Adaptive Leadership Quotes

He who desires or attempts to reform the government of a state, and wishes to have it accepted ... must at least retain the semblance of the old forms; so that it may seem to the people that there has been no change in the institutions, even though in fact they are entirely different from the old ones.

In a startup car company, everything you do has to be done in a different way than a traditional car company. And the main reason is that all of these big car companies are operating like giant well-oiled machines - you could put a very seasoned executive in, and all he has to do is make sure the machine keeps running.

All leaders are learners. The moment you stop learning, you stop leading. I learn as much as I can, from as many as I can, as often as I can.

The true leader is always led.

Great leadership is by definition relentlessly developmental.

Lincoln was a flip flopper in the best sense of the word.

The basis of leadership is the capacity of the leader to change the mindset, the framework of the other person.

There is an inexorable correlation between leadership and change.

That is the key challenge facing management today; change is the only constant.

A business leader has to keep their organization focused on the mission. That sounds easy, but it can be tremendously challenging in today's competitive and ever-changing business environment. A leader also has to motivate potential partners to join.

Startups are rapidly changing systems. If you use an annual review cycle, you aren't getting feedback at the same pace that you need to adapt and change the business.

It's very difficult to innovate without requiring people to do something different. And whenever you require people to do something different, you're talking about change.

Any company has got to reinvent itself again and again.

In my opinion, being an effective leader requires being an effective listener. The most productive leaders are usually those who are consistently willing to listen and learn.

Many leaders are tempted to lead like a chess master, striving to control every move, when they should be leading like gardeners, creating and maintaining a viable ecosystem in which the organization operates.

So in one leap we had gone from being a friendly society to something almost professional.

Leadership requires creating conditions that enable employees to do the kinds of experimentation that entrepreneurship requires.

When times are bad is when the real entrepreneurs emerge.

I believe that the capacity that any organisation needs is for leadership to appear anywhere it is needed, when it is needed.

A truly intelligent person is the dumbest person on the team he is leading.

Spread the gospel that the Marine Corps is a force that has changed. We're not in 1942 anymore.

Whereas all particulars cannot be foreseen, nor positive instructions for such emergencies so before hand given but that many things must be left to your prudent and discreet management, as occurrences may arise upon the place, or from time to time fall out, you are therefore upon all such accidents or any occasions that may happen, to use your best circumspection and (advising with your council of war) to order and dispose of the said Army under your command as may be most advantageous for the obtaining the end for which these forces have been raised, making it your special care in discharge of the great trust committed unto you, that the liberties of America receive no detriment.

That’s the lesson of politics. Go with your gut. You don’t know what is going to happen.

This is all about having great leaders who can drive agile innovation and agile decision-making.

Unpredictability is the greatest asset a leader can have.