Communication
Being clear, open, and willing to hear what challenges you.
Leaders who emphasize communication explain the reasons behind decisions, share difficult news early, and invite feedback that challenges their assumptions. They treat listening as part of the job.
Quotes are tagged by what they are about, not by who said them. A quote here is not a rating of the speaker.
So let us begin anew—remembering on both sides that civility is not a sign of weakness, and sincerity is always subject to proof.
Verified sourceInaugural Address · Watch at 8:54 · John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum
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Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate.
Verified sourceInaugural Address · Watch at 9:09 · John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum
9:09 of 15:11All quotes from this speech →
With public sentiment, nothing can fail. Without it, nothing can succeed.
SourceFirst debate with Stephen Douglas Ottawa, Illinois (21 August 1858) · via Wikiquote
There is probably a perverse pride in my administration... that we were going to do the right thing, even if short-term it was unpopular. And I think anybody who's occupied this office has to remember that success is determined by an intersection in policy and politics and that you can't be neglecting of marketing and P.R. and public opinion.
SourceAs quoted in "The Education of President Obama" by Peter Baker in The New York Times Magazine (12 October 2010) · via Wikiquote
Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.
SourceBusiness @ The Speed of Thought (1999) · via Wikiquote
The people currently in charge have forgotten the first principle of an open society, namely that we may be wrong and that there has to be free discussion. That it's possible to be opposed to the policies without being unpatriotic.
SourceInterview with David Brancaccio (2003) · via Wikiquote
A full and fair discussion is essential to democracy.
SourceWhy We Must Not Reelect President Bush (2004) · via Wikiquote
It is with pleasure I receive reproof, when reproof is due, because no person can be readier to accuse me, than I am to acknowledge an error, when I am guilty of one; nor more desirous of atoning for a crime, when I am sensible of having committed it.
SourceLetter to Governor Dinwiddie, Aug. 27, 1757 · National Archives on Founders Online
I can bear to hear of imputed or real errors. The man who wishes to stand well in the opinion of others must do this; because he is thereby enabled to correct his faults, or remove prejudices which are imbibed against him.
SourceLetter to Joseph Reed, Jan. 14, 1776 · Mount Vernon Ladies' Association on George Washington's Mount Vernon
My brave fellows, you have done all I asked you to do, and more than can be reasonably expected; but your country is at stake, your wives, your houses and all that you hold dear. You have worn yourselves out with fatigues and hardships, but we know not how to spare you. If you will consent to stay one month longer, you will render that service to the cause of liberty, and to your country, which you probably can never do under any other circumstances.
SourceEncouraging his men to re-enlist in the army · Mount Vernon Ladies' Association on George Washington's Mount Vernon
For if Men are to be precluded from offering their Sentiments on a matter, which may involve the most serious and alarming consequences, that can invite the consideration of Mankind, reason is of no use to us; the freedom of Speech may be taken away, and, dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep, to the Slaughter.
SourceAddress to the Officers of the Army · National Archives on Founders Online
Truth will ultimately prevail where pains is taken to bring it to light.
SourceLetter to Charles M. Thruston · National Archives on Founders Online
..when one side only of a story is heard, and often repeated, the human mind becomes impressed with it, insensibly
SourceLetter to Edmund Pendleton · National Archives on Founders Online
I hold the maxim no less applicable to public than to private affairs, that honesty is the best policy.
SourceFarewell Address to the People of the United States · National Archives on Founders Online
If there is any one secret of success, it lies in the ability to get the other person's point of view and see things from that person's angle as well as from your own.
SourceMy Life and Work (1922) · via Wikiquote
I learned early that being CEO is not about power, but the responsibility that comes with keeping the company alive, and that honesty and humility can be met with generosity and kindness, even in business.
Source2026 Commencement Address at Carnegie Mellon University · Watch at 5:45 · Carnegie Mellon University on YouTube
The British nation is unique in this respect. They are the only people who like to be told how bad things are, who like to be told the worst.
SourceSpeech in the House of Commons, June 10, 1941 "Defence of Crete", in The Churchill War Papers · via Wikiquote
We are masters of the unsaid words, but slaves of those we let slip out.
SourceQuoted in Words of Wisdom: Winston Churchill, Students' Academy, Lulu Press (2014), Section Three · via Wikiquote
To jaw-jaw is always better than to war-war.
SourceRemarks at a White House luncheon (26 June 1954) · via Wikiquote
Short words are best and the old words when short are best of all.
SourceSpeech on receiving the London Times Literary Award November 2, 1949 · via Wikiquote
In the course of my life, I have often had to eat my words, and I must confess that I have always found it a wholesome diet.
