Strategic Discipline Blog

The Result of getting the People Decision right in your business is a Harmonious Culture of Accountability. I love quotes. They inspire me.

Below are some of the best people quotes I’ve gathered over the years. I’ve placed them in 4 categories: WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN, HOW

We’re going to start with WHO first, and if I receive comments, I’ll share WHAT, next week. I hope you are inspired!

WHO

“Most people assume that great bus drivers (read: business leaders) immediately start the journey by announcing to the people on the bus where they're going—by setting a new direction or by articulating a fresh corporate vision.

In fact, leaders of companies that go from good to great start not with “where” but with “who.” They start by getting the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus, and the right people in the right seats. And they stick with that discipline—first the people, then the direction—no matter how dire the circumstances. First who, then what!”

~Jim Collins, Good to Great

 “The old adage ‘People are you most important asset’ turns out to be wrong. People are not your most important asset. The right people are.”

- Jim Collins, Good to Great

 "Ideas are a dime a dozen. People who implement them are priceless."

-- Mary Kay Ash, Entrepreneur

 "I would have one priority above all others: to acquire as many of the best people as I could. I'd put off everything else to fill my bus. The single biggest constraint on the success of my organization is the ability to get and to hang on to enough of the right people."

~ Jim Collins, Good to Great

 “People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don't believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and, if they can't find them, make them.”

- George Bernard Shaw

"Outstanding leaders go out of their way to boost the self-esteem of their personnel. If people believe in themselves, it's amazing what they can accomplish."

- Sam Walton, Founder of Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club

 “One of the first real management concepts that stuck in my head, was that if you can’t afford the people to run the business for you, then all you have is a job, not a business. It was like somebody turning on the light for me, because I realized that I needed to get good people in here to do this for me. I couldn’t keep hiring people at as close to minimum wage as possible.”

- Doug Harrison, CEO The Scooter Store

 “If each of us hires people smaller than ourselves, we shall become a company of midgets. But if each of us hires people bigger than ourselves, we shall become a company of giants.”

– David Ogilvy

“Whatever you do in life, surround yourself with smart people who’ll argue with you,”

- John Wooden confiding to a young alumnus that he had blundered early in his career.

"Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great."

~ Mark Twain

"There are only four types of officers, first there are the lazy stupid ones, leave them alone they do no harm. Second are the hard-working intelligent ones. Now these make excellent staff officers, ensuring that every detail is properly considered. Third there are the hard-working stupid ones. Now these people are a menace and must be fired at once. They create irrelevant work for everybody. Finally, there are the intelligent lazy ones; they are suited for the highest office.”

- General Van Manstein, as noted in Richard Koch’s, The 80/20Principle: The Secret to Success by Achieving More with Less

“It’s not how you compensate your executives, its which executives you have to compensate in the first place.   If you have the right executives on the bus, they will do everything within their power to build a great company, not because of what they will “get” for it, but because they simply cannot imagine settling for anything less. The good to great companies understood a simple truth: The right people will do the right things and deliver the best results they’re capable of, regardless of the incentive system.”

- Jim Collins, Good to Great

"The ability to make good decisions regarding people represents one of the last reliable sources of competitive advantage, since very few organizations are very good at it."

- Peter Drucker

“I used to be in the Marines, and the marines get a lot of credit for building people’s values. But that’s not the way it really works. The Marine Corps recruits’ people who share the corps' values, then provides them with the training required to accomplish the organization’s mission. We look at it the same way at Pitney Bowes. We have more people who want to do the right thing than most companies. We don’t just look at experience. We want to know: Who are they? Why are they? We find out who they are by asking them why they made decision in their life. The answers to these questions give us insight into their core values.”

- Dave Nassef, Pitney Bowes in Good to Great

“No company can grow revenues consistently faster than its ability to get enough of the right people to implement that growth and still become a great company. If your growth rate in revenues consistently outpaces your growth rate in people, you simply will not – indeed cannot – build a great company.”

“Packard’s Law”

-Jim Collins, author of Good to Great, and co-author of Built to Last

 “Letting the wrong people hang around is unfair to all the right people, as they inevitably find themselves compensating for the inadequacies of the wrong people. Worse, it can drive away the best people. Strong performers are intrinsically motivated by performance, and when they see their efforts impeded by carrying extra weight, they eventually become frustrated.”

-Jim Collins, author of Good to Great, and co-author of Built to Last

"Things turn out best for the people who make the best of the way things turn out."

- John Wooden

Finding the right people, developing, and organizing them within the right set of rules, organization and accountability is key to your  business success. Discover tools and resources to help your team achieve, contact us today to schedule a free exploratory meeting.

Growth demands Strategic Discipline.

To build an enduring great organization, requires disciplined people, disciplined thought, disciplined action, to produce superior results, and make a distinctive impact in the world.

Discipline sustains momentum, over a long period of time, laying the foundations for lasting endurance.

A winning habit starts with 3 Strategic Disciplines: Priority, Metrics and Meeting Rhythms.   Forecasting, accountability, individual, and team performance improve dramatically.

Meeting Rhythms achieve a disciplined focus on performance metrics to drive growth.

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NEXT BLOG – PEOPLE QUOTES - WHAT

Next blog I’ll highlight some of the best people WHAT quote about People. If I don’t receive comments, I’ll move on to another subject. Hope these inspired you!