Throughout my career, there have been many quotes, statements and ideas that have helped me become the leader I am today. They are my toolbox that I use to tell my stories. I am about to give them to you. Some are my own, others are direct quotes and some I cannot even recall where they originated. I will do my best to give proper credit.
Each statement is designed from direct battlefield experience. I mention battlefield and warrior a lot in what I say. It is because as a leader, your main job is to be sure that your team, your village, is safe. You need to be an intellectual and physical warrior and then be able to control it.
In my many years as a leader, I experienced many different and interesting situations. These are the statements I used for myself to handle those situations. And, I also used many if not all of them to explain situations to my team. If you are a good story teller the chances of your message having impact improves greatly.
So here you go, my toolbox of quotes:
"I would rather be a lamb in charge of an army of lions, than a lion in charge of an army of lambs."
- I do not recall exactly where I heard this but I do know it is in direct contradiction to Alexander the Great
"It is better to be a warrior in a garden than a gardener in a war." -Chinese Proverb
"If you accept it, it becomes acceptable" - John Musgrave
"Life is a lot more fun and much easier if you always try to find ways to say YES!" -Could be Jim Carey from Liar, Liar but I am crediting it to me, too.
"When dealing with people aways try to give them more than they expect and give it graciously" -John Musgrave
"You can only control two things in this world. The way you act and the way you react!" - John Musgrave
"When you allow someone or something make you anger, you are allowing them to control you." -John Musgrave
"If you only do what is easy, your life will be hard. If you do what is hard your life will be easy." -Les Brown
"As a leader you need to be kind, generous and when necessary ruthless" -John Musgrave via Sean Gillespie (I can't give him full credit)
"There is no magic, there is only farming." -John Musgrave
"The luckiest people in the world are often always the best prepared!!" -John Musgrave
"Be a servant leader! Find success and joy in helping others" -Unknown
"I AM RONA!!! I am Mufasa, I am in charge of everything I see! I am responsible for everything that happens and that has happened in this store 2 weeks before I got here." -John Musgrave to my team in Peterborough - We achieved great things together!!!!
"Please do not ask me questions you do not want the answers to!" -John Musgrave
"Hey,hey,hey.......what makes you think that your lack of planning is going to become my emergency?" -Jay W.
(I personally was never able to deliver this line, but was present when it was said and it hit so true!)
"Crawl, creep, walk run. A marathon is the length of a run that should kill a person. To achieve great things you must plan, work hard, be consistent, start small and build everyday." - John Musgrave
"Two steps forward and one step back is still forward progress!" -John Musgrave (it also describes a drunk walk home!)
"Do what you say you are going to do!!!! Do it for both yourself and for others. Keep your commitments-HARD STOP!!" -John Musgrave
"Hope is never a good strategy!" -Tom N.
"Whenever you achieve anything, you need to be ready to thank a hundred people who helped you. When you fail, you must be the one who owns it!! My greatest learnings and my greatest strength comes from my failures." -John Musgrave
These are my gift to you. Please put them into your toolbox to help you be a better, more empathic and more approachable leader. If you would like any more details around any or all of these quotes, please feel free to reach out to me directly. There are a lot of great stories around most of them.
John@johnmusgraveleadership.com
905 932 6439
