Leadership

"Don't hold on to small things, build trust and empower other without fear of what is ahead"

Too often I believe leaders hold on to what they are comfortable, limiting the growth of others because they don't feel they are done with a responsibility, or more likely, that they are afraid of the responsibility ahead. The reality is, as we grow the responsibilities that we hold grow small within our hands and that is a sign that we need to hand them off to people we can trust; if they don't exist then you need to build trust.

“Leadership is about change, management is about the avoidance of change... Leadership gets people to follow in a way they feel is dangerous.” — Horace Dediu

Insightful, fascinating comparison of management vs. leadership to disrupting vs. sustaining starting about 19:25: http://5by5.tv/criticalpath/45

"Of the best leaders, when their work is done, the people will say 'we did it ourselves.'" — Lao-Tzu

“If you want to change something for the better, you need to change people more than [anything else].” — Mikeal Rogers (source)

A few other great quotes on leadership:

"Leadership is action, not position." — Donald H. McGannon

"Good leaders must first become good servants." — Robert Greenleaf

"If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader." — John Quincy Adams

"In a very real sense, followers lead by choosing where to be led. True leaders work to epitomize the general sense of a community." — Dee Hock

Dee Hock's One From Many is one of the best books I've read on the subject of creating an organization that values the individual contributions to it. I can't recommend it enough.

I'll definitely share some Dee Hock quotes and passages here. :)

Leadership is about responsibility, not authority

Your first job is to serve those you lead—and any failure is always your fault