I think the greatest compliment anyone can receive is to have something they say be deemed ‘wise’ by those around them. It has happened to me a few times and, to be honest, blew me away.
So I went looking for quotes about wisdom and found so many good ones that I’ll post the rest next week.
The thing about wisdom is that it transcends street smarts and learning. As Sandra Carey says, “Never mistake knowledge for wisdom. One helps you make a living; the other helps you make a life.”
Wisdom, like charity, begins at home; Gian Carlo Menotti put it …read more

Initiative is the most critical ingredient in any kind of success, whether individual or organization.
C. Northolt Parkinson said, “The man whose life is devoted to paperwork has lost the initiative. He is dealing with things that are brought to his notice, having ceased to notice anything for himself.” And sometimes he doesn’t even do that.
Initiative means doing, not just noticing; Henry Ford understood that when he said, “You can’t build a reputation on what you’re going to do.”
Initiative is what moves you forward; it’s what gets you off your butt so you can accomplish whatever you choose.
Several hundred years ago …read more

Power is interesting—an almost tangible phenomenon.

People crave power relative to their image of themselves. What seems like a small amount to you may be enormous to another.
According to Margaret Thatcher, “Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren’t.”
Alice Walker warns that “The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.”
Of course, a lot of people have just quit thinking, so they don’t have to worry about their power.
Francis Bacon tells us that “Knowledge is power,” but doesn’t mention that knowledge requires more than book-leaning …read more

Friday was not a good day.
Friday we lost one of the few people left in the world that people trusted without question.
Friday Walter Cronkite died.
I became a thinking adult watching him deliver the news starting in 1962 and when he stepped down in 1981 I stopped watching TV news—I wanted intelligence and objectivity, not image and opinions.
How can those of us who are familiar with Cronkite convey what he did for us? How do we explain to a generation that thinks bloggers, Howard Stern and morning TV are viable news sources what Walter Cronkite gave us?
Walter Cronkite understood the meaning …read more

I never really paid attention to leadership as an industry until I took over Leadership Turn a couple of years ago. But now I realize that it’s as pronounced and cyclical as the fashion industry.
Jim Stroup at Managing Leadership describes it well.
“Initially the gurus told us that leadership was a superlative individual characteristic reserved to the elite, then a democratically distributed attribute accessible by all… first to vision, then decisiveness, then courage, then team-building skills, then forcefulness, then empathy. It’s about looking inward to one’s core self. No, it’s about communication and connecting with others.”
The list of leadership fashions is …read more

I am a great fan of Lao Tzu and use the final lines from one of his many discourses on leadership in the header of this blog.
Bennet Simonton, when commenting on a recent post, said, “I like your Lao Tzu quote, by the way. I also like these two.”
“The consummate leader cultivates the moral law and strictly adheres to its methods and discipline.
The moral law causes people to be in complete accord with their ruler so that they will follow him regardless of their lives, undismayed by any danger.” –Sun Tzu 400-320 BC (I’m not a lover of the Art …read more

Post from Leadership Turn Image credit: .:Axle:.
There’s a common thread that runs through leadership teachings starting at least 2500 years ago with Lao Tzu, who said,
The superior leader gets things done with very little motion. He imparts instruction not through many words but through a few deeds. He keeps informed about everything but interferes hardly at all. He is a catalyst, and though things would not get done well if he weren’t there, when they succeed he takes no credit. And because he takes no credit, credit never leaves him.
and
As for the best leaders,
the people do not notice their …read more