Quotes & Sayings About Executive Leadership

Abby Johnson has agreed to become Chief Executive Officer of Fidelity, reflecting a further step forward in our leadership succession plan. Abby will retain her role of President, and I will continue to serve as Chairman of the Board. — Edward Johnson, III

Ethics must begin at the top of an organization. It is a leadership issue and the chief executive must set the example. — Edward F. Hennessey

Every coach, every executive, every leader: They all know right from wrong. Even those Enron guys. When someone uncovers a scandal in their company, I don't think they can say, "I didn't know that was going on." They're just saying they're too dumb to do their job! And if they really are too dumb, then why are they getting paid millions of dollars to do it? They know what's going on. — Bo Schembechler

We have a country to turn around. This week you will nominate the most experienced executive to seek the presidency in 60 years in Mitt Romney. He has no illusions about what makes America great, and he doesn't confuse the presidency with celebrity, or loftiness with leadership. — Artur Davis

Women account for about 70% of Africa's food production and manage a large proportion of small enterprises. They are also increasingly represented in legislative and executive leadership positions. — Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala

What's going to happen is that county council and the county executive will be able to blame the judge. I think that's what's going to happen
they want to blame the judge for reassessment. That's not leadership, that's hiding. — Robert S. Strauss

Whether a chief executive officer (CEO) is applying the practices to build an organizational vision or an employee is helping a colleague resolve a problem, anyone at any organizational level can leverage leadership practices. — Gary DePaul

When work relationships are reciprocal, ethical leadership emerges for both the executive and the participant unless the executive is trying to control the participant. — Peter J. Dean

A promising junior executive of IBM was involved in a risky venture for the company and managed to lose over $10 million in the gamble. It was a disaster. When Watson called the nervous executive into his office, the young man blurted out, 'I guess you want my resignation?' Watson said, 'You can't be serious. We've just spent $10 million educating you! — Warren G. Bennis

Develop your leaders into a competitive advantage. Reconnect your leader-power to success. — Gene Morton

Self-reliance is an America virtue but not a biblical value. Solomon wrote, "The way of fools seems right to them, but the wise listen to advice." (Proverbs 12:15) The word 'listen' carries with it the meaning of seeking out as well as receiving advice. A lot of pain can be prevented if leaders would just check in with their coach before a making a big decision. — Gary Rohrmayer

A visitor asked Lincoln what good news he could take home from an audience with the august executive. The president spun a story about a machine that baffled a chess champion by beating him thrice. The stunned champ cried while inspecting the machine, "There's a man in there!"Lincoln's good news, he confided from the heights of leadership, was that there was in fact a man in there. — Shelby Foote

Ever since I became an executive producer of 30 Rock, people have asked me, 'Is it hard for you, being the boss?' And, 'Is it uncomfortable for you to be the person in charge?' You know, in that same way they say, 'Gosh, Mr. Trump, is it awkward for you to be the boss of all these people? — Tina Fey

What about feedback you've received about your leadership style over the years? Years ago, an executive editor of mine said, "You should count the number of times you praise somebody and then double that." Even the toughest, steeliest writer or editor often really wants to be told, "Hey, that was a great piece." Early in my career as a manager, it probably took me a while to realize that everybody wants that. It's just a human need. — Anonymous

Another great example of the power of vulnerability
this time in a corporation
is the leadership approach taken by Lululemon's CEO, Christine Day. In a video interview with CNN Money, Day explained that she was once a very bright, smart executive who "majored in being right." Her transformation came when she realized that getting people to engage and take ownership wasn't about "the teling" but about letting them come into the idea in a purpose-led way, and that her job was creating the space for others to perform. She chracterized this change as the shift from "having the best idea or problem solving" to "being the best leader of people. — Brene Brown

The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint to keep from meddling with them while they do it. — Theodore Roosevelt

