Leadership Quotes

"You get the best people, you build them into the best managers in the industry, and you accept the fact that some of them will be recruited to become CEOs of other companies."

- James C. Collins

"The purpose of bureaucracy is to compensate for incompetence and lack of discipline–a problem that largely goes away if you have the right people in the first place."

- James C. Collins

"Great companies respond with thoughtfulness and creativity, driven by a compulsion to turn unrealized potential into results; mediocre companies react and lurch about, motivated by fear of being left behind."

- James C. Collins

"There is no worse mistake in public leadership than to hold out false hopes soon to be swept away."

- James C. Collins

"The moment a leader allows himself to become the primary reality people worry about, rather than reality being the primary reality, you have a recipe for mediocrity, or worse."

- James C. Collins

"Every good-to-great company had Level 5 leadership during the pivotal transition years. • “Level 5” refers to a five-level hierarchy of executive capabilities, with Level 5 at the top. Level 5 leaders embody a paradoxical mix of personal humility and professional will. They are ambitious, to be sure, but ambitious first and foremost for the company, not themselves. • Level 5 leaders set up their successors for even greater success in the next generation, whereas egocentric Level 4 leaders often set up their successors for failure. • Level 5 leaders display a compelling modesty, are self-effacing and understated. In contrast, two thirds of the comparison companies had leaders with gargantuan personal egos that contributed to the demise or continued mediocrity of the company. • Level 5 leaders are fanatically driven, infected with an incurable need to produce sustained results. They are resolved to do whatever it takes to make the company great, no matter how big or hard the decisions. • Level 5 leaders display a workmanlike diligence—more plow horse than show horse. • Level 5 leaders look out the window to attribute success to factors other than themselves. When things go poorly, however, they look in the mirror and blame themselves, taking full responsibility. The comparison CEOs often did just the opposite—they looked in the mirror to take credit for success, but out the window to assign blame for disappointing results."

- James C. Collins

"The moment a leader allows himself to become the primary reality people worry about, rather than reality being the primary reality, you have a recipe for mediocrity, or worse. This is one of the key reasons why less charismatic leaders often produce better long-term results than their more charismatic counterparts. Indeed,"

- James C. Collins

"I don't know where we should take this company, but I do know that if I start with the right people, ask them the right questions, and engage them in vigorous debate, we will find a way to make this company great."

- Jim Collins

"Great vision without great people is irrelevant."

- James C. Collins

"People are not your most important asset. The right people are."

- James C. Collins

"You can accomplish anything in life, provided that you do not mind who gets the credit."

- James C. Collins

"Level 5 leaders channel their ego needs away from themselves and into the larger goal of building a great company."

- James C. Collins

"Level 5 leaders are a study in duality: modest and willful, humble and fearless."

- James C. Collins

"The moment you feel the need to tightly manage someone, you’ve made a hiring mistake."

- James C. Collins

"George Rathmann avoided this entrepreneurial death spiral. He understood that the purpose of bureaucracy is to compensate for incompetence and lack of discipline—a problem that largely goes away if you have the right people in the first place."

- James C. Collins

"No company can grow revenues consistently faster than its ability to get enough of the right people to implement that growth and still become a great company."

- James C. Collins

"When you do this, you will start to grow, inevitably, toward becoming a Level 5 leader."

- James C. Collins

"Larger-than-life, celebrity leaders who ride in from the outside are negatively correlated with going from good to great. Ten of eleven good-to-great CEOs came from inside the company, whereas the comparison companies tried outside CEOs six times more often."

- James C. Collins

"It’s not how you compensate your executives, it’s which executives you have to compensate in the first place. If you have the right executives on the bus, they will do everything within their power to build a great company, not because of what they will “get” for it, but because they simply cannot imagine settling for anything less."

- James C. Collins

"Level 5 leaders look out the window to apportion credit to factors outside themselves when things go well (and if they cannot find a specific person or event to give credit to, they credit good luck). At the same time, they look in the mirror to apportion responsibility, never blaming bad luck when things go poorly."

- James C. Collins

"Even though many people think that being a great leader means being ambitious and having a certain reputation, this is not true at all."

- James C. Collins

"The “yes-men” problem is mentioned here. The author says that even though “yes-people” can be pleasing to a leader, they will be disastrous in the long term because they serve to obscure the real problems."

- James C. Collins

"Businesses often forget about the culture, and ultimately, they suffer for it because you can’t deliver good service from unhappy employees."

- Tony Hsieh

"When you look at the reasons people leave companies, it’s usually because their boss is a jerk or because they aren’t learning and growing."

- Neil Blumenthal

"Consider the idea that charisma can be as much a liability as an asset."

"Take advantage of difficult economic times to hire great people, even if you don’t have a specific job in mind."

"The good-to-great leaders understood three simple truths."

"Level 5 leaders look out the window to apportion credit to factors outside themselves when things go well, and they look in the mirror to apportion responsibility when things go poorly."

"There is no worse mistake in public leadership."

"Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong. Do everything in love."