SourceQuoted by Lord Normanbrook in Action This Day: Working With Churchill. Memoirs by Lord Norman Brook (And Others) (1968) · via Wikiquote
Too often the strong, silent man is silent only because he does not know what to say, and is reputed strong only because he has remained silent.
SourceSpeech (1922–1928); Complete Speeches, 1897-1963 (1974), Chelsea House, Vol. IV, p. 3462 · via Wikiquote
He has a right to criticize, who has a heart to help.
Tact is the ability to describe others as they see themselves.
When I hear a man preach, I like to see him act as if he were fighting bees.
The time comes upon every public man when it is best for him to keep his lips closed.
Extemporaneous speaking should be practiced and cultivated. It is the lawyer's avenue to the public. However able and faithful he may be in other respects, people are slow to bring him business if he cannot make a speech.
When I am getting ready to reason with a man, I spend one-third of my time thinking about myself and what I am going to say and two-thirds about him and what he is going to say.
He who molds the public sentiment... makes statutes and decisions possible or impossible to make.
Upon the subjects of which I have treated, I have spoken as I have thought. I may be wrong in regard to any or all of them; but, holding it a sound maxim that it is better only sometimes to be right than at all times to be wrong, so soon as I discover my opinions to be erroneous, I shall be ready to renounce them.
I never went to school more than six months in my life, but I can say this: that among my earliest recollections, I remember how, when a mere child, I used to get irritated when anybody talked to me in a way I could not understand.
Issues are never simple. One thing I'm proud of is that very rarely will you hear me simplify the issues.
Ours is a nation of laws: of citizens who live under them and for the citizens who enforce them. So, to a community in Ferguson that is rightly hurting and looking for answers, let me call once again for us to seek some understanding rather than simply holler at each other. Let's seek to heal rather than to wound each other.
Let me even say before I even get inaugurated, during the transition we are going to be having meetings all across the country with community organizations so that you have input into the agenda for the next presidency of the United States of America.
We all need people who will give us feedback. That's how we improve.
I believe that if you show people the problems and you show them the solutions they will be moved to act.
Software innovation, like almost every other kind of innovation, requires the ability to collaborate and share ideas with other people, and to sit down and talk with customers and get their feedback and understand their needs.
One thing I've always loved about the culture at Microsoft is there is nobody who is tougher on us, in terms of what we need to learn and do better, than the people in the company itself. You can walk down these halls, and they'll tell you, 'We need to do usability better, push this or that frontier.'
If all my bridge coach ever told me was that I was 'satisfactory,' I would have no hope of ever getting better. How would I know who was the best? How would I know what I was doing differently?
Teaching's hard! You need different skills: positive reinforcement, keeping students from getting bored, commanding their attention in a certain way.
Steve Jobs' ability to focus in on a few things that count, get people who get user interface right, and market things as revolutionary are amazing things.
Our teachers deserve better feedback.
I do love email. Wherever possible I try to communicate asynchronously. I'm really good at email.
I think it's very important to have a feedback loop, where you're constantly thinking about what you've done and how you could be doing it better.
I want to stress the importance of being fair to our readers. You should not impose your own view and prejudice on the readers and try to lead them to a conclusion. As a reader, I understand what a fair report is.
As a company, we have to be very transparent. We are in a business very related to finance, and I want this company to last long, and I want this company to be audited by everyone.
I think U.S. and Chinese businesses need a common language and dialogue.
I like criticism. It makes you strong.
You know, my family and friends have never been yes-men: 'Yes, you're doing the right thing, you're always right.' No, they tell me when I'm wrong, and that's why I've been able to stay who I am and stay humble.
Your customers can tell you the things that are broken and how they want to be made happy. Listen to them. Make them happy. But don't rely on them to create the future road map for your product or service. That's your job.
Make sure you are the boss. I don't think I would encourage executives that work for me to blog. There can be only 1 public vision for an organization.
In the past, people used to tell me to shut up a bit. But what I believe is to put out your opinion and let everyone else react. If I'm wrong, I'm wrong.
I love being challenged and defending my positions and, when I'm wrong, learning from the exchange. It makes me smarter and better as a businessperson.
Whatever you can say in a meeting, you can put in an email. If I have questions, I'll tell you via email.
Leaders don't change their positions mid-debate. They welcome scorn from the masses because it creates the opportunity for dialogue.
Part of the bigger problem with Donald Trump is, when you sit and talk to him one-on-one, he's reasonable, he comes across as caring, he's open-minded, but then, all of that just is thrown out the window when he tweets and when he communicates with the media - and when he communicates at all.
In my mind, a good leader would say, 'OK, I need to sit down and talk to the guys who oppose me. Let me let them voice their opinions; let me get their thought process.'
