(This section will focus on Leadership and it will be presented in tweets-like format … We all have a leadership book in us, this is mine. It will draw from my experiences real or embellished, of the many years of living & working with people in the real world… off we go:)

Leadership is working together to make the world a better place for all.

Elements of Leadership: Life mission & vision, values & behaviour, communication, environment & context, performance (capacity and capability) and what leaders say.

1.0 Life mission and vision:– Mission is the reason why we are created be it people, organization or an initiative…

– Vision is where we want to go from here…

– If you don’t shape your life by design, others will shape it for you by default.

– In all cases, disagreement is Okay, but disrespect is never Okay.

– Life is a mystery to be enjoyed and not demystified

2.0 Values & Behaviour:

– Self-Awareness

• Attitude is almost everything
• Treat people the way you like to be treated, no exceptions.
• No the difference between being in a corner vs. being in a whole

– Working with others

• If you don’t care about me how do you expect me to care about you
• I only remember those who made me feel, but love the ones who care about how I feel!
• In all cases, disagreement is Okay, but disrespect is never Okay!
• Leaders approach other they way they like to be approached, in hope not fear.
• The worst leaders are those who live in fear and therefore suspect everyone.
• Just as you don’t fight Fire with Fire, you can’t fight Fear with Fear… You can fight Fear with Hope and quench it with knowledge …

– Crisis needs more wisdom than energy!

– We often hide behind the comfort of believing rather than the discomfort of thinking…

– Leaders focus on winning the people [their team], the clients and their management..

– Disengagement happens when bad leaders focus on winning their management at the back of their employees.

– Great leaders provide their own experience as a safety net to the acrobatically innovative ideas of the young.

– Mentoring is a supreme act of trust, trust is the foundation of team work, and team work is the fuel to high performance

– You are never defeated if you maintain faith in yourself and draw on the inexhaustible human spirit.

– to be a “good” leader is to be a “good” human being.

3.0 Communication:

– Communication works only when the recipient invites you to speak

– Speaking is not communicating

– Listening is the first step in communicating

– When you are truly communicating you heart knows it

– When you don’t have anything positive to say, silence is your best friend.

–  It’s more profitable to win the person and lose the argument, rather than the inverse.

4.0 Environment & Context:

– Leadership will grow sweeter in healthy soil

– Context is what gives meaning to everything

– Wisdom is seeing facts in context

– Context gives meaning to words…

– There is often more than one right answer, context may help in your choice.

– Strong leaders never fly without instruments.

5.0 Performance:

Trust is the foundation of high performance …

– Leadership is about the power of your idea and not about the idea of your power.

– a culture of trust means high performance at a low cost!

– In all our actions, large and small, be guided by the values of  integrity, honesty, teamwork, leadership, and yes above all respect! Basically, let’s help each other.  Sounds too simple, you say?  And I say yes, because it is!”

– on the bridge of trust will travel high speed solutions, agility, efficiency and effectiveness.  Conversely, operating at “the speed of distrust” is painful, wasteful and is the root of most poor performance.

– Distrust means high-cost.

– If you distrust someone, no amount of logic, business case, or documentation will help!

– No amount of process or control can ever replace trust.

– Winning hearts and minds is unquestionably hard work but unquestionably worth it.

– To harvest the advantage of high trust, we need to stand united to counter the culture of distrust.

– More than ever, successful organizations and indeed, modern societies, can’t afford the high cost of low trust!

– The future, as much as we try, is never about the past…

– Those who fight yesterdays battles lose the opportunities of tomorrow .

– Analytics is one of the mega-trends that management is waking up to… In the end it’s all about the Human System and how to unleash its potential, its genius and production out while achieving the ultimate human purpose of happiness and fellowship.

– A good plan always start from where you are standing and that’s Today but aims where you want to go and that’s Tomorrow.

-A good plan always have actionable steps that moves you steadily towards your tomorrow but never undermine your today:)

Of course nothing feeds distrust more than silo and low quality work!  In the old days, people used to say ” Let’s shake hands on it” or “You have my word” and that was all that was needed to ensure action.

6.0 What leaders say:

– “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care”  by Theodore Roosevelt

– “If your actions inspire others to: dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” John Quincy Adams

– For the great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie—deliberate, contrived, and dishonest—but the myth—persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic. Too often we hold fast to the cliches of our forebears. We subject all facts to a prefabricated set of interpretations. We enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.

