“Charismatic people not only want to win, they want others to win too. That creates productivity.”

“If you want to get ahead, leading up is much better than kissing up.”

“What’s worse than training your people and losing them? Not training them and keeping them.”

“People must have affirmation and praise in order to maintain a high level of performance. Withholding negative or critical comments is not nearly as important as giving positive input through compliments and praise.”

“Saying you believe in yourself will not guarantee your success, but saying you don't believe in yourself will guarantee your failure.”

“Asking and hearing people’s opinions has a greater effect on them than telling them, ‘Good job.’ ”

“To put significance in our stories, we must also take action. Being passive may feel safe. If you do nothing, nothing can go wrong. But while inaction cannot fail, it cannot succeed either. We can wait, and hope, and wish, but if we do, we miss the stories our lives could be.”

“How to prepare someone for leadership: I do it. I do it and you watch. You do it and I watch. You do it. You do it and someone else watches.” 

“Followers tell you what you want to hear. Leaders tell you what you need to hear.”

“EXAMPLES OF THE PARETO PRINCIPLE: TIME 20 percent of our time produces 80 percent of the results. COUNSELING 20 percent of the people take up 80 percent of our time. PRODUCTS 20 percent of the products bring in 80 percent of the profit. READING 20 percent of the book contains 80 percent of the content. JOB 20 percent of our work gives us 80 percent of our satisfaction. SPEECH 20 percent of the presentation produces 80 percent of the impact. DONATIONS 20 percent of the people will give 80 percent of the money. LEADERSHIP 20 percent of the people will make 80 percent of the decisions. PICNIC 20 percent of the people will eat 80 percent of the food!” 

“You can't move people to action unless you first move them with emotion.... The heart comes before the head.”

“Several years ago Dr. Maxwell Maltz’s book, Psycho-Cybernetics, was one of the most popular books on the market. Dr. Maltz was a plastic surgeon who often took disfigured faces and made them more attractive. He observed that in every case, the patient’s self-image rose with his and her physical improvement. In addition to being a successful surgeon, Dr. Maltz was a great psychologist who understood human nature. A wealthy woman was greatly concerned about her son, and she came to Dr. Maltz for advice. She had hoped that the son would assume the family business following her husband’s death, but when the son came of age, he refused to assume that responsibility and chose to enter an entirely different field. She thought Dr. Maltz could help convince the boy that he was making a grave error. The doctor agreed to see him, and he probed into the reasons for the young man’s decision. The son explained, “I would have loved to take over the family business, but you don’t understand the relationship I had with my father. He was a driven man who came up the hard way. His objective was to teach me self-reliance, but he made a drastic mistake. He tried to teach me that principle in a negative way. He thought the best way to teach me self-reliance was to never encourage or praise me. He wanted me to be tough and independent. Every day we played catch in the yard. The object was for me to catch the ball ten straight times. I would catch that ball eight or nine times, but always on that tenth throw he would do everything possible to make me miss it. He would throw it on the ground or over my head but always so I had no chance of catching it.” The young man paused for a moment and then said, “He never let me catch the tenth ball—never! And I guess that’s why I have to get away from his business; I want to catch that tenth ball!”

“There are two things that are most difficult to get people to do: to think, and to do things in order of importance.”

“anyone can steer the ship, but it takes a leader to chart the course. Leaders who are good navigators are capable of taking their people just about anywhere.”

“leadership is really more art than science.”