Fire and Knowledge

If you tell me how you get your feeling of importance, I’ll tell you what you are. That determines your character. That is the most significant thing about you.

—Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People (1981; orig 1936), p. 19.

The ideas that come out of most brainstorming sessions are usually superficial, trivial, and not very original. They are rarely useful. The process, however, seems to make uncreative people feel that they are making innovative contributions and that others are listening to them.

–A. Harvey Block, CEO, Bokenon Systems, as quoted in Richard Templar, The Rules of Management (Prentice Hall, 2005), p. 11.

Most of the outstanding leaders I have worked with are neither tall nor especially handsome; they are often mediocre public speakers; they do not stand out in a crowd; and they do not mesmerize an attending audience with their brilliance or eloquence. Rather, what distinguishes them is a clarity and persuasiveness of their ideas, the depth of their commitment, and their openness to continually learning more. They do not “have the answer.” But they do instill confidence in those around them that, together, “we can learn whatever we need to learn in order to achieve the results we truly desire.”

The ability of such people to be natural leaders, as near as I can tell, is the by-product of a lifetime of effort—effort to develop conceptual and communication skills, to reflect personal values and to align personal behavior with values, to learn how to listen and to appreciate others and others’ ideas. In the absence of such effort, personal charisma is style without substance. It leaves those affected less able to think for themselves and less able to make wise choices. It can devastate an organization or a society.

–Peter Senge, The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization (1990), p. 359.