Over the years I have noticed that almost all of the most successful people whom I have met have heros. They often use leadership quotes from the people whom they really admire.
Recently I was speaking with the Chief Information Officer of a successful online publishing company. We talked about customer service because that’s a subject really close to his heart. I was really taken by surprise when he came up with this quotation from Mahatma Gandhi:
“A customer is the most vital visitor on our grounds, he’s not dependent on us. We are reliant on him. He is not an interruption in our work. He’s the point of it. He’s not an interloper in our business. He is part of it. We’re not doing him a favor by serving him. He does us a favor by giving us a chance to do so.”
The source of the quotation was not expected because I’d never previously thought of the Mahatma as being interested about client service. Upon reflection I was even more amazed that such an august person was interested in consumer service in the early part of the previous century.
Yet the quotation is a good example of how the words of famous leaders can offer us fantastic guidance and also fire up our thinking. I find the words of famous leaders of the past are a consistent source of inspiration and stimulation.
I constantly counsel my clients to read quotations from people who’ve been there and got the gongs. They learnt some hard lessons that we are able to learn easily just by reading about their experiences.
Whenever you are stuck for a theme for a presentation or an idea of the simplest way to position or support a discussion, you might do much worse than turn to the pages of a website that has got a listing of leadership quotes. I put such a list on my website for my private use and for the benefit of my clients.
Since 1995 David Ferrers has focused his energies on leadership coaching, writing and presenting. A sensible way to profit from leadership quotes is to read the sayings of famous leaders of the past.
Tags: business coaching, Leadership Coaching, leadership quotes, self confidence quotes
