PITHY SAYINGS

 

“Empowerment isn’t magic.  It consists of a few simple steps and a lot of persistence.”   --Ken Blanchard, author of Empowerment Takes More Than a Minute

 

“You want to know if I’m happier working 60-hour weeks in 100-degree temperatures fixing little broken pieces simply because I hand in suggestions and get a little extra money for it?   Don’t play games with me!”  --A worker in a smelting plant, quoted in Organizational Dynamics

 

·        UNITY

“Diversity without unity makes about as much sense as dishing up flour, sugar, water, eggs, shortening, and baking powder on a plate and calling it a cake.” 

                                                          --C. William Pollard, author of The Soul of the Firm

 

·        AN OPEN HEART

“It is only with the heart that one can see rightly.  What is essential is invisible to the eye.”   --Antoine de Saint-Exupery, pilot

 

·        TRUTH

“Remember:  One lie does not cost one truth, but the truth.”--Friedrich Hebbel, German dramatist

 

·        PRINCIPLES

“It’s easier to fight for one’s principles than to live up to them.”  --Alfred Adler, psychologist

 

·        REWARD

It’s not enough to tell people they should be happy to have a job here.  At a time when people are asked to stretch themselves with fewer resources, you want to reward them for that stretch.” –Bruce Donatuti, director of HR, Citibank

 

·        PERCEPTION

“The more I work with organizations, the more I am convinced that it all comes down to how people—both employees and customers—perceive the way they are treated by the organization and its management.” 

--An unnamed consultant, quoted in The Power of Ethical Management, by                                                               Kenneth Blanchard and Norman Vincent Peale (Fawcett columbine)

 

·        FEAR

“Fear is a natural reaction to moving closer to the truth.”

                                           --Pema Chodron, from her book, When things Fall Apart

 

·        MAKE A DIFFERENCE

“It’s easy to make a buck.  It’s a lot tougher to make a difference.”   --Tom Brokaw

 

·        IMPOSSIBILITIES

“What we need is more people who specialize in the impossible.” 

                                                                                                         --Theodore Roethke

·        CHANGE

“If we don’t change the direction we’re going, we’re likely to end up where we are headed.”  --Chinese proverb

 

·        WE ARE WHAT WE DO

“Our deeds determine us, as much as much as we determine our deeds.”

                                                                                                       --George Eliot

·        PEOPLE vs. PRODUCT

“People are a firm’s most important asset.  If you have an excellent product but only mediocre people, the results will be only mediocre.”

--Richard Sloma, author of The Turn-around Manager’s Handbook

 

·        MANAGERS

“Managers are people who do things right, and leaders are people who do the right thing.”  --Warren G. Bennis and Burt Nanus, American educators

 

·        SUCCESS vs. VALUE

“Try not to become a man of success but rather try to become a man of value.” 

                                                                                                                                   --Albert Einstein

·        A COMPANY’S SOUL

“If you think of vision and mission as an organization’s head and heart, the values it holds are its soul.”  --From Making Common Sense Common Practice, by Buzzotta/Lefton/Cheney/Beatty (New Leaders Press)

 

·        DO YOU KNOW YOUR JOB?

“Eighty percent of American managers cannot answer with any measure of confidence these seemingly simple questions:  What is my job?  What in it really counts?  How well am I doing?”—W. Edwards Deming

 

·        CREDIBILITY

“The employee public is a savvy one.  Employees can’t be conned, because they live with the organization every day.  They generally know what’s going on and whether management is being honest with them.  That’s why management must be truthful.  One employee communications manager summarized the problem succinctly:  About the only authority you hold today as a manager is the authority of your passion for the truth and your integrity.  The sticks are pretty much gone.  The carrots are not what they used to be.  Loyalty to the organization per se is pretty much gone.  Your best hope is your credibility with your people.”

                                                            --Fraser P. Seitel, author of The Practice of Public Relations

 

·        DEFINING SUCCESS

“A successful person is an individual who is caring for self, others, and has a healthy self-esteem.  Success is more tied to personal satisfaction and achievement and cannot really be measured in dollar terms.  Many people have the right vision, but forget the purpose with the result that they often end up winning the battle but losing the war.”—Connie Doolin, honored by the Irish Business Organization of New York as Businessperson of the Year

 

·        TIME MANAGEMENT

“Executives should spend more time on managing people and making people decisions than on anything else.  No other decisions are so long lasting in their consequence or so difficult to unmake.”  --Peter Drucker, business writer

 

·        THE RIGHT WAY

“Always do right.  This will gratify some people, and astonish the rest.”

                                                                                                                                       --Mark Twain

 

·        INVOLVE EVERYONE

“The key to success is to get out into the store and listen to what the associates have to say.  It’s terribly important for everyone to get involved.  Our best ideas come from clerks and stockboys.”  --Sam Walton

 

·        THINK LONG TERM

“Expedients are for the hour; principles for the ages.”  --H.W. Beecher

 

 

 

 

 

 

From Positive Leadership, sample issue, by Ragan Communications, Inc.