Colin Luther Powell (Born April 5, 1937) is an American statesman and a retired four-star general in the United States Army.
He was the 65th United States Secretary of State, the first African American to serve in that position.
Powell was a professional soldier for 35 years, holding a variety of command and staff positions and rising to the rank of General.
Colin Powell has spent much of his life inspiring many with his leadership skills and life experiences.
Read below the inspiring Quotes of Colin Powell.
A dream doesn’t become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination and hard work.
Leadership is solving problems. The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help or concluded you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership.
Any time you tolerate mediocrity in others, it increases your mediocrity.
Success is the result of perfection, hard work, learning from failure, loyalty, and persistence.
There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.
Surround yourself with people who take their work seriously, but not themselves, those who work hard and play hard.
Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers, who can cut through argument, debate and doubt, to offer a solution everybody can understand.
I think whether you’re having setbacks or not, the role of a leader is to always display a winning attitude.
If you are going to achieve excellence in big things, you develop the habit in little matters. Excellence is not an exception, it is a prevailing attitude.
Avoid having your ego so close to your position that when your position falls, your ego goes with it.
Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier.
If you get the dirty end of the stick, sharpen it and turn it into a useful tool.
You don’t know what you can get away with until you try.
Giving back involves a certain amount of giving up.
The chief condition on which, life, health and vigor depend on, is action. It is by action that an organism develops its faculties, increases its energy, and attains the fulfillment of its destiny.
Organization charts and fancy titles count for next to nothing.
Never make someone a priority when you are only an option for them.
So like any football or basketball coach, you always always believe you’re going to win.
It takes more courage to send men into battle than to fight the battle yourself.
If a leader doesn’t convey passion and intensity then there will be no passion and intensity within the organization and they’ll start to fall down and get depressed.
The simple but true fact of life is that you become like those with whom you closely associate – for the good and the bad.
In Prosperity Our Friends Know Us. In Adversity We Know Our friends.
Always focus on the front windshield and not the review mirror.
There are no secrets to success: don’t waste time looking for them. Success is the result of perfection, hard work, learning from failure, loyalty to those for whom you work, and persistence.
Trying to get everyone to like you is a sign of mediocrity.
A mirror reflects a man’s face, but what he is really like is shown by the kind of friends he chooses.
Colin Powell’s 13 Rules of Leadership
Colin Powell has written a valuable memoir. It Worked For Me: In Life and Leadership is a collection of lessons learned and anecdotes drawn from his life. The book begins with his 13 Rules and why he has hung on to them over the years. Here they are with some of his thoughts on each:
- It ain’t as bad as you think. It will look better in the morning. This rule reflects an attitude and not a prediction. I have always tried to keep my confidence and optimism up, no matter how difficult the situation. Things will get better. You will make them better.
- Get mad, then get over it. I’ve worked hard over the years to make sure that when I get mad, I get over it quickly and never lose control of myself.
- Avoid having your ego so close to your position that when your position falls, your ego goes with it. Accept that your position was faulty, not your ego. Loyalty is disagreeing strongly, and loyalty is executing faithfully.
- It can be done! Don’t surround yourself with instant skeptics. At the same time, don’t shut out skeptics and colleagues who give you solid counterviews.
- Be careful what you choose. You may get it. Don’t rush into things.
- Don’t let adverse facts stand in the way of a good decision. Superior leadership is often a matter of superb instinct. Often, the factual analysis alone will indicate the right choice. More often, your judgment will be needed to select from the best courses of action.
- You can’t make someone else’s choices. You shouldn’t let someone else make yours. Since ultimate responsibility is yours, make sure the choice is yours and you are not responding to the pressure and desire of others.
- Check small things. Success ultimately rests on small things, lots of small things. Leaders have to have a feel for small things—a feel for what is going on in the depths of an organization where small things reside. The followers, the troops, live in a world of small things. Leaders must find ways, formal and informal, to get visibility into that world.
- Share credit. People need recognition and a sense of worth as much as they need food and water. Share the credit, take the blame, and quietly find out and fix things that went wrong. Whenever you place the cause of one of your actions outside yourself, it’s an excuse and not a reason.
- Remain calm. Be kind. In the “heat of the battle”—whether military or corporate—kindness, like calmness, reassures followers and holds their confidence. Kindness connects you with other human beings in a bond of mutual respect. If you care for your followers and show them kindness, they will recognize and care for you.
- Have a vision. Be demanding. Purpose is the destination of a vision. It energizes that vision, gives it force and drive. It should be positive and powerful, and serve the better angels of an organization.
- Don’t take counsel of your fears or naysayers. Fear is a normal human emotion. It is not in itself a killer. We can learn to be aware when fear grips us, and can train to operate through and in spite of our fear. If, on the other hand, we don’t understand that fear is normal and has to be controlled and overcome, it will paralyze us and stop us in our tracks. We will no longer think clearly or analyze rationally. We prepare for it and control it; we never let it control us. If it does, we cannot lead.
- Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier. Perpetual optimism, believing in yourself, believing in your purpose, believing you will prevail, and demonstrating passion and confidence is a force multiplier. If you believe and have prepared your followers, the followers will believe.
