Christopher Voss Quotes

The most important role of a leader is to set a clear direction, be transparent about how to get there and to stay the course.

Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality.

Too many talk about a company's leadership, referring to the senior most executives in the organization. They are just that: senior executives. Leadership doesn't automatically happen when you reach a certain pay grade. Hopefully you find it there, but there are no guarantees.

Leadership is about vision and responsibility, not power.

My feeling is if you're going to be a leader, you have to carefully assess where people are and where people want to go.

As a leader, your job is to share your vision with your followers and either warn them of danger or highlight opportunities coming in the future.

As a leader, you have to have a vision that inspires people around you.

What's increasingly clear is that when you are open to a discussion of leadership, and you're relating it to your company, it is much easier to get people to become open.

Leadership is working with goals and vision; management is working with objectives.

Leadership is a way of thinking, a way of acting and, most importantly, a way of communicating.

The task of the leader is to get his people from where they are to where they have not been.

Great leaders help their people see how they can directly impact the company's objectives and their own personal goals.

When you're C.E.O., you have to have two conditions: first, shareholders need to trust you and want you to head your company. The second is that you need to feel the motivation to do the job. So, as long as both are reunited, you continue to do the job. And today, they are reunited.

The most challenging part of being CEO is communicating to 200,000 people what you want done.

I describe management as arts, crafts and science. It is a practice that draws on arts, craft and science and there is a lot of craft - meaning experience - there is a certain amount of craft meaning insight, creativity and vision, and there is the use of science, technique or analysis.

Managers are important: they are leading the company and guiding and have to provide vision and manage the daily business.

A CEO needs to build their own team.

I think that if you run a big company, you've got to, four or five times a year, just say, 'Hey team, look, here's where we're going.' If you do it 10 times, nobody wants to work for you. If you do it zero times, you have anarchy.

I used to think my job as a CEO meant managing metrics and meeting goals, but I've realised now that's it's about managing my board and employees.

I think in any organization you want your manager to have a strong opinion. You don't want them to just say, 'Yes, sir' to things they don't believe in.

Leadership is the key to 99 percent of all successful efforts.

I think directors should be confident in their leadership capabilities. I think directors should be confident in what they want to do.

Management's job is to convey leadership's message in a compelling and inspiring way. Not just in meetings, but also by example.

Great companies in the way they work, start with great leaders.

I have never seen myself as a promoter. I always evaluate myself as a manager.