Followers who tell the truth, and leaders who listen to it, are an unbeatable combination.

Failing organizations are usually over-managed and under-led.

The most dangerous leadership myth is that leaders are born.

The manager accepts the status quo; the leader challenges it.

Leaders learn by leading, and they learn bestby leading in the face of obstacles. As weather shapes mountains, problems shape leaders.

You are your own raw material. When you know what you consist of and what you want to make of it, then you can invent yourself.

Find the appropriate balance of competing claims by various groups of stakeholders. All claims deserve consideration but some claims are more important than others.

Leaders are people who do the right thing; managers are people who do things right.

Leaders must earn the trust of their teams, their organizations, and their stakeholders before attempting to engage their support.

Becoming a leader is synonymous with becoming yourself. It is precisely that simple, and it is also that difficult.

Trust is the emotional glue that binds followers and leaders together.

I've worked with wonderful actors like Marlon Brando and Henry Fonda.

I had to be honest with myself and that I felt hatred then, but as children say "I hate you", it's not really hate, you know, it's anger.

Everything really is going to be okay. (And if not okay, then at least comic.)

Youth changes its tastes by the warmth of its blood; age retains its tastes by habit.

Men ignorant of letters, studious for their bellies, and ignominiously lazy.

Nothing shall I, while sane, compare with a friend.

Nobody wants to make great albums now because nobody wants to buy them and there's no place to sell them.

I never wanted to express my independence by dressing in a particularly masculine way or appear particularly boyish.

I got four volumes of the letters and speeches of Oliver Cromwell. He is prominent among the great unread, and treated so oddly by history that I wanted to hear his side of things.

Brownstein's is a fresh and jaunty voice, with a jazz snap all his own.