June Musings
“The dogmatic adherence to rules and regulations runs counter to customer satisfaction and servant leadership. It seems to me that many mid-level managers love to point to the regulations and gloat over the ‘gotcha’ wherein real leadership overlooks the ‘letter of the law’ when good judgment and common sense dictate.” Dr. Mark Rutland in “Relaunch”
“In marketing, it is better to be first than best.” Ries and Trout in “22 Immutable Laws of Marketing”
“Life shrinks and expands in proportion to one’s courage.” Anais Nin
'“In today’s market, you can’t just “be’; you must perform or you are gone (unless you work for the government).” Benson in “Executive Courage…”
“No time for left-brain bean counters, naysayers, foot draggers, half-steppers, and second guessers. He was too busy winning to tolerate those in the way of his team’s success. He made stress nervous.” On Coach Ray Bussard in “Executive Courage…”
“In times of peril, like the needle to the lodestone (magnet), obedience, irrespective of rank, generally flies to him best fitted for command.” Herman Melville
“He who is not everyday conquering some fear has not learned the secret of life.” Ralph Waldo Emerson
Baseball practice in college was so slow, uninformed, and boring that some of us stood around during batting practice and talked about girls. At night we went out with girls and talked about baseball?!? Benson
“Leaders are teachers, and teachers are readers. Or they better be.” Benson
“Turnaround leaders must have the personality and fit to deal with reality (the company, team, or organization is about to tank), fear (of the pushback ahead if he/she makes the necessary decisions) and the guilt (these decisions will be hurtful to some good people) in order to make the sometimes audacious and unthinkable decisions necessary to save the organization.” Benson
“The challenge of education is not to prepare students for success but to prepare them for failure. I think that it is in hardship and failure that heroes and bums really get sorted out.” Admiral Stockdale
“Lameness is an impediment to the leg, but not to the will.” Epictetus
“In general, the modern congressman is quite likely to be happy to let the president call the shots on war and peace while he devotes himself to the construction of his political bomb shelter.” Admiral Stockdale