You acquire more influence with young people when you give up using your power to control them...and the more you use your power to try to control people the less influence you'll have on their lives.
Interpretation
Influence is gained through trust and connection rather than through control and authority.
This quote emphasizes that true leadership involves nurturing relationships rather than exerting control. When leaders relinquish their desire to dominate others, they foster a more genuine influence that inspires young people to follow their guidance willingly, ultimately leading to more impactful connections and greater respect.
In practice
In a workshop on youth leadership, this quote can illustrate the importance of trust over authority.
It is one of those simple but beautiful paradoxes of life: When a person feels that he is truly accepted by another, as he is, then he is freed to move from there and to begin to think about how he wants to change, how we wants to grow, how he can become different, how he might become more of what he is capable of being.
Whether you agree with me or disagree with me; like me or loathe me, don't bind my hands when I am negotiating on behalf of the British nation.
I think my father thought I might be president of the United States. I think he would've been satisfied with secretary of state. I'm a foreign policy person and to have a chance to serve my country as the nation's chief diplomat at a time of peril and consequence, that was enough.
Open, frank communication is the lynchpin to teamwork. A fractured team is like a fractured bone; fixing it is always painful and sometimes you have to re-break it to heal it fully - and the re-break always hurts more because it is intentional.
Leadership is a matter of having people look at you and gain confidence, seeing how you react. If you're in control, they're in control.
Do not tolerate brilliant jerks. The cost to teamwork is too high.
The leader has a clear idea of what he wants to do professionally and personally, _x000D_ _x000D_ and the strength to persist in the face of setbacks, even failures
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.