Jim Collins, an American author and business consultant, focuses on providing companies with new ways to grow. With more than 25 years of research on this topic, the following Jim Collins quotes offer insight and perspective on business growth.
“A culture of discipline is not a principle of business, it is a principle of greatness.”
“Bad decisions made with good intentions, are still bad decisions.”
“Consider the idea that charisma can be as much a liability as an asset. Your strength of personality can sow the seeds of problems.”
“Core values are essential for enduring greatness, but it doesn’t seem to matter what those core values are.”
“Expending energy trying to motivate people is largely a waste of time… if you have the right people on the bus, they will be self-motivated.”
“For no matter what we achieve, if we don’t spend the vast majority of our time with people we love and respect, we cannot possibly have a great life. But if we spend the vast majority of our time with people we love and respect – people we really enjoy being on the bus with and who will never disappoint us – then we will almost certainly have a great life, no matter where the bus goes. The people we interviewed from the good-to-great companies clearly loved what they did, largely because they loved who they did it with.”
“For, in the end, it is impossible to have a great life unless it is a meaningful life. And it is very difficult to have a meaningful life without meaningful work.”
“Good is the enemy of great.”
“Greatness is not a function of circumstance. Greatness, it turns out, is largely a matter of conscious choice and discipline.”
“It is not the content of a company’s values that correlates with performance, but the strength of conviction with which it holds those values, whatever they might be. ”
“Level 5 leaders channel their ego needs away from themselves and into the larger goal of building a great company. It’s not that Level 5 leaders have no ego or self-interest. Indeed, they are incredibly ambitious–but their ambition is first and foremost for the institution, not themselves.”
“Smart people instinctively understand the dangers of entrusting our future to self-serving leaders who use our institutions, whether in the corporate or social sectors, to advance their own interests.”
"I believe questions are more important than answers" – #JimCollins #ONEIngram @SENtechnologies #FreedomCloud #Tech pic.twitter.com/GXTGItQCzt
— S. Mark Hansen Jr. (@SMarkHansen) November 17, 2015
“The best students are those who never quite believe their professors.”
“The good-to-great companies made a habit of putting their best people on their best opportunities, not their biggest problems.”
“The moment you feel the need to tightly manage someone, you’ve made a hiring mistake. The best people don’t need to be managed. Guided, taught, led–yes. But not tightly managed.”
“The purpose of bureaucracy is to compensate for incompetence and lack of discipline–a problem that largely goes away if you have the right people in the first place.”
“We found that for leaders to make something great, their ambition has to be for the greatness of the work and the company, rather than for themselves.”
“You can be passionate all you want, but if you can’t be the best at it or it doesn’t make economic sense, then you might have a lot of fun, but you won’t produce great results.”
“Your status and authority in Nucor come from your leadership capabilities, not your position.”
“Take advantage of difficult economic times to hire great people, even if you don’t have a specific job in mind.”
“A magazine is simply a device to induce people to read advertising.”
“Create the idea, You Are Never Alone.”
Enjoyed speaking w/ Mike Collins on @WFAE's #CharlotteTalks w/ RPCVs Deborah Buckley (Romania) & Jim Morrill (Togo) pic.twitter.com/lQodrt2gk5
— Director Carrie (@PeaceCorpsDir) November 12, 2015
“Every responsibility you get make it a pocket of greatness.”
“It is not position. It is not rank. It is not power.”
“It is very difficult to have a meaning life without meaningful work.”
“Leadership is not personality.”
“Most great leaders do not start as great leaders. They grow into great leaders. Will you do whatever it takes to scale your leadership as the demands of your enterprise grows?”
“True leadership is only when people follow when they would have the option not to follow.”
“When you are suffering at the end of the race, you are not running for you.”
“Will you settle for being a good leader, or will you grow to become a great leader?”
Jim Collins takes a few moments to share how his near fatal rock climbing experience taught him some lessons about business.
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