Catalyst Quotes

Leadership

“Before you can lead others, before you can help others, you have to discover yourself.   Today a leader can’t impose himself on others.   He makes himself available to others.   And nothing is more powerful than someone who knows who they are.   The traditional view of leadership talks about leadership as a package, but it looks at the outside of the package.   I’m talking about starting with what’s inside the package.”     (Joe Jaworski, Author, “Synchronicity”)

“Set the tone every day.   You may think you can’t change the corporate culture, but you’re actually helping to build it with everything you do and every word you utter.   Your people look to you as a model.   So pay attention to the signals you send about what you value and believe in.”     (Lost & Found, the story of how one man discovered the secrets of leadership, Lyle Sussman, Ph.D., Sam Deep, & Alex Stiber)

“To lead the people, walk beside them.”     (Lao Tzu)

The Pygmalion Effect

“People become really quite remarkable when they start thinking that they can do things.  When they believe in themselves they have the first secret of success.”     (Norman Vincent Peale)

 “A monumental question for leaders in any organization to consider is:  How much greatness are we willing to grant people?”     (The Art of Possibility, Rosamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander)

As Leaders in your organization, how do you perceive your associates?  Dynamic, committed, hard-working or slow, not engaged and lacking some sizzle?  According to the studies done on what’s known as the Pygmalion Effect or the Self-Fulfilling Prophecy, how we perceive people will determine what their performance will be.  It is as basic as:  positive = positive; negative = negative.  What we expect of someone, we usually get.

There will be some who will not subscribe to this but there is documented fact of how a new leader comes into a business, begins paying attention to the associates and there is a turn-around in performance.  Why?  Because someone starting paying attention to them, acknowledging them and began showing confidence in their abilities. 

Try it out with associates at your business and see what happens.  You may be surprised.

Leaders as Conductors

“High-performing companies recognize that leadership is about more than just steering the business. It’s about nurturing, energizing, and challenging the people who help make it run — and who keep it competitive.”     (Boston Consulting Group study, ‘Realizing the Value of People Management’ by Rainer Strack and four co-authors.

“The great leaders are like the best conductors – they reach beyond the notes to reach the magic in the players.”     (Blaine Lee, The Power Principle)

Have you ever been at a concert and been amazed at how a group of musicians can all be playing different instruments, different times and different keys, but yet, beautiful music comes out of the group?  The conductor facilitates the different sections of the orchestra and each musician to ensure that everyone is “playing off the same sheet of music” which then creates beautiful music. 

Isn’t that the same with the leaders at your workplace?  Isn’t it the job of the leaders to ensure that all the musicians (the associates in the departments) are doing their jobs (playing different instruments and keys) and creating an atmosphere where teamwork is vital among the different departments or teams (sections of the orchestra)? 

Beautiful music comes out of a well conducted orchestra and great work comes out of a company with great leaders (conductors).   

Ready?  And one, two, three, four   …..     keep the ‘music’ playing.

Leadership – What Inspires You?

“If you want to step up to the next level of leadership, there is an exercise using the idea of inspiration that will help you understand how to tap into your passion or drive more intentionally. …  I’ll tell you the origin of the word (inspiration).  The Latin word is ‘inspirare.’   It literally means to breathe life into.  So the question, ‘What inspires you?’ really means ‘What breathes life into you?’ 

I want you to think of five people in your life whom you respect.  These should be people who know you fairly well.  Take your list of five people and ask them this simple question:  ‘Do I inspire you?’  Listen to their answers.  If they say no, find out why not.  If they say yes, find out how.”                ~ Ready to Lead? A Story for Leaders and Their Mentors by Alan Price