“The boss drives his workers; the leader coaches them. The boss depends on authority; the leader on goodwill. The boss inspires fear; the leader inspires enthusiasm. The boss says “I”; the leader, “we.” The boss fixes the blame for the breakdown; the leader fixes the breakdown. The boss knows how it is done; the leader shows how. The boss says, “Go”; the leader says, “Let’s go!”
―
John C. Maxwell
“Good attitudes among players do not guarantee a team’s success, but bad attitudes guarantee its failure.”
―
John C. Maxwell
“Leaders see everything with a leadership bias. Their focus is on mobilizing people and leveraging resources to achieve their goals rather than on using their own individual efforts. Leaders who want to succeed maximize every asset and resource they have for the benefit of their organization. For that reason, they are continually aware of what they have at their disposal.”
―
John C. Maxwell
“As Michel de Montaigne observed, “No wind favors him who has no destined port.”
―
John C. Maxwell
“I believed that if you have the heart to make a difference, there is always an answer, but if you have a heart of indifference, there is never an answer.”
―
John C. Maxwell
“Dreams often come one size too big so that we can grow into them.”
―
John C. Maxwell
“If you are interested in success, it’s easy to set your standards in terms of other people’s accomplishments and then let other people measure you by those standards. But the standards you set for yourself are always more important. They should be higher than the standards anyone else would set for you, because in the end you have to live with yourself, and judge yourself, and feel good about yourself. And the best way to do that is to live up to your highest potential. So set your standards high and keep them high, even if you think no one else is looking. Somebody out there will always notice, even if it’s just you.”
―
John C. Maxwell
“If you want to get ahead, leading up is much better than kissing up.”
―
John C. Maxwell
“A Jeff Danziger cartoon shows a company president announcing to his staff, “Gentlemen, this year the trick is honesty.” From one side of the conference table, a vice president gasps, “Brilliant.” Across the table, another VP mutters, “But so risky.”
―
John C. Maxwell
“Eleanor Roosevelt commented, "Life is like a parachute jump; you've got to get it right the first time.”
―
John C. Maxwell
“Leaders are effective because of who they are on the inside—in the qualities that make them up as people. And to go to the highest level of leadership, people have to develop these traits from the inside out.”
―
John C. Maxwell
“It’s better to have a great team with a weak dream than a great dream with a weak team. Your team must be the size of your dream.”
―
John C. Maxwell
“Management is the process of assuring that the program and objectives of the organization are implemented. Leadership, on the other hand, has to do with casting vision and motivating people.”
―
John C. Maxwell