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    “‘People don’t know how much you know until they know how much you care about them.’  You could be the world’s greatest expert on something but if the people you work with don’t know that you care about them, they won’t listen to you much.”

    J. Keith Murnighan, Do Nothing!

      “It is up to you as the leader to make sure that your team members feel safe.  You must bend over backwards to make this happen, because team members know that their leaders are always evaluating them and they have perfectly natural fears about the outcome of those evaluations.  You must work doubly hard to help them feel safe: you must treat your team members’ questions and observations as if you love hearing each and every one of them and you must entertain their ideas and even invite them to disagree with you.  You must make it eminently clear that you want them to participate, to question, to comment, and to disagree – and you need to reinforce them when they do.”

      J. Keith Murnighan, Do Nothing!

        “Stated succinctly, partial trust sucks.  When we know we have been trusted only partially, we naturally wonder, ‘Why didn’t he trust me more?’  This natural question reduces our motivation to reciprocate and leads to less long-term commitment to a leader, to a team, and to an organization.  Partial trust sucks in many ways: it is the reverse of flattery and respect and it stimulates lousy outcomes, for everyone.”

        J. Keith Murnighan, Do Nothing!

          “Leaders need to keep a singular focus, each and every day, on their ultimate goals; they need to keep them at the front of their minds as they choose their actions and strategies.  This seems so obvious but, at the same time, incredibly busy days when people are constantly asking for your attention make it easy to lose a central, goal-oriented focus.  Thus, even something as simple as putting a Post-it note that describes your ultimate goals on the corner of your computer screen can help you keep focused and slow you down so that you can facilitate and orchestrate your team’s actions directly toward your ultimate goal.”

          J. Keith Murnighan, Do Nothing!

            “Not only do we often find what we are looking for in people, we sometimes create what we are looking for in people.”

            J. Keith Murnighan, Do Nothing!

              “Leadership Law:  Think of the reaction that you want first, then determine the actions you can take to maximize the chances that those reactions will actually happen.”

              J. Keith Murnighan, Do Nothing!

                “Doing too much is far worse than doing too little.  When leaders do too much, they cannot be as effective or as thoughtful or as strategic as they might otherwise be.  Even worse, their team members are underutilized and underchallenged.  Better team members are also likely to be increasingly angry – because their leader is doing what they could and should and want to be doing.  By not letting good performers do their jobs, on their own, leaders don’t allow their team members to feel proud of what they can do.  The end result is the development of dislike or even hate for a leader who butts in, as well as earning him a reputation for being a control freak and a micromanager.”

                J. Keith Murnighan, Do Nothing!

                  “Only action determines my value in the market place and to multiply my value I will multiply my actions.  I will walk where the failure fears to walk.  I will work when the failure seeks to rest.  I will talk when the failure remains silent.  I will call on ten who can buy my goods while the failure makes grand plans to call on one.  I will say it is done before the failure says it is too late.  I will act now.” ~ Og Mandino, The Greatest Salesman in the World

                    “Never has there been a map, however carefully executed to detail and scale, which carried its owner over even one inch of ground.  Never has there been a parchment of law, however fair, which prevented one crime.  Never has there been a scroll, even such as the one I hold, which earned so much as a penny or produced a single word of acclamation.  Action, alone, is the tinder which ignites the map, the parchment, this scroll, my dreams, my plans, my goals, into a living force.  Action is the food and drink which will nourish my success.” ~ Og Mandino, The Greatest Salesman in the World

                      “I am liken to a grain of wheat which faces one of three futures.  The wheat can be placed in a sack and dumped in a stall until it is fed to swine.  Or it can be ground to flour and made into bread.  or it can be placed in the earth and allowed to grow until its golden head divides and produces a thousand grains from one.  I am liken to a grain of wheat with one difference.  The wheat cannot choose whether it be fed to swine, ground for bread, or planted to multiply.  I have a choice and I will not let me life be fed to sine nor will I let it be ground under the rocks of failure and despair to be broken open and devoured by the will of others.  Today I will multiply my value a hundredfold.” ~ Og Mandino, The Greatest Salesman in the World