Lynda Obst Quotes

The President is going to benefit from me reporting directly to him when I arrive.

Power always works from the corner office.

Politics and power is a realm of relative influence.

Organization charts and fancy titles count for next to nothing.

No matter how many or how few people you have reporting to you, you must remember that as you climb higher in the ranks, your words will be taken as commands even if you're just thinking out loud.

As to mere power I have been for years in the daily exercise of more personal authority than any President habitually enjoys.

Even when you’re in charge, you’re not sure who’s in charge.

Structure is not about moving boxes around on a chart. Structure is about power.

I work directly for the boss. I listen to everybody, but I have one man whose voice is louder than everybody else's.

How many kings are governed by their ministers, how many ministers by their secretaries? Who, in such cases, is really the chief?

Authority is conferred by position, not character.

What matters is what happens among the powerful.

Somewhere between the janitor and the CEO, reasons stop mattering.

I spoke at a woman's club in Philadelphia yesterday and a young lady said to me afterwards, "Well, that sounds very nice, but don't you think it is better to be the power behind the throne?" I answered that I had not had much experience with thrones, but a woman who has been on a throne, and who is now behind it, seems to prefer to be on the throne.

If in doubt, move decisions up to the President.

The exercise of power is determined by thousands of interactions between the world of the powerful and that of the powerless, all the more so because these worlds are never divided by a sharp line: everyone has a small part of himself in both.

In most companies, the formal hierarchy is a matter of public record - it's easy to discover who's in charge of what. By contrast, natural leaders don't appear on any organization chart.

Authority doesn't work without prestige, or prestige without distance.

I used to pull rank and wait until the wind was blowing out.

The most powerful men were those who most effectively used the power of adult competence to enforce childish agreements.

The prime minister found something hopeful in the man's eyes and manner. The 30 or so people who run this world analyze one another that way and then make decisions of life and death for us. Scary, but true.

Roger Goodell is doing his job. He's front office. Whatever he says goes, and I'll leave it at that.

It takes tremendous discipline to control the influence, the power you have over other people's lives.

Always, in every human action, there are leaders.

Power gravitates to the man who knows how.