Donald Rumsfeld

Don’t necessarily avoid sharp edges. Occasionally they are necessary to leadership.

Success tends to go not to the person who is error-free, because he also tends to be risk-averse. Rather it goes to the person who recognizes that life is pretty much a percentage business. It isn’t making mistakes that’s critical; it’s correcting them and getting on with the principal task.

Leave the President’s family business to him. You will have plenty to do without trying to manage the First Family. They are likely to do fine without your help.

Secretary Powell and I agree on every single issue that has ever been before this administration except for those instances where Colin’s still learning.

Be able to resign. It will improve your value to the President and do wonders for your performance.

Don’t divide the world into “them” and “us.” Avoid infatuation with or resentment of the press, the Congress, rivals, or opponents. Accept them as facts. They have their jobs and you have yours.

It’s easy to demonise people, you’re usually wrong about it, people are nicer than you think.

I think people should be nicer to each other

The best leaders are humble enough to realize their victories depend upon their people.

Effective leadership is putting first things first. Effective management is discipline, carrying it out.

You will launch many projects, but have time to finish only a few. So think, plan, develop, launch and tap good people to be responsible. Give them authority and hold them accountable. Trying to do too much yourself creates a bottleneck.

Respect people with less power then you. I don’t care if you’re the most powerful cat in the room, I will judge you on how you treat the least powerful. So there.

Teamwork makes the dream work, but a vision becomes a nightmare when the leader has a big dream and a bad team.

Everything rises and falls on leadership.

And give… give more credit to others and don’t assume they’re mean until you know they’re actually mean.

Leaders, true leaders, take responsibility for the success of the team, and understand that they must also take responsibility for the failure.

A great leader’s courage to fulfill his vision comes from passion, not position.

The art of leadership is a serious matter. One must not lag behind a movement, because to do so is to become isolated from the masses. But one must not rush ahead, for to rush ahead is to lose contact with the masses. He who wished to lead a movement must conduct a fight on two fronts–against those who lag behind and those who rush ahead.

Most great leaders in history that I’ve studied always need to get as wide a range of opinions as possible so that they can have sufficient information to make the right decisions.

I like to praise and reward in a loud voice and to scold in a whisper.

The very essence of leadership is having vision.