Max De Pree Quotes

The leader is the servant who removes the obstacles that prevent people from doing their jobs.

Jazz, like leadership, combines the unpredictability of the future with the gifts of individuals.

The greatest thing is, at any moment, to be willing to give up who we are in order to become all that we can be.

We talk about the quality of product and service. What about the quality of our relationships and the quality of our communications and the quality of our promises to each other?

Leaders should leave behind them assets and a legacy.

No question about it: potential is wrapped in great mystery. Like rainbows, which are really circles-we see only the upper halves, the horizon hides the rest-potential never reveals its entirety.

A short term view will lead to a partial and perhaps twisted view of the whole picture. A crucial element may be missing. We may not be running the entire race. A friend of mine described a colleague as great at running the "ninety-five yard dash." That is a distinction I can do without. Lacking the last five yards makes the first ninety-five pointless. In fact, serious runners thing of it as a 110 yard dash so that no one will best them in the last few yards. You've got to think beyond the whole.

There may be no single thing more important in our efforts to achieve meaningful work and fulfilling relationships than to learn to practice the art of communication.

To be a leader means, especially, having the opportunity to make a meaningful difference in the lives of those who permit leaders to lead.

We can choose to see life as a series of trials and tribulations, or we can choose to see life as an accumulation of treasures.

Leadership is like third grade: it means repeating the significant things.

Leaders don't inflict pain - they share pain.

History can't be left to fend for itself. For when it comes to history and beliefs and values, we turn our future on the lathe of the past.

A whale is as unique as a cactus. But don't ask a whale to survive Death Valley. We all have special gifts. Where we use them and how determines whether we actually complete something.

Understanding the diversity of our gifts enables us to begin taking the crucial step of trusting each other.

We see a decline of civility, and, sadly, it's often modeled by the very people from whom we have the least right to expect it.

In some South Pacific cultures, a speaker holds a conch shell as a symbol of temporary position of authority. Leaders must understand who holds the conch that is, who should be listened to and when.

Innovation is the lifeblood of an organization. Knowing how to lead and work with creative people requires knowledge and action that often goes against the typical organizational structure. Protect unusual people from bureaucracy and legalism typical of organizations.

We do not grow by knowing all of the answers, but rather by living with the questions.

Leadership is much more an art, a belief, a condition of the heart, than a set of things to do.

Change without continuity is chaos. Continuity without change is sloth-and very risky.

By ourselves we suffer serious limitations. Together we can be something wonderful.

Intimacy is at the heart of competence. It has to do with understanding, with believing, and with practice. It has to do with the relationship to one's work.

Above all, leadership is a position of servanthood.

If you want the best things to happen in corporate life you have to find ways to be hospitable to the unusual person. You don't get innovation as a democratic process. You almost get it as an anti-democratic process. Certainly you get it as an antithetical process, so you have to have an environment where the body of people are really amenable to change and can deal with the conflicts that arise out of change an innovation.

A friend of mine characterizes leaders simply like this: Leaders don't inflict pain. They bear pain.

We need to give each other the space to grow, to be ourselves, to exercise our diversity. We need to give each other space so that we may both give and receive such beautiful things as ideas, openness, dignity, joy, healing, and inclusion.

When trust permeates a ministry, great things are possible, not the least of which is an opportunity to reach the ministry's potential.

Trust cannot be bought or commanded, inherited or enforced. To maintain it, leaders must continually earn it.

Leaders who keep promises and followers who respond in kind create an opportunity generate enormous energy around their commitment to serve others.

Integrity in all things precedes all else. The open demonstration of integrity is essential.

A team of giants needs giant pitchers who throw good ideas but every pitcher needs an outstanding catcher. Without giant catchers, the ideas of the giant pitchers may eventually disappear.