Brad Feld Quotes

One of the first rules of playing the power game is that all bad news must be accepted calmly, as if one already knew and didn't care.

You have to be a well-rounded leader. You can't fly by the seat of your pants anymore. You have to be incredibly tough-minded about standards of performance, but you also have to be incredibly tenderhearted with the people you're working with.

Being a 911 operator means balancing seemingly contradictory skills. On one hand, operators have to be fanatically precise and well-organized. On the other, they must be able to establish rapport with panicky callers.

Novice leaders often respond dramatically to provocations.

The sign of a great leader is knowing what you know and knowing what you don't know.

An important part of leadership is being able to hold two things in your mind at once: Dealing with the reality, whatever it may be, and focus on hope for the future. Any leader helping an organization through challenges needs to be able to do both.

Since I'm a professional communicator, I think I instinctively cling to doing what I do best, even in times of crisis and turmoil.

There's going to be situations that you get into that you're going to need help, for sure. But for the most part, I think coaching is just understanding who you have and your team, understanding yourself, and understanding the situation.

When you are in a situation or a crisis, you need to define, what is the unique role that I can play?

it is hard for anyone who is dissatisfied not to blame some one else, and especially the person nearest of all to him, for the ground of his dissatisfaction.

Great leaders don't rush to blame. They instinctively look for solutions.

I don't know how you can understand other people or yourself if you haven't read a lot of books. I just don't think you're equipped to deal with the demands and decisions of life, particularly in your dealings with other people.

At the end of the program, I tried to talk to the kids a little bit about life skills.

The quality of a leader cannot be judged by the answers he gives, but by the questions he asks.

Panic plays no part in the training of a nurse.

The real question is: How do you react? What do you do next? Evade responsibilities? Bury yourself in work? What do you do? All three of my novels take up that question, although none gives an answer.

When people disappoint you, it's just as much your responsibility to be aware of it and what you don't want.

I think for leadership positions, emotional intelligence is more important than cognitive intelligence. People with emotional intelligence usually have a lot of cognitive intelligence, but that's not always true the other way around.

I've learned when to speak out. You do have to learn when to bide your time and when to speak out, and I don't always get it right.

I've learned in most areas of my life, to bounce heated choices off other people. Co-workers, my agent, my wife, a sponsor, etc. A majority of the time, that keeps me on the right side of things.

We might be too proud to admit it as guys, but we still need to learn how to manage responsibility, how to face our challenges.

If you're offended, it's your problem.

On land, you can walk away from people, from unpleasant situations. But when you're on a ship for 14 months with 49 other people, if you don't resolve your issues it literally could mean - and this would be an extreme circumstance - the sinking of the ship. You learn a lot about other people. You learn a lot about yourself.

Leaders of the future will have to be visionary and be able to bring people in - real communicators. These are things that women bring to leadership and executive positions, and it's going to be incredibly valuable and incredibly in demand.

I think leadership is most effective when it's your own personality. But I feel like it's a natural progression as a quarterback, as well.