Colin Powell Quotes

A leader is the one who can outline the broad vision and the direction, and say here's where we are going to go, here's why we need to go there, and here's how we are going to get there. A manager is the one who actually gets up under the hood and tunes the carburetor.

Many times when people have a vision, they think in terms of a big vision - I want to take my city for Christ. But the problem with many pastors and this type of vision is this: they haven't developed the strategy to fulfill that vision. A pastor preaches a dream or vision to his/her people, they get excited for a week, a month, or a couple of months, but there is no strategy, planning, or process to fulfill that vision.

Leadership is working with goals and vision; management is working with objectives.

Ideas are cheap. The difficult part is finding the team to execute them.

True leadership isn't about having an idea. It's about having an idea and recruiting other people to execute on this vision.

Vision without execution is hallucination.

Vision without execution is delusion.

Some people are really good at the visionary role. They're like third grade teachers who tell people the vision and values over and over and over until they get it right, right, right. But they're not implementers. If they're good leaders, they gather people around them who can take the implementation role and move it forward.

First of all, you've got to have a vision of 'What kind of program do I want to have?' Then you've got to have a plan to implement it. Then you've got to set the example that you want, develop the principles and values that are important, and get people to buy into it.

As the leader, you're empowering talent. Once you've given the direction, it's a joy to see it put into action, to see people on every level of the company carrying out the strategy.

Leadership is having a compelling vision, a comprehensive plan, relentless implementation, and talented people working together.

It's one thing to be able to analyze something. It's another to implement it or execute on a vision or even to get a whole bunch of people to rally behind it.

Ideas are easy. Execution is everything. It takes a team to win.

Good ideas need good strategy to realize their potential.

Hope is not strategy. Hope fits with vision, but we must have a strategy and a process to make our vision become a reality.

Everything depends upon execution; having just a vision is no solution.

Most leaders would agree that they’d be better off having an average strategy with superb execution than a superb strategy with poor execution. Those who execute always have the upper hand.

The fact was I had the vision... I think everyone has... what we lack is the method.

Ideas are great arrows, but there has to be a bow.

A leader knows what's best to do; a manager knows merely how best to do it.

In the military, as in any organization, giving the order might be the easiest part. Execution is the real game.

The person who knows HOW will always have a job. The person who knows WHY will always be his boss.

I'm very much a creative person, but you've got to do the follow-through. A lot of people start out with an exciting thing and they want to take over the world, but really the people who do take over the world have a good plan of how to get there and the steps along the way.

Leaders establish the vision for the future and set the strategy for getting there.

Strategy requires thought, tactics require observation.