James C. Collins Quotes
Be rigorous about your HR decisions. There is a difference between rigorous and ruthless.
Those who turn good organizations into great organizations are motivated by a deep creative urge and an inner compulsion for sheer unadulterated excellence for its own sake.
Those who build and perpetuate mediocrity...are motivated more by the fear of being left behind.
It's what you do before you are in trouble, so that you can be strong when people most need you.
The secret to a successful retirement is to find your retirement sweet spot. The sweet spot is where your passions, what you do best, and what people will pay you to do overlap.
Good is the enemy of great.. The vast majority of good companies remain just that - good, but not great.
Creative leadership impact increases in your 50's. When I turn 50 I want to say, "Nice start!"
Genuine confidence is what launches you out of bed in the morning, and through your day with a spring in your step.
Those fortunate enough to find or create a practical intersection of the three circles have the basis for a great work life.
Not every financial company toppled during the 2008 crisis, and some seized the opportunity to take advantage of weaker competitors in the midst of the tumult.
It took Einstein ten years of groping through the fog to get the theory of special relativity, and he was a bright guy.
The only way to deliver to the people who are achieving is to not burden them with the people who are not achieving.
If your company disappeared, would it leave a gaping hole that could not easily be filled by any other enterprise on the planet?
Start a 'Stop Doing' list. I'll leave it as an existential dilemma on whether to put that task on your To Do list
Just because a company falls doesn't invalidate what we can learn by studying that company when it was at its historical best.
Companies that change best over time know first and foremost what should not change.
You can't manufacture passion or "motivate" people to feel passionate. You can only discover what ignites your passion and the passions of those around you.
Leaders who led their organizations quietly and humbly, were much more effective than flashy, charismatic high profile leaders.
Whether you prevail or fail depends more on what you do to yourself than on what the world does to you.
If we only have great companies, we will merely have a prosperous society, not a great one. Economic growth and power are the means, not the definition, of a great nation.
If I'm going really, really fast, I can do a page of finished text a day, on average.
To have a Welch-caliber C.E.O. is impressive.To have a century of Welch-Caliber C.E.O.'s all grown from the inside - well, that is one key reason why G.E. is a visionary company.
Some managers are uncomfotable with expressing emotion about their dreams, but it's the passion and emotion that will attract and motivate others.
Throw leaders into an extreme environment, and it will separate the stark differences between greatness and mediocrity.
I am not failing - I am growing! Do you have the ability to reframe failure as growth in order to achieve your goals?
You absolutely must have the discipline not to hire until you find the right people.
We learned that a former prisoner of war had more to teach us about what it takes to find a path to greatness than most books on corporate strategy.
Technology and technology-driven change has virtually nothing to do with igniting a transformation from good to great
...it is far more important to know who you are than where you are going, for where you are going will certainly change as the world about you changes.