Kofi Annan Quotes

There's a big difference between saying you are for something and saying how you're going to achieve it.

Vision without execution is hallucination.

As a mayor, my instinct is to really think about how to get something done and not to make the promise unless you have some view of the pathway. You don't have to have it all figured out, but you have to have a pathway there.

The how will show up after the commitment to the what.

Unless commitment is made, there are only promises and hopes... but no plans.

You can't run a business or anything else on a theory.

Whatever policy we adopt, there must be an energetic prosecution of it.

It's deeds we need, not words.

A lot of the ideas for solving many of our problems are already in place, but ideas don’t travel.

Any plan is better than no plan.

The times demand not a man bearing promises of new things, but a man who can finish the things begun...

Leaders tend to focus on 'what to do,' but the real issue is more often 'how to do it.'

Execution gets divided into two key questions: 1) can you figure out what to do and 2) can you get it done.

In the military, as in any organization, giving the order might be the easiest part. Execution is the real game.

I like to think that we've got a plan, so let's stick to it. That said, once we've stuck to it, we're allowed as much improvisation as anyone cares to indulge themselves in.

Execution is everything.

In the real world, words don't automatically translate into deeds.

Once you articulate an agenda, you have to follow it.

Strategy requires thought, tactics require observation.

I use that as my responsibility on the show, to be the pragmatist.

A government must not waiver once it has chosen its course. It must not look to the left or right but go forward.

Effective leadership is putting first things first. Effective management is discipline, carrying it out.

The best ideas are useless unless carried out.

It's one thing to make the speeches. It's another to make the tough decisions.

I … think it is safer, when a practical question arises, to decide that question directly, and not indirectly, by deciding a general abstraction supposed to include it, and also including a great deal more.