Yale University Commencement Speech, June 11, 1962 – John F. Kennedy
– “Alone we can go faster…..but together, we can go further!”   African Proverb

– “Culture eats strategy for breakfast” Peter Drucker

–  Steve Jobs on self awareness & self improvement:

–

– Leadership and change

 

100 Motivational Quotes That Will Inspire Your Success:  Quotes that helps you at times of success or failure or in between …  Nothing stays the same and we are all work in progress … let’s work on making ourselves  better and the make the world a better place:

1. “If you want to achieve greatness stop asking for permission.” –Anonymous

2. “Things work out best for those who make the best of how things work out.” –John Wooden

3. “To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong.” –Anonymous

4. “If you are not willing to risk the usual you will have to settle for the ordinary.” –Jim Rohn

5. “Trust because you are willing to accept the risk, not because it’s safe or certain.” –Anonymous

6. “Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life–think of it, dream of it, live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body, be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success.” –Swami Vivekananda

7. “All our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them.” –Walt Disney

8. “Good things come to people who wait, but better things come to those who go out and get them.” –Anonymous

9. “If you do what you always did, you will get what you always got.” –Anonymous

10. “Success is walking from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.” –Winston Churchill

11. “Just when the caterpillar thought the world was ending, he turned into a butterfly.” –Proverb

12. “Successful entrepreneurs are givers and not takers of positive energy.” –Anonymous

13. “Whenever you see a successful person you only see the public glories, never the private sacrifices to reach them.” –Vaibhav Shah

14. “Opportunities don’t happen, you create them.” –Chris Grosser

15. “Try not to become a person of success, but rather try to become a person of value.” –Albert Einstein

16. “Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.” –Eleanor Roosevelt

17. “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” –Thomas A. Edison

18. “If you don’t value your time, neither will others. Stop giving away your time and talents–start charging for it.” –Kim Garst

19. “A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at him.” –David Brinkley

20. “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” –Eleanor Roosevelt

21. “The whole secret of a successful life is to find out what is one’s destiny to do, and then do it.” –Henry Ford

22. “If you’re going through hell keep going.” –Winston Churchill

23. “The ones who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.” –Anonymous

24. “Don’t raise your voice, improve your argument.” –Anonymous

25. “What seems to us as bitter trials are often blessings in disguise.” –Oscar Wilde

26. “The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away.” –Anonymous

27. “The distance between insanity and genius is measured only by success.” –Bruce Feirstein

28. “When you stop chasing the wrong things, you give the right things a chance to catch you.” –Lolly Daskal

29. “I believe that the only courage anybody ever needs is the courage to follow your own dreams.” –Oprah Winfrey

30. “No masterpiece was ever created by a lazy artist.” –Anonymous

31. “Happiness is a butterfly, which when pursued, is always beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.” –Nathaniel Hawthorne

32. “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.” –Albert Einstein

33. “Blessed are those who can give without remembering and take without forgetting.” –Anonymous

34. “Do one thing every day that scares you.” –Anonymous

35. “What’s the point of being alive if you don’t at least try to do something remarkable.” –Anonymous

36. “Life is not about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.” –Lolly Daskal

37. “Nothing in the world is more common than unsuccessful people with talent.” –Anonymous

38. “Knowledge is being aware of what you can do. Wisdom is knowing when not to do it.” –Anonymous

39. “Your problem isn’t the problem. Your reaction is the problem.” –Anonymous

40. “You can do anything, but not everything. –Anonymous

41. “Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.” –Steve Jobs

42. “There are two types of people who will tell you that you cannot make a difference in this world: those who are afraid to try and those who are afraid you will succeed.” –Ray Goforth

43. “Thinking should become your capital asset, no matter whatever ups and downs you come across in your life.” –A.P.J. Abdul Kalam

44. “I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have.” –Thomas Jefferson

45. “The starting point of all achievement is desire.” –Napoleon Hill

46. “Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day-in and day-out.” –Robert Collier

47. “If you want to achieve excellence, you can get there today. As of this second, quit doing less-than-excellent work.” –Thomas J. Watson

48. “All progress takes place outside the comfort zone.” –Michael John Bobak

49. “You may only succeed if you desire succeeding; you may only fail if you do not mind failing.” –Philippos

50. “Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear–not absence of fear.” –Mark Twain

51. “Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone.” –Pablo Picasso

52. “People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing–that’s why we recommend it daily.” –Zig Ziglar

