No way can you ever, ever, ever evidence confusion, concern, lack of understanding. You have to be in charge. You are the guy. You have to be cooler than cool, smarter than smart.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the importance of confidence and clarity in leadership roles.
Gene Kranz underscores the necessity for leaders to project certainty and control in challenging situations. By asserting that one must never show confusion or lack of understanding, he highlights the expectation for leaders to exude confidence, intelligence, and composure, which fosters trust and guidance in their teams.
In practice
In a team meeting, to inspire confidence when discussing a challenging project.
There's an awful lot of future out there, and what you got to do, is you go to out and grab it, wrestle it to the ground, accept the challenges, and then decide. You've got the skills. You've got the knowledge. You've got the love, and you're capable of moving forward and making a great life yourself.
I did everything by the numbers. I had checklists upon checklists. If I wasn't ahead of everybody on my team, I didn't feel I was doing my job.
You can not operate in this room unless you believe that you are Superman, and whatever happens, you're capable of solving the problem.
I was the most emotional of the flight directors. Space really got me all honked up.
I just felt that space was the next thing coming in aviation. It was higher, faster. It had the risk.
We've never lost an American in space, we're sure as hell not gonna lose one on my watch! Failure is not an option.
I think whether you're having setbacks or not, the role of a leader is to always display a winning attitude.
Becoming a leader is synonymous with becoming yourself. It is precisely that simple, and it is also that difficult.
He who is not a good servant will not be a good master.
If thou wouldst rule well, thou must rule for God, and to do that, thou must be ruled by him. Those who will not be governed by God will be ruled by tyrants.
With all due respect, the fact is we had four dead Americans. Was it because of a protest or was it because of guys out for a walk one night who decided they'd go kill some Americans? What difference, at this point, does it make? It is our job to figure out what happened and do everything we can to prevent it from ever happening again.
Most of what we call management consists of making it difficult for people to get their work done.
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