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Teamwork Quotes

    “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!

        “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!

          “We love status. We want pins and medallions on our jackets. We want power and prestige in our titles. We want to be acknowledge, recognized, and praised. It’s too bad all of those make for hollow leaders. Great teams require great teammates. Nowhere is that more true that at the top. No leader ever became worse by thinking about their teammates more.” ~ James Clear, Blog

            “Up to a point you welcome being interrupted because it is only by interacting with other people that you get anything interesting done.” ~ Ken Robinson, The Element

              “A good leader takes more than their fair share of the blame and gives more than their share of the credit.” ~ Arnold Glasnow

                “It’s been my experience that the people who gain trust, loyalty, excitement, and energy fast are the ones who pass on the credit to the people who have really done the work. A leader doesnt need any credit… He’s getting more credit than he deserves anyway.” ~ Robert Townsend, Former CEO, Avis

                  “It’s not that we ignore our weaknesses; rather, we make our weaknesses irrelevant by working effectively with others so that we compensate for our weaknesses through their strengths and they compensate for their weaknesses through our strengths.” ~ Stephen M. R. Covey, The Speed of Trust

                    “The english word thanks comes from the same root word as think. Maybe if leaders were more ‘think-ful’ about the contribution of others, they would be more ‘thankful’ to them.” ~ John C. Maxwell, Leadership Gold

                      “The more that people know how they fit on a team, the more they will desire to properly make the most of their fit and maximize their contribution.” ~ John C. Maxwell, Leadership Gold

                        “Organizations exist to make people’s strengths effective and their weaknesses irrelevant. And this is the work of effective leaders.” ~ Frances Hesselbein

                          “Leaders need to remember that the point of leading is not to cross the finish line first. It’s to take people across the finish line with you. For that reason, leaders must deliberately slow their pace, stay connected to their people, enlist others to help fulfill the vision, and keep people going. You can’t do that if you’re running too far ahead of your people.” ~ John C. Maxwell, Leadership Gold

                            “In my organizations I don’t have employees; I have teammates. Yes, I do pay people and offer them benefits. But people don’t work for me. They work with me. We are working together to fulfill the vision. Without them, I cannot succeed. Without me, they cannot succeed. We’re a team. We reach our goals together. We need each other. If we didn’t, then one of us is in the wrong place.” ~ John C. Maxwell, Leadership Gold

                              “One is too small a number to achieve greatness. No accomplishment of real value has ever been achieved by a human being working alone.” ~ John C. Maxwell, Leadership Gold

                                “The greatest and most inspiring mountain climbing achievements in history are not so much stories of individual achievement, but are stories of the extraordinary power of a unified, talented, prepared team that stays loyally committed to one another and to their shared vision to the end.” ~ Stephen Covey, The 8th Habit

                                  “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” ~ African Proverb

                                    “Leadership is the ability to get individuals to work together for the common good and the best possible results while at the same time letting them know they did it themselves.” ~ John Wooden

                                      “It is amazing how much can be accomplished if no one cares who gets the credit.” ~ John Wooden