The three most important ways to lead people are:... by example... by example... by example.
Interpretation
Leading by example is crucial in guiding and influencing others.
This quote emphasizes the significance of leading by example as a fundamental principle of effective leadership. By repeatedly stating that leadership is about setting a personal standard, Albert Schweitzer highlights that actions speak louder than words and that inspiring others requires embodying the values and behaviors one expects from them.
In practice
In a team meeting, I shared this quote to encourage my colleagues to embody the values we stand for.
I do not want to frighten you by telling you about the temptations life will bring. Anyone who is healthy in spirit will overcome them. But there is something I want you to realize. It does not matter so much what you do. What matters is whether your soul is harmed by what you do. If your soul is harmed, something irreparable happens, the extent of which you won't realize until it will be too late.
Within every patient there resides a doctor, and we as physicians are at our best when we we put our patients in touch with the doctor inside themselves.
By ethical conduct toward all creatures, we enter into a spiritual relationship with the universe.
No one can give a definition of the soul. But we know what it feels like. The soul is the sense of something higher than ourselves, something that stirs in us thoughts, hopes, and aspirations which go out to the world of goodness, truth and beauty. The soul is a burning desire to breathe in this world of light and never to lose it--to remain children of light.
The mistake made by all previous systems of ethics has been the failure to recognize that life as such is the mysterious value with which they have to deal. All spiritual life meets us within natural life. Reverence for life, therefore, is applied to natural life and spiritual life alike. In the parable of Jesus, the shepherd saves not merely the soul of the lost sheep but the whole animal. The stronger the reverence for natural life, the stronger grows also that for spiritual life.
The willow which bends to the tempest, often escapes better than the oak which resists it; and so in great calamities, it sometimes happens that light and frivolous spirits recover their elasticity and presence of mind sooner than those of a loftier character.
Some people have better ideas than others; some are smarter or more experienced or more creative. But everyone should be heard and respected.
Ten people who speak make more noise than ten thousand who are silent.
Intelligence is not all that important in the exercise of power, and is often, in point of fact, useless.
He [President Franklin D. Roosevelt] died in harness, and we may well say in battle harness, like his soldiers, sailors and airmen who died side by side with ours and carrying out their tasks to the end all over the world. What an enviable death was his.
This is one of the innovator’s dilemmas: Blindly following the maxim that good managers should keep close to their customers can sometimes be a fatal mistake.
If you're in business or politics, you need to have an intense understanding of what's going on around you.
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