How To Become A Know-It-All

"The more you climb up the ladder, the more people will tell you what a great guy you are. The worst trap you can fall into is believing them. It's important to encourage people to give you feedback and to disagree if they have a different opinion. It depends on your reaction. Otherwise you are totally alone. You will lose touch and ultimately make decisions which are really dumb."

(Dieter Zetsche, Chairman of Daimler AG, in “Driving Lessons: Dieter Zetsche's Experiences behind the Wheel of Daimler-Chrysler and Beyond.” Knowledge@Wharton. March 19, 2008)

Discernment AND Focus

“Short-term thinking, political correctness and growing pressures for quick returns appear to be limiting traditional assessment and debate that focuses on real, sustainable solutions. Strong leaders must discern and, where appropriate, resist these pressures.”

(John Luke Jr., Chairman and CEO of MeadWestvaco, in “MeadWestvaco's John Luke: Change Simply for the Sake of Change Is an Abdication of Leadership.” Knowledge@Wharton. April 2, 2008)

What Is The Opposite of Sustainability?

“Sustainability is central to our total value proposition, impacting not only our business, but every customer and every consumer we touch everywhere in the world.”

(Charles O. Holliday Jr., CEO and Chairman of Dupont, in “We Cannot Sit In The US And Make Decisions For India.” by Anusha Subramanian. Business Today. February 10, 2008)

Outstanding is Standing Out

"Don't make the mistake of letting conventional wisdom vote on whether your idea is a good idea. When you do the conventional thing, you will almost certainly lose.”

(Rob Glaser, founder of RealNetworks, in “RealNetworks' Rob Glaser and Time Warner Cable's Glenn Britt: A Focus on Innovation, Passion and Luck.” Knowledge@Wharton. March 27, 2008)

Moving Forward

“Some things will go bad no matter how good you are.”

(Loyd Blankfain, CEO of Goldman Sachs, in “The Man Who Must Keep Goldman Growing.” by Bethany McLean. Fortune: March 17, 2008. Vol. 157, Iss. 5; pg. 130)

It All Starts Within

“Every day, when I drive home, I spend 10 or 15 minutes thinking of the two or three things I could have done better that day. I have a journal. Every month or so I look and see if I've gotten better or not. Over 20 years, have I gotten better? I think. I think. But I always find something I should have done.”

(Joe Wilczek, CEO of Franciscan Health, in “Q&A: Joe Wilczek Franciscan CEO looks ahead.” by C.R. Roberts. The News Tribune. January 21, 2008)

Thirst

“My hobby is reading. I usually read six to seven books simultaneously on subjects like politics, economy, management, history and science in addition to novels.”

(Atsutoshi Nishida, CEO of Toshiba, in “Boss Talk: Toshiba's Plan for Life After HD DVD; Nishida Says Firm Will Target Consumers With TVs, PCs and Standard Disc Players.” by Yukari Iwatani Kane. Wall Street Journal: March 3, 2008. pg. B.1)

Priorities -- The Real Thing?

“I was asked in one of my early meetings, 'What are you doing about the stock price?' and I said, 'Nothing. I am paid to run the company, not to manage the stock price. You run the company well, the stock price will look after itself.’”

(E. Neville Isdell, Chairman and CEO of Coca-Cola, in “Coke is out of the ditch, now it needs to go faster, says E. Neville Isdell.” by Sanjoy Narayan and R. Sridharan. Business Today. April 6, 2008)

Core Values

“There is a fine line between loving and being and idiot. If someone doesn’t share your values, they have to go.”

(Andrew Cherng, founder and Chairman of Panda Restaurant Group, in “Kung Pao Chicken for the Soul.” by Evan Hessel. Forbes: April 21, 2008. pg. 106)

Show Them

“I've worked in a number of places, and for me, the same issues are important everywhere. People want to see that you mean what you say and want to believe in your word. If they feel you are not straightforward, you are lost. This is important whether you work in Asia or Africa or wherever."

(Dieter Zetsche, Chairman of Daimler AG, in “Driving Lessons: Dieter Zetsche's Experiences behind the Wheel of Daimler-Chrysler and Beyond.” Knowledge@Wharton. March 19, 2008)

Neither the State, Nor the Organization

“I am convinced now, as I was then, that man is an end because he is a child of God. Man is not made for the state; the state is made for man. To deprive man of freedom is to relegate him to the status of a thing, rather than elevate him to the status of a person. Man must never be treated as a means to the end of the state, but always as an end within himself.”

(Martin Luther King, Jr. in The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr.: Volume IV: Symbol of the Movement, January 1957-December 1958. Susan Carson, Adrienne Clay, Kieran Taylor, and Virginia Shadron, eds. University of California Press, 2000)

Foundations of Authentic Leadership

“Since for the Communist there is no divine government, no absolute moral order, there are no fixed, immutable principles; consequently almost anything – force, violence, murder, lying – is a justifiable means to the ‘millennial’ end. This type of relativism was abhorrent to me. Constructive ends can never give absolute moral justification to destructive means.”

(Martin Luther King, Jr. in The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr.: Volume IV: Symbol of the Movement, January 1957-December 1958. Susan Carson, Adrienne Clay, Kieran Taylor, and Virginia Shadron, eds. University of California Press, 2000)

Sound Footing

“I think any time you move into a new organization, it's just so important that you respect the history. You respect the people. You learn as much as you can about it. You seek to understand before you seek to be understood. And then you move very, very decisively but very sure-footedly into a new world. Because you know there is nothing worse than somebody coming in and acting like they know everything when you know they don't. They start handing out all of the assignments… It's just not the way I approach it.”

(Alan Mulally, President and CEO of Ford Motor Company, in “Conversations From The Corner Office: Ford Motor Company President and CEO Alan Mulally.” with Kai Ryssdal. www.marketplace.org. January 15, 2008)

Continuous or Discerning, Selective and Targeted?

“The mantra of change often for change's sake is increasingly commonplace... Change simply for the sake of change is an abdication of leadership.”

(John Luke Jr., Chairman and CEO of MeadWestvaco, in “MeadWestvaco's John Luke: Change Simply for the Sake of Change Is an Abdication of Leadership.” Knowledge@Wharton. April 2, 2008)

Within, Then Without

“When we talk about discipline, what we mean is the ability to choose the truth over convenience."

(Dieter Zetsche, Chairman of Daimler AG, in “Driving Lessons: Dieter Zetsche's Experiences behind the Wheel of Daimler-Chrysler and Beyond.” Knowledge@Wharton. March 19, 2008)

Bread & Butter

“My grandfather, who worked as a butcher, a salesman, and even in the coal mines, did whatever it took to get the job done. He subscribed to the basic theory that whatever is next is what you do next. Whatever you did, it was always a matter of staying with it, because that was what you were supposed to do.”

(Larry Stapleton, President and CEO of United Southeast Federal Credit Union, in “CEO Keeps On Truckin'.” Credit Union Magazine: March 2008. Vol. 74, Iss. 3; pg. 20)