Bernard L. Schwartz Quotes

If there is such a thing as good leadership, it is to give a good example. I have to do so for all the Ikea employees.

The key to being a good manager is keeping the people who hate me away from those who are still undecided.

The great secret in life, I think, is to choose the right, people around you to do the job.

Camaraderie doesn't happen by accident; developing a strong sense of trust, accountability, and togetherness around team goals requires intentional effort.

When building a strong team, you need a strong leader.

The true genius of a great manager is his or her ability to individualize. A great manager is one who understands how to trip each person's trigger.

But because our organization has grown so much and in so many different ways, the delegation process places responsibility and authority on the shoulders of people you can watch grow and watch the way they treat others.

A good objective of leadership is to help those who are doing poorly to do well and to help those who are doing well to do even better.

A good cult delivers on its promises. A good cult nourishes the needs of its members, has transparency and integrity, and creates provisions for challenging its leadership openly. A good cult expands the freedoms and well-being of its members rather than limits them.

You lead with direction, and you try to lead by example. I try to be there when things are not good and obviously share the spoils of success.

Allowing a friend to careen toward self destruction is not friendship. That is a habit the United States needs to break as it pursues a richer and more deeply supportive relationship with Israel.

A good leader should focus on making sure everyone is being given the tools to do their job, not just expecting - poof! - that they're going to produce great work.

Now, I'm not here because I was that good. I'm here because of the people around me made me that good.

I plan on being a friend, a good leader and a good governor over these next three years.

Good leadership is to know when to go, and you only succeed as a good leader if you've transported someone else in and the company gets stronger. Then you've succeeded as leader.

I don't mind sacrifice. I don't mind discipline. But a good coach allows people to blossom. I've seen that. I didn't have it.

The way you delegate is that first you have to hire people that you really have confidence in. You won't truly let those people feel a sense of autonomy if you don't have confidence in them.

How do you make your company a good place to work in general? That's a really, really, really large and complex set of skills. A lot of it is on-the-job training, combined with excellent mentorship.

Good leaders must first become good servants.

I have spent a lifetime watching kids make mistakes because they were not trained or well led or properly motivated to do well. I never faulted the kids; rather, I saw opportunity to train, to motivate, to improve leadership - not to punish the individual.

I don't think I am that hands-on. I'm much more of a believer in finding a great team of people and trusting them to follow their instincts. They work better when they feel they have freedom and they are trusted.

I have a good team around me. I have people I trust around me. If I go the wrong way, they will yell at me. Just as they have in the past.

Coaches are an integral part of any manager's team, especially if they are good pinochle players.

The book is actually called 'A Mentor Leader, a Different Way to Lead.' It really talks about my experience in the way I tried lead our football team, things that I learned from, basically, the coaches that I played for and my parents about leadership. And it is a little bit different, counter to maybe what society says about great leaders.

I'm just trying to be the best I can be. I try to surround myself with people who are strong in areas I'm weak. Which is why I have such a big staff.