“Years ago, I used to tell new leaders I hired that every person in our organization walked around with two buckets. One bucket contained water, and the other gasoline. As leaders, they would continually come across small fires, and they could pour water or gasoline on a fire. It was their choice.”
―
John C. Maxwell
“Good leaders motivate others by their listening skills. We are to: avoid prejudicial first impressions; become less self-centered; withhold initial criticism; stay calm; listen with empathy; be active listeners; clarify what we hear; and recognize the healing power of listening. Then we are to act on what we hear”
―
John C. Maxwell
“People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care.”
―
John C. Maxwell
“Nobody is a whole team . . . We need each other. You need someone and someone needs you. Isolated islands we’re not. To make this thing called life work, we gotta lean and support. And relate and respond. And give and take. And confess and forgive. And reach out and embrace and rely . . . Since none of us is a whole, independent, self-sufficient, super-capable, all-powerful hotshot, let’s quit acting like we are. Life’s lonely enough without our playing that silly role. The game is over. Let’s link up.”
―
John C. Maxwell
“Have patience. All things are difficult before they become easy.” —Saadi”
―
John C. Maxwell
“The number-one reason most people lose arguments is not because they’re wrong; it’s because they don’t know when to quit.”
―
John C. Maxwell
“It may sound corny, but it's really true: people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care.”
―
John C. Maxwell
“Productive leaders communicate the superiority and the benefits of their ideas.”
―
John C. Maxwell
“Contrary to popular belief, I consider failure a necessity in business. If you're not failing at least five times a day, you're probably not doing enough. The more you do, the more you fail. The more you fail, the more you learn. The more you learn, the better you get. The operative word here is learn. If you repeat the same mistake two or three times, you are not learning from it. You must learn from your own mistakes and from the mistakes of others before you."
―
John C. Maxwell
“If I wanted to make a difference… Wishing for things to change wouldn’t make them change. Hoping for improvements wouldn’t bring them. Dreaming wouldn’t provide all the answers I needed. Vision wouldn’t be enough to bring transformation to me or others. Only by managing my thinking and shifting my thoughts from desire to deeds would I be able to bring about positive change. I needed to go from wanting to doing.”
―
John C. Maxwell
“If you're not failing, you're probably not really moving forward.”
―
John C. Maxwell
“A leader with great passion and few skills always outperforms a leader with great skills and no passion.”
―
John C. Maxwell
“Tenderness and kindness are not signs of weakness and despair, but manifestations of strength and resolution.”
―
John C. Maxwell