A manager is not a person who can do the work better than his men; he is a person who can get his men to do the work better than he can.
Interpretation
A good manager excels at empowering and enabling their team rather than outpacing them in work performance.
This quote emphasizes the essence of effective leadership, which lies not in the ability to outperform one's subordinates, but in cultivating their strengths and guiding them to achieve superior results. It highlights that successful management is about fostering a collaborative environment where team members feel motivated and capable, ultimately leading to better overall performance.
In practice
This quote can be used in a leadership training workshop to illustrate the key qualities of a good manager.
Leadership is simply the ability of an individual to coalesce the efforts of other individuals toward achieving common goals. It boils down to looking after your people and ensuring that, from top to bottom, everyone feels part of the team.
Fear of failure must never be a reason not to try something.
If you look historically, what creates growth and wealth is innovation and investment, and increase in scale - more customers.
Information about the package is as important as the package itself.
You've got to coach worrying about your entire team: whether that gets you a championship or whether that gets you fired. I think it allows you to coach free. You're coaching with freedom because you know you're doing what you think is right.
We love those who can lead us to a place we will never reach without them.
For me, I've learned that the best thing is to focus on the team you play for and yourself and what you need to do.
Never ask anyone to do what you haven't done before and wouldn't do again. That's a pretty fundamental rule in leadership... treat them like you treat yourself. Things you don't like, they don't like.
As coaches we talk about two things: offense and defense. There is a third phase we neglect, which is more important. It's conversion from offense to defense and defense to offense.
I think, team first. It allows me to succeed, it allows my team to succeed.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.