“Good things happen to a team when a player takes the place where he adds the most value. Great things happen when all the players on the team take the role that maximizes their strengths—their talent, skill, and experience.”
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John C. Maxwell
“This poster in a Nordstrom’s department store once caught my attention: “The only difference between stores is the way they treat their customers.” That’s a bold statement. Most stores would advertise the quality of their merchandise or their wide selection as what sets them apart from the rest. The difference between Nordstrom’s and other stores, according to an employee of the competition, is that other stores are organization-oriented; Nordstrom’s is people-oriented. Their employees are trained to respond quickly and kindly to customer complaints. As a result, according to writer Nancy Austin, “Nordstrom’s doesn’t have customers; it has fans.” A study by TARP, Technical Assistance”
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John C. Maxwell
“One day when the Raiders were in Oakland, a reporter visited their locker room to talk to Ken Stabler. Stabler really wasn’t known as an intellectual, but he was a good quarterback. This newspaperman read him some English prose: “I would rather be ashes than dust. I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than that it should be stifled by dry rot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy, impermanent planet. The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.” After reading this to the quarterback, the reporter asked, “What does this mean to you?” Stabler immediately replied, “Throw deep.” Go after it. Go out to win in life.”
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John C. Maxwell
“People who make growth their goal—instead of a title, position, salary, or other external target—always have a future.”
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John C. Maxwell
“There comes a special moment in everyone’s life, a moment for which that person was born.… When he seizes it… it is his finest hour.”
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John C. Maxwell
“A real decision is measured by the fact that you’ve taken a new action. If there’s no action, you haven’t truly decided.”
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John C. Maxwell
“The real art of conversation is not only to say the right thing in the right place, but to leave unsaid the wrong thing at”
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John C. Maxwell
“The bottom line is that indifference is really a form of selfishness.”
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John C. Maxwell
“Nothing is easier than saying words. Nothing is harder than living them day after day.”
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John C. Maxwell
“For a team to succeed, responsibility must go down deep into the organization, down to the roots. Getting that to happen requires a leader who will delegate responsibility and authority to the team. Stephen Covey remarked, “People and organizations don’t grow much without delegation and completed staff work, because they are confined to the capacities of the boss and reflect both personal strengths and weaknesses.” Good leaders seldom restrict their teams; they release them.”
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John C. Maxwell
“Recently I had breakfast with Dan Cathy, the president of Chick-fil-A, a fast food chain headquartered in the Atlanta area. I told him that I was working on this book and I asked him if he made thinking time a high priority. Not only did he say yes, but he told me about what he calls his “thinking schedule.” It helps him to fight the hectic pace of life that discourages intentional thinking. Dan says he sets aside time just to think for half a day every two weeks, for one whole day every month, and for two or three full days every year. Dan explains, “This helps me ‘keep the main thing, the main thing,’ since I am so easily distracted.” You may want to do something similar, or you can develop a schedule and method of your own. No matter what you choose to do, go to your thinking place, take paper and pen, and make sure you capture your ideas in writing.”
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John C. Maxwell
“Reward only finished work: It’s good to praise effort, but you should never reward it.
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John C. Maxwell
“Too many people, when they make a mistake, just keep stubbornly plowing ahead and end up repeating the same mistakes. I believe in the motto, Try and try again.' But the way I read it, it says, Try, then stop and think. Then try again.”
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John C. Maxwell
“Just remember that if you’re not working at your game to the utmost of your ability, there will be someone out there somewhere with equal ability. And one day you’ll play each other, and he’ll have the advantage.”
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John C. Maxwell
“We must stop assuming that a thing which has never been done before probably cannot be done at all.” —Donald M. Nelson”
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John C. Maxwell