53. “We become what we think about most of the time, and that’s the strangest secret.” –Earl Nightingale

54. “The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary.” –Vidal Sassoon

55. “Too many of us are not living our dreams because we are living our fears. ” –Les Brown

56. “I find that when you have a real interest in life and a curious life, that sleep is not the most important thing.” –Martha Stewart

57. “It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.” –Anonymous

58. “The road to success and the road to failure are almost exactly the same.” –Colin R. Davis

59. “The function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers.” –Ralph Nader

60. “Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.” –Maya Angelou

61. “As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others.” –Bill Gates

62. “A real entrepreneur is somebody who has no safety net underneath them.” –Henry Kravis

63. “The first step toward success is taken when you refuse to be a captive of the environment in which you first find yourself.” –Mark Caine

64. “People who succeed have momentum. The more they succeed, the more they want to succeed, and the more they find a way to succeed. Similarly, when someone is failing, the tendency is to get on a downward spiral that can even become a self-fulfilling prophecy.” –Tony Robbins

65. “When I dare to be powerful, to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid.” –Audre Lorde

66. “Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.” –Mark Twain

67. “The successful warrior is the average man, with laser-like focus.” –Bruce Lee

68. “There is no traffic jam along the extra mile.” –Roger Staubach

69. “Develop success from failures. Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success.” –Dale Carnegie

70. “If you don’t design your own life plan, chances are you’ll fall into someone else’s plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much.” –Jim Rohn

71. “If you genuinely want something, don’t wait for it–teach yourself to be impatient.” –Gurbaksh Chahal

72. “Don’t let the fear of losing be greater than the excitement of winning.” –Robert Kiyosaki

73. “If you want to make a permanent change, stop focusing on the size of your problems and start focusing on the size of you!” –T. Harv Eker

74. “You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something–your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.” –Steve Jobs

75. “Two roads diverged in a wood and I took the one less traveled by, and that made all the difference.” –Robert Frost

76. “The number one reason people fail in life is because they listen to their friends, family, and neighbors.” –Napoleon Hill

77. “The reason most people never reach their goals is that they don’t define them, or ever seriously consider them as believable or achievable. Winners can tell you where they are going, what they plan to do along the way, and who will be sharing the adventure with them.” –Denis Waitley

78. “In my experience, there is only one motivation, and that is desire. No reasons or principle contain it or stand against it.” –Jane Smiley

79. “Success does not consist in never making mistakes but in never making the same one a second time.” –George Bernard Shaw

80. “I don’t want to get to the end of my life and find that I lived just the length of it. I want to have lived the width of it as well.” –Diane Ackerman

81. “You must expect great things of yourself before you can do them.” –Michael Jordan

82. “Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going.” –Jim Ryun

83. “People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing.” –Dale Carnegie

84. “There is no chance, no destiny, no fate, that can hinder or control the firm resolve of a determined soul.” –Ella Wheeler Wilcox

85. “Our greatest fear should not be of failure but of succeeding at things in life that don’t really matter.” –Francis Chan

86. “You’ve got to get up every morning with determination if you’re going to go to bed with satisfaction.” –George Lorimer

87. “A goal is not always meant to be reached; it often serves simply as something to aim at.” — Bruce Lee

88. “Success is … knowing your purpose in life, growing to reach your maximum potential, and sowing seeds that benefit others.” –John C. Maxwell

89. “Be miserable. Or motivate yourself. Whatever has to be done, it’s always your choice.” –Wayne Dyer

90. “To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream, not only plan, but also believe.” –Anatole France

91. “Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no help at all.” –Dale Carnegie

92. “You measure the size of the accomplishment by the obstacles you had to overcome to reach your goals.” –Booker T. Washington

93. “Real difficulties can be overcome; it is only the imaginary ones that are unconquerable.” –Theodore N. Vail

94. “It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.” –Herman Melville

95. “What would you do if you weren’t afraid.” –Spencer Johnson

96. “Little minds are tamed and subdued by misfortune; but great minds rise above it.” –Washington Irving

97. “Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor.” –Truman Capote

98. “Don’t let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.” –John R. Wooden

99. “You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it.” –Margaret Thatcher

100. “A man can be as great as he wants to be. If you believe in yourself and have the courage, the determination, the dedication, the competitive drive and if you are willing to sacrifice the little things in life and pay the price for the things that are worthwhile, it can be done.” –Vince Lombardi