Model the Way
Leaders must lead from what they believe. The first leadership commitment is to clarify your values, then find your voice: express them in your own style. Use dialogue to discover and affirm the values which are shared in the organization, the team. The second leadership commitment, set the example, requires you to align your personal actions with the team values: this earns you the right and the respect to lead. Teach others to do the same. People first follow the person, then the plan.
Leaders go first!
Inspiring Quotes … from our collection. Will some suggest adjustments to your attitudes and behaviours?
“By attitude and by action, you will earn the trust of your constituents.
Kouzes & Posner”
“A tree is known by its fruit.
Old Proverb”
“Corporations don’t make the ultimate
decisions about ethics. Ethical choices
are made by individuals.
M. Euel Wade, Jr.”
“Character is what you do when no one’s
watching.
Russell Gough”
“Character is like a tree and reputation like its shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.
Abraham Lincoln”
“Example is not the main thing in influencing others, it’s the only thing.
Albert Schweitzer
German theologian,
musician and medical missionary”
“Follow the three R’s:
Respect for self
Respect for others, and
Responsibility for all your actions.
Dalai Lama”
“I always prefer to believe the best of everybody, it saves so much trouble.
Rudyard Kipling”
“Enduring character is built with adversity and builds over time. It isn’t something you just acquire.
Neil Livingstone”
“Hold your head high. Look the world straight in the eye.
Helen Keller,
1880 – 1968, American author,
political activist and lecturer.
The first deaf/blind person
to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree”
“I was not the lion, but it fell to me to give the lion’s roar.
Sir Winston Churchill”
“If I’m not learning something new every
day, I’m not doing my job.
John A. Williams”
“Don’t wait for people to be friendly,
show them how.
Henry James”
“If you don’t stand up for something,
you will fall for anything.
Unattributed”
“If you want others to be happy, practice compassion.
Author Unknown”
“If you want to feel proud of yourself,
you’ve got to DO things you can be
proud of. Feelings follow actions.
Oseola McCarty”
“In ambiguous situations (i.e., no value has been expressed), behaviors are likely to be interpreted negatively.
Kouzes & Posner”
“My life is my message.
Mahatma Ghandi”
“Integrity is not a 99% thing, not a 95%
thing. Either you have or you don’t.
Peter Scotese”
“Never take a person’s dignity: it is worth everything to them, and nothing to you.
Frank Barron”
“Never look down on anyone unless you are helping them up.
Author Unknown”
“People hear what we say, but they see
what we do. And seeing is believing.
Unascribed”
“Open your arms to change, but don’t let go of your values.
Dalai Lama”
“Our greatest illusion is to believe that we are what we think ourselves to be.
H. F. Amiel, Swiss Philosopher, 1821-1881”
“The final forming of a person’s character lies in their own hands.
Anne Frank”
“Some people are likeable in spite of their unswerving integrity.
Don Marquis”
“The time is always right to do what is right.
Martin Luther King, Jr.”
“The most important conversation you will have is the one you have with yourself.
Unattributed”
“The strongest oak in the forest is not the one that is protected from the storm and hidden from the sun. It’s the one that stands in the open where it is compelled to struggle for its existence against the winds and rains and the scorching sun.
Napoleon Hill, American Author”
“Thought is action in rehearsal.
Sigmund Freud”
“The world breaks everyone, and afterward, some are strong at the broken places.
Ernest Hemingway”
“There are two great days in a person’s life – the day we are born and the day we discover why.
William Barclay”
“Watch your thoughts . . . they become words.
Watch your words . . . they become actions.
Watch your actions . . . they become habits.
Watch your habits . . . they become character.
Watch your character . . . it becomes your destiny.
Frank Outlaw”
“You must take personal responsibility. You cannot change the circumstances, the seasons, or the wind, but you can change yourself.
Jim Rohn, American Entrepreneur and Author”
“The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then I can change.
Dr. Carl Rogers”
“Vision without action is meaningless.
Unascribed”
“We judge ourselves mostly by our intentions, but others judge us by our actions.
Unascribed”
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit.
Aristotle”
“Today is only one day in all the days that will ever be. But what will happen in all the other days that ever come can depend on what you do today.
Ernest Hemingway”
“What we do in life echoes in eternity.
Maximus, Roman Gladiator”
“We must be the change we wish to see in the world.
Mahatma Ghandi”
“When you break a promise, more than the promise gets broken.
Unascribed”
“When values are clear, decisions are easy.
Roy Disney”
“You can’t live a perfect day without doing something for someone who will never be able to repay you.
John Wooden”
“You earn the right to expect others to do things by doing those things yourself.
Unascribed”
“Whether you think you can or think you can’t - you are right.
Henry Ford”
““ … knows the meaning of what is sweet in life and of what is terrible and then goes out undeterred to meet what is to come.
Pericles””
Experiences, thoughts, insights, perspectives, personal stories/principles/maxims, different quotes … on Model the Way are posted here. Want to comment and share your own? Hit the button, read the blogs, offer up some of your ‘self’! here’s an example of what you can find on the post page:
Blog 1: Deliberate Mindset? A suggestion for a mental habit … always asking yourself “what should my mindset be, here and now?” Mindset comes from the Buddhist concept of “mindfulness”, it is all about focus and attention in the present AND it turns out it also helpful to your future ability to recollect and retain what actually happened.
If a deliberate mindset can become a lifelong habit, then we know you will be more successful than going into meetings and work sessions without an express attitudinal purpose … which makes you more vulnerable to having someone hijack your attitude, or to having an uncontrolled, emotionally-unintelligent reaction.
The fit with Modelling the Way? A deliberate mindset operates like a personal value: it anchors what you say and do. Examples:
as you meet someone new, if you choose to be ‘interested’ instead of ‘interesting’, you will keep the conversational focus on the other person, you ask a lot of questions and you will gain terrific information that the other person considers to be important about them. If you choose to be ‘interesting’, you will likely make sure you talk about yourself and you will miss the opportunity to show respect (a personal value)
faced with a difficult meeting? Perhaps the deliberate mindset of ‘resilient’ will serve you well, help you surf the waves of challenge coming your way
have a personal goal of becoming more strategic in your thinking? Mindsets in search of ‘outsight’ (see Challenge the Process) and ‘forward-looking’ can become useful mental habits.