Growth that adds volume without improving productivity is fat. Growth that diminishes productivity is cancer.

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?'

What can I contribute that will significantly affect the performance and the results of the institution I serve?

"The area in which the executive first encounters the challenge of strength is in staffing. The effective executive fills positions and promotes on the basis of what a man can do. He does not make staffing decisions to minimize weaknesses but to maximize strength."

The great mystery isn't that people do things badly but that they occasionally do a few things well. The only thing that is universal is incompetence. Strength is always specific! Nobody ever commented, for example, that the great violinist Jascha Heifetz probably couldn't play the trumpet very well.

Keep your eye on the task, not on yourself. The task matters, and you are a servant

One has to make a decision when a condition is likely to degenerate if nothing is done.