leadership tactics Quotes

As president, I'm not supposed to play games or show my hand, because there's a lot going on behind the scenes that you don't see or hear and don't need to know.

I have discovered that a famed familiarity in great ones is a note of certain usurpation on the less; for great and popular men feign themselves to be servants to others to make those slaves to them.

A prince being thus obliged to know well how to act as a beast must imitate the fox and the lion, for the lion cannot protect himself from snares, and the fox cannot defend himself from wolves.

All rising to great place is by a winding stair; and if there be factions, it is good to side a man's self whilst he is in the rising, and to balance himself when he is placed.

In the military, we are also taught to only use one third of the available decision-making time, so that our subordinates have time to go through their own decision processes when they learn what we want them to do.

A general must be shot or befriended - but never hurt.

When [Lyndon B.] Johnson wanted to persuade you of something, when you got the "Johnson treatment," you really felt as if a St. Bernard had licked your face for an hour, had pawed you all over.

A legislator must know how to take advantage of even the defects of those he wants to govern. The art consists in making others work rather than in wearing oneself out.

The business of a general is to kick away the ladder behind soldiers when they have climbed up a height.

It's often said that leadership is the art of getting people to do what you want, and making them think it's what they want. This captures a lot of what Abraham Lincoln did.

As the master politician navigates the ship of state, he both creates and responds to public opinion. Adept at tacking with the wind, he also succeeds, at times, in generating breezes of his own.

Thus the skilful general conducts his army just as though he were leading a single man, willy-nilly, by the hand.

jewels have played a colorful part in the evolution of world affairs. Because precious stones tend to inspire both admiration and greed, leaders have found convenient excuses for seeking them and have used them to impress crowds, reward friends, deprive foes, forge alliances, and justify war. Jewels may find their highest expression in the decorative arts, but they have also earned a place in the art of the possible.

I believe a big part of leadership is about winning the moment.

Political leaders normally act by making convincing speeches.

Never lead your soldiers to battle if you have not first confirmed their spirit and known them to be without fear and ordered; and never test them except when you see that they hope to win.

Safer to be feared than loved.

In order to become the master, a ruler must profess to be a servant of the people.

The prince must consider, as has been in part said before, how to avoid those things which will make him hated or contemptible; and as often as he shall have succeeded he will have fulfilled his part, and he need not fear any danger in other reproaches.

Princes should delegate to others the enactment of unpopular measures and keep in their own hands the means of winning favours.

The new ruler must determine all the injuries that he will need to inflict. He must inflict them once and for all.

I sometimes think that when the prime minister tries to select a weapon it is the boomerang he finds most effective.

A President has to do the image stuff that will help him so that he can do the substantive things he wants to do.

[Vladimir] Putin is more of a poker player. In poker, unlike chess, you can effectively compensate for a very weak hand by bluffing. There are fixed rules in chess, and no one knows how the game will end. Things are currently the other way around in Putin's realm. But it won't stay that way forever.

If you are to rule men, you must rule them through their own ideas.