Successful leaders don't start out asking, 'What do I want to do?' They ask, 'What needs to be done?' Then they ask, 'Of those things that would make a difference, which are right for me?'

People are effective because they say 'no,' because they say, 'this isn't for me.'

In most organizations, the bottleneck is at the top of the bottle.

A man should never be appointed into a managerial position if his vision focuses on people's weaknesses rather than on their strengths.

The better a man is, the more mistakes he will make, for the more new things he will try. I would never promote to a top-level job a man who was not making mistakes...otherwise he is sure to be mediocre.

Teamwork is neither "good" nor "desirable." It is a fact. Wherever people work together or play together they do so as a team. Which team to use for what purpose is a crucial, difficult and risky decision that is even harder to unmake. Managements have yet to learn how to make it.

What the customer buys and considers value is never a product. It is always utility, that is, what a product or a service does for the customer.