Most Impactful Book Quotes – Q2 2017
Below you will find a series of quotes that I have found particularly impactful over the past three months. Feel free to leave a comment to let me know what you think or share your own book quotes that have impacted you recently.
“If you possess leadership responsibility in the workplace, you have an effect on the people you lead, every single day. You are a person of influence. Your attitudes, behaviors, choices, words and even facial expressions make a difference in people’s everyday lives.” -Bill Hybels, from Who You Are When No One Is Looking
“We need more people who love others with such devotion that they will risk their current comfort level in the relationship and say whatever needs to be said in order to protect the other person’s well-being.” -Bill Hybels, from Who You Are When No One Is Looking
“The paradox of listening is that by relinquishing power--the temporary power of speaking, asserting, knowing--we become more powerful.” -Amy Cuddy, from Presence
“People do not stop learning and improving because they have reached some innate limits on their performance; they stop learning and improving because, for whatever reasons, they stopped practicing--or never started. There is no evidence that any otherwise normal people are born without the innate talent to sing or do math or perform any other skill.” -Anders Ericsson and Robert Pool, from Peak
“When people assume that talent plays a major, even determining, role in how accomplished a person can become, that assumption points one toward certain decisions and actions. If you assume that people who are not innately gifted are never going to be good at something, then the children who don’t excel at something right away are encouraged to try something else...The prophecy becomes self-fulfilling.” -Anders Ericsson and Robert Pool, from Peak
“The creative, the restless, and the driven are not content with the status quo, and they look for ways to move forward, to do things that others have not. And once a pathfinder shows how something can be done, others can learn the technique and follow. Even if the pathfinder doesn’t share the particular technique...simply knowing that something is possible drives others to figure it out.” -Anders Ericsson and Robert Pool, from Peak
"When you want to change things, you can’t please everyone. If you do please everyone, you aren’t making enough progress.” -Mark Zuckerberg, mentioned in Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg
“[Eric Schmidt] explained that only one criterion mattered when picking a job--fast growth. When companies grow quickly, there are more things to do than there are people to do them...He told me, ‘If you’re offered a seat on a rocket ship, you don’t ask what seat. You just get on.’" -Sheryl Sandberg, from Lean In
“Leadership is about making others better as a result of your presence and making sure that impact lasts in your absence.”-Harvard Business School Definition of Leadership, mentioned in Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg
“There’s a reason I devote so much energy to identifying interpersonal challenges in successful people. It’s because the higher you go, the more your problems are behavioral.” -Marshall Goldsmith, What Got You Here Won't Get You There
“When somebody makes a suggestion or gives you ideas, you’re either going to learn more or learn nothing. But you’re not going to learn less. Hearing people out does not make you dumber. So, thank them for trying to help.” -Marshall Goldsmith, What Got You Here Won't Get You There
“Too many people spend money they haven’t earned, to buy things they don’t want, to impress people they don’t like.” -Will Rogers, mentioned in Best Job Ever! by Dr. C.K. Bray
“Choose to act and not be acted upon. Deciding to take action instead of being paralyzed by adversity and trials is the true mark of courage and greatness.” -Dr. C.K. Bray, from Best Job Ever!
“As a positive leader you will want to carry a telescope and a microscope with you on your journey. The telescope helps you and your team keep your eyes on your vision, North Star, and big picture. The microscope helps you zoom-focus on the things you must do in the short term to realize the vision in your telescope. If you have only a telescope, then you’ll be thinking about your vision all the time and dreaming about the future but not taking the necessary steps to realize it. If you have only a microscope, then you’ll be working hard every day but set-backs and challenges will likely frustrate and discourage you because you’ll lose sight of the big picture. You need to frequently pull out your telescope to remind yourself and your team where you are going, and you’ll need to look through your microscope daily in order to focus on what matters most and follow through on your commitments. Together they will help you take your team and organization where you want to go.” -Jon Gordon, from The Power of Positive Leadership
"He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me." -Thomas Jefferson