I agree with Marco [Rubio] that we can't afford another four years like the last eight years that we've had under [Barack] Obama, for sure. That we concur on. I think we need someone with proven executive leadership to be able to make that case to the American people. — Jeb Bush

Leadership is not about executive position or title. It is about connection and influence. At its highest, leadership is all about adding value to the world and blessing lives through the work you do. — Robin Sharma

The advantage of a permanent emergency for the executive is that even trivial things can routinely be accomplished by the crisis presidency. If everything is an emergency, all power is emergency power. — Garry Wills

After further conferences that late spring the following plan was drawn up. Speidel, almost alone among the Army conspirators in the West, survived to describe it: An immediate armistice with the Western Allies but not unconditional surrender. German withdrawal in the West to Germany. Immediate suspension of the Allied bombing of Germany. Arrest of Hitler for trial before a German court. Overthrow of Nazi rule. Temporary assumption of executive power in Germany by the resistance forces of all classes under the leadership of General Beck, Goerdeler, and the trade-union representative, Leuschner. No military dictatorship. Preparation of a "constructive peace" within the framework of a United States of Europe. In the East, continuation of the war. Holding a shortened line between the mouth of the Danube, the Carpathian Mountains, the River Vistula and Memel. — William L. Shirer

Next time you're about to call your daughter bossy, take a deep breath and say, 'My daughter has executive leadership skills.' — Sheryl Sandberg

We often tend to think that the executive wishes to maintain standard, wishes to reach a certain quality of production, and that the worker has to be goaded in some way to do this. Again and again we forget that the worker is often, usually I think, equally interested, that his greatest pleasure in his work comes from the satisfaction of worthwhile accomplishment, of having done the best of which he was capable. — Mary Parker Follett

When direction and meaning are confined to Executive Leadership, value is minimized. — Bob Anderson

When you are an executive, my friends, that is not leadership. — Shirley Franklin

Anyaele Sam Chiyson Leadership Law of Effectiveness: A leader has the executive intelligence to bring about a change. — Anyaele Sam Chiyson

Bezos personifies a new breed of executive that arose with the emergence of the game-changing technologies in the 1980s and 1990s ... a 'productive narcissist' ... These executives have big enough egos to make up seemingly random rules of business leadership. However, unlike other narcissists, they get the job done. — Richard L. Brandt

You can predict with nearly 90 percent accuracy which projects will fail - months or years in advance. And now back to our premise. The predictor of success or failure was whether people could hold five specific crucial conversations. For example, could they speak up if they thought the scope and schedule were unrealistic? Or did they go silent when a cross-functional team member began sloughing off? Or even more tricky - what should they do when an executive failed to provide leadership for the effort? — Kerry Patterson

The economy is very different in the world that we're living in. And I think Americans are looking for executive leadership that actually has some experience of creating jobs. — Rick Perry

If you are a senior executive, you need to embrace each individual's right to choose his or her own hardships - and you must talk about that openly, candidly. — Bill Jensen

Coachable people seek out those who speak truth to them, even if it is a painful truth, because it protects them and it makes them a better person and leader. — Gary Rohrmayer

The effective executive knows that it is easier to raise the performance of one leader than it is to raise the performance of a whole mass. She therefore makes sure she puts into the leadership position, into the standard-setting, the performance-making position the person who has the strength to do the outstanding pacesetting job. This always requires focus on the one strength of a person and dismissal of weaknesses as irrelevant unless they hamper the full deployment of the available strength. — Peter Drucker

Gunpei Yokoi, asked his boss, 'What should I make?' Nintendo chief executive Hiroshi Yamauchi replied, 'Something great.'
Game Over Nintendo's Battle to Dominate Videogames — David Sheff

I ended Affirmative Action by executive order and replaced it with a leadership model that created more opportunities for African-American and Hispanic students. — Jeb Bush

Leaders of the future will have to be visionary and be able to bring people in - real communicators. These are things that women bring to leadership and executive positions, and it's going to be incredibly valuable and incredibly in demand. — Anita Borg