A true leader has to have a genuine open-door policy so that his people are not afraid to approach him for any reason.

The worst disease which can afflict business executives in their work is not, as popularly supposed, alcoholism; it's egotism.

Performance is your reality. Forget everything else.

I don't believe in just ordering people to do things. You have to sort of grab an oar and row with them.

You can know a person by the kind of desk he keeps. If the president of a company has a clean desk then it must be the executive vice president who is doing all the work.

Management manages by making decisions and by seeing that those decisions are implemented.

Every company has two organizational structures: The formal one is written on the charts; the other is the everyday relationship of the men and women in the organization.

Leadership cannot really be taught. It can only be learned.

It is an immutable law in business that words are words, explanations are explanations, promises are promises-but only performance is reality.

Performance stands out like a ton of diamonds. Nonperformance can always be explained away.

A true leader has to have a genuine open-door policy so that his people are not afraid to approach him for any reason.

In business, words are words; explanations are explanations, promises are promises, but only performance is reality.

You cannot run a business, or anything else, on a theory.

You can't run a business or anything else on a theory.

Management must manage!

Facts from paper are not the same as facts from people. The reliability of the people giving you the facts is as important as the facts themselves.

In the business world, everyone is paid in two coins: cash and experience. Take the experience first; the cash will come later.

We must not be hampered by yesterday's myths in concentrating on today's needs.

It's better to take over and build upon an existing business than to start a new one.

If your desk isn't cluttered, you probably aren't doing your job.

I think it is an immutable law in business that words are words, explanations are explanations, promises are promises - but only performance is reality.

It is much more difficult to measure nonperformance than performance.

The best way to inspire people to superior performance is to convince them by everything you do and by your everyday attitude that you are wholeheartedly supporting them.

He suffered from paralysis by analysis.

Leadership is practiced not so much in words as in attitude and in actions.

Uncertainty will always be part of the taking charge process.

Managers in all too many American companies do not achieve the desired results because nobody makes them do it.

The five essential entrepreneurial skills for success: Concentration, Discrimination, Organization, Innovation and Communication.

The five essential entrepreneurial skills for success: concentration, discrimination, organization, innovation and communication.

When I come upon a man who has a gleaming empty clear desktop I am dealing with a fellow who is so far removed from the realities of his business that someone else is running it for him

The five essential entrepreneurial skills for success are concentration discrimination organization innovation and communication.

I'm glad I'm not Brezhnev. Being the Russian leader in the Kremlin. You never know if someone's tape recording what you say.

Reason and judgment are the qualities of a leader.

The most important quality in a leader is that of being acknowledged as such. All leaders whose fitness is questioned are clearly lacking in force.

Show me a poorly uniformed troop and I'll show you a poorly uniformed leader.

I was a gang leader. Although, it was a gang for defensive purposes. It was not a gang to sell drugs.

But let's be clear. We're talking about a country where there's no opposition. As leader he can ignore Parliament and - sorry that's Tony Blair isn't it? Um, so he doesn't even have to ask the country before he goes to war - sorry that's still Tony Blair.

I am not the kind of leader who pontificates about what should be done - I don't operate on scenarios, and I am not a prophet.

Tony Blair has turned his back on the principles he claimed he believed in before he stood shoulder-to-shoulder with George W. Bush. He was an entirely different kind of leader.

Somebody has to take responsibility for being a leader.

Obama likes to quote great men but will never be a great man himself. I can't stand it when our leader goes around apologizing for who we are.

The 'transition' involves the transfer of power from one president to another. In recent times, the incoming President has designated a Director of the Transition, a team leader, to oversee and administer the orderly transfer of power.

Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.

Today America lost a great elder statesman, a committed public servant, and leader of the Senate. And today I lost a treasured friend. Ted Kennedy was an iconic, larger than life United States senator whose influence cannot be overstated. Many have come before, and many will come after, but Ted Kennedy's name will always be remembered as someone who lived and breathed the United States Senate and the work completed within its chamber.

The fountain of youth with the youthful young musician is one meaning, and the fountain of youth with the youthful energy of the leader is another meaning.

When you have a clearly open homosexual scout leader, the scouts are going to talk about it. And they're not there to learn about that. They're there to learn about what it means to be loyal and trustworthy and thrifty.

I think it's good to have competition. Now we have a third country that can launch astronauts, so it's good for all of us. It makes us a little bit more competitive and wanting to be the leader.

People, like sheep, tend to follow a leader - occasionally in the right direction.

I was writing a chapter of Beautiful Evidence on the subject of the sculptural pedestal, which led to my thinking about what's up on the pedestal - the great leader.