Navigating the realm of leadership requires more than just skills and experience; it demands inspiration and a vision for growth. Whether you're an emerging leader or a seasoned executive, continuous development is key to unlocking potential and driving change. Our collection of 44 carefully selected quotes offers wisdom from renowned leaders and thinkers, designed to invigorate your leadership development journey. These quotes will challenge your thinking, inspire new perspectives, and empower you to craft a more dynamic and effective leadership plan. Dive in and discover the insights that could shape your path to becoming a more impactful leader.
1. “A manager’s emotional commitment is the ultimate trigger for their discretionary effort, worth more than financial, intellectual & physical commitment combined.” - Stan Slap
2. “What companies want most from their managers is what they most stop their managers from giving. What managers want most from their jobs is what they most stop themselves from getting.” - Stan Slap
3. “Profitability. Growth. Quality. Exceeding customer expectations. These are not examples of values. These are examples of corporate strategies being sold to you as values.” - Stan Slap
4. “A company can’t buy true emotional commitment from managers no matter how much it’s willing to spend; this is something too valuable to have a price tag. And yet a company can’t afford not to have it.” - Stan Slap
5. “The company may have captured their minds, their bodies and their pockets, but that doesn’t mean it’s captured their hearts.” - Stan Slap
6. “Try not to take this the wrong way, but your brain is smarter than you are.” - Stan Slap
7. “Your dreams and the dreams of your company may be different, but they are in no way incompatible.” - Stan Slap
8. “The worst thing in your own development as a leader is not to do it wrong. It’s to do it for the wrong reasons.” - Stan Slap
9. “Human behavior is only unpredictable and dangerous if you don’t start from humanity in the first place.” - Stan Slap
10. “Your company really has to work for you before you’ll really work for your company.” - Stan Slap
11. “When rewards come from an external source instead of an internal source, they’re unreliable, which means they’re dangerous if you grow to depend on them.” - Stan Slap
12. “What first separates a leader from a normal human being? A leader knows who they are as a human being.” - Stan Slap
13. “Imagine a world where what you say synchs up, not sinks down.” - Stan Slap
14. “When you’re a manager, you work for your company. When you’re a leader, your company works for you.” - Stan Slap
15. “Here’s what you need to know most about leadership: Lead your own life first. The only thing in this world that will dependably happen from the top down is the digging of your grave.” - Stan Slap
16. “Instead of waiting for a leader you can believe in, try this: Become a leader you can believe in.” - Stan Slap
17. “You can stuff yourself with emotional fulfillment until it’s dribbling down your chin & your ego will quickly chomp it down and demand more.” - Stan Slap
18. “The economy is in ruins! Bottom line? Good management will defeat a bad economy.” - Stan Slap
19. “You can’t sell it outside if you can’t sell it inside.” - Stan Slap
20. “Being relevant to your customers only when you’re trying to sell something means choosing to be irrelevant to them for the rest of the time.” - Stan Slap
21. “You don't have to fear your own company being perceived as human. You want it. People don't trust companies; they trust people.” - Stan Slap
22. “There will be plenty of other problems in the future. This is as good a time as any to get ahead of them.” - Stan Slap
23. “The first step out of the gate has to be knowing where you want to end up. What do you really want from your company?” - Stan Slap
24. “Success means: I want to know the work I do means something to somebody and helps make the world, if not a Better place, not a worse one.” - Stan Slap
25. “Success for Managers means: I want to be in healthy relationships. I want a real connection with people I spend so much time with.” - Stan Slap
26. “Hard-core results come from igniting the massive power of emotional commitment. Are your people committed?” - Stan Slap
27. “The heart of a company’s performance is hardwired to the hearts of its managers.” - Stan Slap
28. “Your values are your essence: an undistorted mirror showing you at your pure, attractive best.” - Stan Slap
29. “To integrate one’s experiences around a coherent and enduring sense of self lies at the core of creating a user’s guide to life.” - Stan Slap
30. “Leadership creates performance in people because it impacts willingness; it’s a matter of modeling, inspiring, and reinforcing.” - Stan Slap
31. “Leaders make a lot of mistakes but they admit those mistakes to themselves and change because of them.” - Stan Slap
32. “Managers know what they want most: to be allowed to achieve success by leveraging who they are, not by compromising it.” - Stan Slap
33. “Any expert will tell you that if you want emotionally committed relationships then people must be allowed to be true to who they are.” - Stan Slap
34. “Companies should be the best possible place to practice fulfillment, to live out values and to realize deep connectivity and purpose.” - Stan Slap
35. “Values are the individual biases that allow you to decide which actions are true for you alone.” - Stan Slap
36. “When you’re not on your own agenda, you’re prey to the agenda of others.” - Stan Slap
37. “True leaders live their values everywhere, not just in the workplace.” - Stan Slap
38. “Most managers have plenty of emotional commitment to give to their jobs. If they can be convinced it’s safe and sensible to give it.” - Stan Slap
39. “Emotional commitment is a personal choice. Managers understand this even if their companies don’t.” - Stan Slap
40. “A manager’s emotional commitment is worth more than their financial, intellectual and physical commitment combined.” - Stan Slap
41. “Why live my personal values at work? This is an excellent question to ask. If your attorneys are planning an insanity defense.” - Stan Slap
42. “Work/life balance is not about escaping work. It’s about living exactly the way you want to when you’re at work.” - Stan Slap
43. “What managers want most from companies they stop themselves from getting.What companies want most from managers they stop them from giving.” - Stan Slap
44. “It’s impossible for a company to get what it wants most if managers have to make a choice between their own values and company priorities.” - Stan Slap
