Quotes September 22, 2023

I may not have been the best combat commander, but I always strove to be. My men depended on me to carefully analyze every tactical situation, to maximize the resources that I had at my disposal, to think under pressure, and then to lead them by personal example.
Major Dick Winters
 
 
 
 
Owning the facts is a prerequisite to leadership. But there are millions of technocrats out there with lots of facts in their quivers and little leadership potential. In many cases, what they are missing is empathy. No one is a leader who can’t put himself or herself in the other person’s shoes. Empathy and expertise command respect.
Lieutenant General, William Pagonis
 
 
 
 
Ultimately, leadership is not about glorious crowning acts. It’s about keeping your team focused on a goal and motivated to do their best to achieve it, especially when the stakes are high and the consequences really matter. It is about laying the groundwork for others’ success, and then standing back and letting them shine.
Chris Hadfield, Astronaut
 
 
 
 
When things go wrong in your command, start wading for the reason in increasingly larger concentric circles around your own desk.
General Bruce D. Clark
 
 
 
 
A true leader has the confidence to stand alone, the courage to make tough decisions, and the compassion to listen to the needs of others. He does not set out to be a leader, but becomes one by the equality of his actions and the integrity of his intent.
General of the Army, Douglas MacArthur
 
 
 
 
If officers desire to have control over their commands, they must remain habitually with them, industriously attend to their instruction and comfort, and in battle lead them well.
Stonewall Jackson
 
 
 
 
Leadership is of the spirit, compounded of personality and vision: its practice is an art. Management is of the mind, more a matter of accurate calculation, of statistics, of methods, timetables and routine; its practice is a science. Managers are necessary; leaders are essential.
Field Marshal Sir Bill Slim, Governor General of Australia
 
 
 
 
You manage things; you lead people. We went overboard on management and forgot about leadership. It might help if we ran the MBAs out of Washington.
Rear Adm. Grace Murray Hooper
 
 
 
 
Motivation is the art of getting people to do what you want them to do because they want to do it.
Dwight D. Eisenhower
 
 
 
 
The truth is that you always know the right thing to do. The tough part is doing it.
General Norman Schwarzkopf
 
 
 
 
“Read over and over again the campaigns of Alexander, Hannibal, Caesar, Gustavus, Turenne, Eugene and Frederic…This is the only way to become a great general and master the secrets of the art of war…”
Napoleon Bonaparte
 
 
 
 
“An army of sheep led by a lion is better than an army of lions led by a sheep.”
Alexander the Great
 
 
 
 
Who dares, wins. Who sweats, wins. Who plans, wins.
British Special Air Service (SAS)
 
 
 
 
Facta non verba (Translation: Deeds, not words)
Canadian Joint Task Force
 
 
 
 
Discipline is the soul of an army.
George Washington