We have a very open culture at the company, where we foster a lot of interaction between not just me and people but between everyone else. It's an open floor plan. People have these desks where no one really has an office. I mean, I have a room where I meet with people. But it has all glass, so everyone can see into it and see what's going on.
In terms of doing work and in terms of learning and evolving as a person, you just grow more when you get more people's perspectives... I really try and live the mission of the company and... keep everything else in my life extremely simple.
I actually do think you're seeing this trend towards organizations just caring more about their brand and engaging. And so I think Home Depot will want to humanize itself. I think that's a lot of why companies are starting blogs, are just giving more insight into what's going on with them.
Frankly, I think that the news industry is critically important because it points out things and surfaces truths that can often be uncomfortable. I think that that's working, and the spotlight has been pointed on things that we have a responsibility to do better, and I accept that.
I actually don't read most of the coverage about Facebook. I try to learn from getting input from people who use our services directly more than from pundits.
Look at the way celebrities and politicians are using Facebook already. When Ashton Kutcher posts a video, he gets hundreds of pieces of feedback. Maybe he doesn't have time to read them all or respond to them all, but he's getting good feedback and getting a good sense of how people are thinking about that and maybe can respond to some of it.
I never stop making sure that what I say is the best of what could be said about a particular thing. It's a constant evolution. If I planted a tree one way yesterday, and somebody tells me of a better way to plant a tree, I think, 'You know, they're right, that's better.' Then I change my way to accommodate the new way of planting trees.
To be successful you have to be selfish, or else you never achieve. And once you get to your highest level, then you have to be unselfish. Stay reachable. Stay in touch. Don't isolate.
It's absolutely wrong that I don't want guys to challenge me. And the people who say that aren't in the room.
I think the most important thing about coaching is that you have to have a sense of confidence about what you're doing. You have to be a salesman, and you have to get your players, particularly your leaders, to believe in what you're trying to accomplish on the basketball floor.
There's a lot of chatter in basketball and, rightfully, you want players to be talking to each other... But sometimes in practice, it gets too verbose... so I tried to take things out of the ordinary and make them special so they'd understand the difference.
Being a good listener is absolutely critical to being a good leader; you have to listen to the people who are on the front line.
An exceptional company is the one that gets all the little details right. And the people out on the front line, they know when things are not going right, and they know when things need to be improved. And if you listen to them, you can soon improve all those niggly things which turns an average company into an exceptional company.
A complaint is a chance to turn a customer into a lifelong friend. I say that seriously, not as some press release baloney.
Especially when you're at a high level in an organization, criticism can be devastating to an employee. I prefer to praise employees for what they're doing right, and it tends to lead to them doing more of the same. Not always, but it's the way I choose to bet.
Be willing to use yourself to get out there and put the company on the market. If you have to make a fool of yourself, make a fool of yourself, but make sure that you end up on the front pages, not the back pages. In time, it's possible that your company will stand out from the crowd, and you'll be successful.
When we launched a new company, I reviewed the ads and marketing materials and asked those presenting the campaign to read everything aloud to test the phrasing and concept. If I could grasp it quickly, then it passed with muster. We would get our message across only if it was understandable at first glance.
When I was a kid, I had a tendency to criticize. But when I did, my mum would whisk me off to the bathroom to stand in front of a mirror. Ten minutes, never less. To think about how criticism is a poor reflection on the one who criticizes.
One thing we've talked a lot about, even in the first leadership meeting, was, what's the purpose of our leadership team? The framework we came up with is the notion that our purpose is to bring clarity, alignment and intensity.
I didn't read reviews earlier in my career, but I read them now as I'm older. I read them all.
I think two people with strong points of view can appreciate each other even more.
I think of a traditional CEO as being divorced from customers. A lot of consumer company CEOs - they're not really interacting with consumers.
We typically don't talk about something until we are about to ship. Not just for AI, but for anything: the comparison is generally what we are shipping compared to what someone else is talking about that is going to happen sometime in the future. A lot of people sell futures, I guess, is the way to think about it.
I don't view Apple or myself as an activist. What we do is for some things where we think we have deep knowledge, or think we do, or a strong point of view, we're not shy. We'll stand up, speak out - even when our voice shakes.
If I have something to say, I want it to be meaningful.
Talk is over-rated as a means of settling disputes.
The reserve of modern assertions is sometimes pushed to extremes, in which the fear of being contradicted leads the writer to strip himself of almost all sense and meaning.
Broadly speaking, the short words are the best, and the old words best of all.
The short words are best, and the old words are the best of all.
Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.
If you have an important point to make, don't try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time - a tremendous whack.
This report, by its very length, defends itself against the risk of being read.
Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfils the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things.
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