M. Russell Ballard Quotes

Unlike top management at Enron, exemplary leaders reward dissent. They encourage it. They understand that, whatever momentary discomfort they experience as a result of being told they might be wrong, it is more than offset by the fact that the information will help them make better decisions.

Leadership isn't making all the decisions. It is making sure the right decisions are made.

For every leader in the company, not just for me, there are decisions that can be made by analysis. These are the best kinds of decisions!

Nothing that matters in this world happens unless leaders lead it.

I refuse to make a decision that somebody else can make. The first rule of leadership is to save yourself for the big decision. Don't allow your mind to become cluttered.

Leaders make decisions that create the future they desire.

The manager does things right; the leader does the right thing.

Any leader who asks the right questions of the right people has the potential to discover and develop great ideas.

Leadership is about making decisions with the information you have, not the information people will have 12 years later, i kind of feel sorry for my friend Jeb Bush.

I think being able to have follow-through, I think a lot of people who are in charge, that is the one quality that you can't forsake. You can get opinions, but you can't have too many cooks in the kitchen when you're envisioning something.

Though leadership may be hard to define, the one characteristic common to all leaders is the ability to make things happen.

Great leaders and great organizations are good at seeing what most of us can’t see. They are good at giving us things we would never think of asking for.

So when somebody asks me to make a decision about a situation, I don't offer a solution, I ask a question: What are our options? Give me the good, give me the bad, give me the pretty, give me the ugly, give me the impossible, give me the possible, give me the convenient, give me the inconvenient. Give me the options. All I want are options. And once I have all the options before me, then I comfortably and confidently make my decision.

Whatever a leader does now sets up what he does later. And there's always a later.

Leadership ability determines a person's level of effectiveness.

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?'

All good management is the expression of one great idea

One of the things I preach to all my staff is never be frightened to make a decision.

You politicians have got to look further ahead; you always got a Putter in your hands, when you ought to have a Driver.

You have to be willing to have the decision-making follow the data.

The definition of strong leadership is not about making decisions that are popular. Making popular decisions is easy - you don't need to be a leader to do that. The definition of strong leadership is to make decisions that are unpopular, but are nevertheless sound.

My job is a decision-making job, and as a result, I make a lot of decisions.

Decision making is the specific executive task.

Systematic decision review also shows executives their own weaknesses, particularly the areas in which they are simply incompetent. In these areas, smart executives don't make decisions or take actions. They delegate.