direction and implement like hell."
"Forget the arduous, intellectualized number crunching and data grinding that gurus say you have to go through to get strategy right."
"In real life, strategy is actually very straightforward."
"Real change agents comprise less than 10 percent of all businesspeople."
"These people have courage—a certain fearlessness about the unknown."
"Communicate a sound rationale for every change."
"Everyone in business claims they like change; to say otherwise nowadays would be career suicide."
"If the company has been through enough change programs, employees consider you like gas pains."
"This pervasive skepticism is all the more reason that anyone leading a change process must stay far away from empty slogans."
"While most people take to reinvented budgeting with enthusiasm, there are always a few diehards who try to undermine it."
"This behavior stinks, and it sets the whole process back by demonstrating to the people in the trenches that they can’t trust it."
"My answer is not to give up. It’s too important."
"It may be awkward at first, but change begins when you start talking."
"The right "budget" process can change the way companies compete."
"People usually groan when you mention budgeting—it’s a necessary evil."
"If you join a company where your sensibilities don’t fit in, you’ll find yourself putting on a persona just to get along."
"Every job you take should feel somewhat challenging going in."
"Working for some companies is like winning an Olympic medal."
"If a job doesn’t excite you on some level—just because of the stuff of it—don’t settle."
"Nothing will get you a new job faster than terrific performance in your old one."
"Great performers are like the masts of the tall ships. We can see them over the horizon, and we are always trying to bring them in—to our port."
"Work-life balance means making choices and trade-offs, and living with their consequences."
"Work-life balance is a swap—a deal you’ve made with yourself about what you keep and what you give up."
"The facts are, when it comes to careers, you mainly make your own luck."
"Sometimes careers stall for no reason at all except bad timing."
"People who publicly struggle with work-life balance problems and continually turn to the company for help get pigeonholed as ambivalent, entitled, uncommitted, or incompetent."
"Your boss’s top priority is competitiveness. Of course he wants you to be happy, but only inasmuch as it helps the company win."
"If you want real work-life balance, find a company that accommodates it as part of its everyday business."
"Achieving work-life balance is a process. Getting it right is iterative."
"Winning companies are meritocracies. They practice differentiation, making a clear distinction between top, middle, and bottom performers."
"The only quota that I ever thought worked was the exposure quota."
"In the heat of battle, it always feels like the worst of times."
"In the absence of golf, a whole world of new interests has opened up to me."
"If there is anything I would like to be remembered for it is that I helped people understand that leadership is helping other people grow and succeed."
"But when you can't play, you can't play—and amazingly, the world doesn’t even end."
"I'm sure not perfect, but if there are any points given out for caring about people with every fiber of your being and giving life all you’ve got every day, then I suppose I have a shot."
"In fact, life is only people—family, friends, colleagues, bosses, teachers, coaches, neighbors. At the end of the day, it is only people that matter."