QuoteProject
Paralysis of leadership is due in part to the unseen grip of the special interests.
John W. Gardner
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

Leadership can be hindered by external influences that are not directly visible.

John W. Gardner highlights the challenges leaders face when powerful, unseen interests can influence decision-making, leading to a lack of action or 'paralysis' in leadership. This quote suggests that effective leadership requires awareness of these hidden pressures and the courage to overcome them to serve the greater good.

Themes

LeadershipInfluencePowerDecision-MakingResponsibility

In practice

Example use cases

During a leadership conference, you might use this quote to discuss the impact of special interests on effective governance.

More from John W. Gardner

More and more Americans feel threatened by runaway technology, by large-scale organization, by overcrowding. More and more Americans are appalled by the ravages of industrial progress, by the defacement of nature, by man-made ugliness. If our society continues at its present rate to become less livable as it becomes more affluent, we promise all to end up in sumptuous misery.
John W. GardnerRead
Storybook happiness involves every form of pleasant thumb-twiddling; true happiness involves the full use of one's powers and talents.
John W. GardnerRead
Leaders come in many forms, with many styles and diverse qualities. There are quiet leaders and leaders one can hear in the next county. Some find strength in eloquence, some in judgment, some in courage.
John W. GardnerRead
We pay a heavy price for our fear of failure. It is a powerful obstacle to growth. It assures the progressive narrowing of the personality and prevents exploration and experimentation. There is no learning without some difficulty and fumbling. If you want to keep on learning, you must keep on risking failure-all your life.
John W. GardnerRead
I think that all human systems require continuous renewal. They rigidify. They get stuff in the joints. They forget what they cared about. The forces against it are nostalgia and the enormous appeal of having things the way they always have been, appeals to a supposedly happy past. But we've got to move on.
John W. GardnerRead
What leaders have to remember is that somewhere under the somnolent surface is the creature that builds civilizations, the dreamer of dreams, the risk taker. And remembering that, the leader must reach down to the springs that never dry up, the ever-fresh springs of the human spirit.
John W. GardnerRead

Similar quotes

In government, our chief executives have been lawyers. The great majority of our cabinets and congresses are and have been men trained in the law. They have provided the leadership and the statecraft and the store of strength when it was needed.
Robert KennedyRead
You build a better company by building better people.
Zig ZiglarRead
Let us not despair but act. Let us not seek the Republican answer or the Democratic answer but the right answer. Let us not seek to fix the blame for the past - let us accept our own responsibility for the future.
John F. KennedyRead
Hire people smarter than you are and encourage them to bloom.
Ben BradleeRead
If you're a set of guys looking to start a company, think about women you could team up with - they will see things differently and solve problems you didn't even realize you had.
Andrew YangRead
If you hire people just because they can do a job, they'll work for your money, but if they believe what you believe, they'll work for you with blood and sweat and tears.
Simon SinekRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.