Leadership Lessons from a Lifetime of Service

Here are the leadership lessons of a lifetime of service from the President of Israel and Nobel Peace Prize winner Shimon Peres:

1. Leaders must not be afraid of being alone.

2. They must have the courage to be afraid.

3. A leader must decide. He should not agree or disagree. He says “yes” or “no.”

4. A leader must pioneer, not rule.

5. A leader is not on the top of his people but ahead of them in front.

6. Leadership is extremely hard work.

7. When you have a chosen a destiny . . . never give up.

8. Leadership is based on a moral call.

9. What is right today is different tomorrow.

10. It’s not enough to be up to date; you have to be up tomorrow.

11. To lead is to listen, to pay attention to every detail, to decide.

12. Everything that once was controversial ultimately becomes popular.

Leadership Lessons from a Lifetime of Service

Fear

What are you afraid of, and what does it cost you? Today, we want you to read one of the best descriptions of fear we have ever heard. It seems to be appropriate for the world in which we are living:

"I am Fear. I am the menace that lurks in the paths of life, never visible to the eye but sharply felt in the heart. I am the father of despair, the brother of procrastination, the enemy of progress, the tool of tyranny. Born of ignorance and nursed on misguided thought, I have darkened more hopes, stifled more ambitions, shattered more ideals and prevented more accomplishments than history could record.

“Like the changing chameleon, I assume many disguises. I masquerade as caution. I am sometimes known as doubt or worry. But whatever I’m called, I am still fear, the obstacle of achievement.

“I know no master but one; its name is Understanding. I have no power but what the human mind gives me, and I vanish completely when the light of Understanding reveals the facts as they really are, for I am really nothing.”

You see, if you have the courage to acknowledge your fears, you will be taking the first step toward controlling them instead of them controlling you. And if you take the next step toward understanding, you will be able to move past them to empathy, perhaps even to love. 

Fear

Types of Failure to Avoid

Innovation experts have long argued that companies should be more tolerant of failure. But not all failure is created equally. 

Here are three types of failures that rarely contribute to learning and should be avoided whenever possible:

Knowingly doing the wrong thing. When a project falls apart because someone hid information or misled others, any learning is moot. Failure is only acceptable when the project was done with good intentions.

Failing to gather the right data. Often failure can be avoided by doing some simple research: asking target customers for input or testing an idea before launching it.

Prioritising research over experience. Some things are unknowable without real-life experiments. Don't waste resources on researching a theory when you can create a prototype or conduct an experiment that will give you a more realistic answer.

Types of Failure to Avoid

Obstacles Can Be Overcome

This is the story of Dick & Rick Hoyt, the most inspirational father and son team to race in an Ironman. 

The message is important - obstacles can be overcome with focus, determination, commitment and generosity of spirit.

Obstacles Can Be Overcome

Believe You Can Achieve

Believe You Can Achieve

Be Prepared for a Turbulent Business World

Jeff Immelt, chairman and CEO of GE, gave the first annual Roanak Desai Memorial View From The Top at the Stanford Graduate School of Business recently. He discussed how business has changed in his nearly three decades at GE and stressed to the student audience to be prepared for a turbulent business world.

Be Prepared for a Turbulent Business World

Going For More At Work

Being smart and doing a good job can get you only so far, says Jeffrey Pfeffer, professor of organisational behavior at Stanford University. For really getting what you deserve — promotion, bonus, award — try high emotional intelligence and political savvy. Powerful people emphasise those traits, he says.

• Accept reality. 'It's a fact that people have done bad work and still become successful, while others have done great work and gotten fired. So if you want to play football you have to put on the pads and play. Don't become a shallow game player at work. It's far better to be smart, hardworking and savvy. This is really not about necessarily changing yourself in a dramatic way. Just be more strategic. You can't just hope that things are going to change or wish that things are not as they are,' says Pfeffer.

• Pick a good spot. You want a domain that fits your interests, said Pfeffer, author of  Power: Why Some People Have It and Others Don't: 'What gets you into serious trouble is to say, 'I'm going to show them that they're wrong.' What you should be asking yourself is, 'If I took all this effort and hard work to change these people's minds and instead go to a new environment, I would probably do better.''

• Talk with purpose. In Western countries, many people who blabber loudly are seen as leaders, wrote Robert Sutton in Good Boss, Bad Boss: How to Be the Best... and Learn from the Worst: 'But, don't talk the whole time, as people will see you as a bully, boring or both. People gain power by winning interruption wars, interjecting and battling back when others try to interrupt,' says Pfeffer.

• Be vigilant. Avoid voluntarily surrendering your power and influence. If you're at a meeting with your boss, take every opportunity to shine. If you're attending a key event with a colleague, be strategic about being gracious. It's fine to introduce your friend, but don't fade into the woodwork and let a co-worker take over the conversation. Remember, this can be your moment to impress.

• Be forceful. You've probably heard experts advise you to get along with colleagues. Another take: 'There's a ton of research that shows that displaying anger is more likely to have other people accord you status,' says Pfeffer. Don't fly off the handle. Sometimes simply crossing your arms sends a powerful message. 'First demonstrate competence, then engage in a reasonable amount of self-promotion and be forceful,' he says.

Going For More At Work

Leading from the Front

Over the past year, business leaders have endured one of the most challenging economic climates in decades. In this video we hear from those who have emerged from the crisis stronger than ever. 

What can we learn from their leadership in developing strategies to thrive during difficult times? What has been the impact on their approaches to innovation, product life-cycles and brand management? Do changes represent a long-term shift or will things eventually return to normal?

Leading from the Front

Great Leaders = Great Teams: Ten Ways to Expand Your Leadership

"When the going is toughest, leaders must behave like emotional and intellectual anchors. The critical issues are about faith, passion, and most importantly, authenticity. People must know you are not pretending. They can see a sham."  C.K. Prahalad, Professor, University of Michigan

Leading Teams

Great teams have great leaders. Leading a team starts with a clear idea of where you are going, what needs to be done, and how it will be accomplished. In addition, team leaders must promote a collective team identity, admit their mistakes, and remain positive and focused in the face of adversity. In the end, leading a team is about...

Clarifying the vision - know where you are going, what it will take to get there, when it is best to assert yourself, how to accomplish the task, and why your leadership is important. Also, remember to keep your team informed as you go.

Talking team - it's not about any single individual but it is about "us," "we," and "our" team. Think collective identity.

Practising humility - be quick to admit mistakes and say "I'm sorry."

Leading with optimism - don't forget to remind, refocus, and rebuild when needed. Attitude is everything! Attitude sets the tone for the team.

Bringing it all together: Ten (10) ways to expand your leadership thinking

Determine your legacy

Ask yourself, "What do I want to leave behind?" Then, begin with the end in mind. You will leave a legacy! Be sure your legacy is what you want it to be.

Have a plan

Know where you are going, who is traveling with you, how you will get there, (what you need for the trip, how you will respond to delays, and how you can best help everyone arrive safely. Be prepared for what is to come.

Get connected (not to technology, but to people)

Invest in others. Get to know them, build them up, and serve them (even when you don't want to). Remember, people first and problems second.

Develop a "strength focus"

"Think Big" but also think smart. Always look to put your "team" in a position to succeed. Play to each person's strengths and the team's strengths.

Clarify roles and norms

Expect a lot from key players. You will get more when you expect more! The best teams require both quantity and quality from its members.

Create the right attitude

Influence is inevitable. Be sure to make yours positive! Remember, your attitude is "contagious." Pass on your optimism and hope every day.

Be teachable

Talent gets noticed but humility attracts followers. Know what you don't know.

Hold (and be willing to hold) accountable

Confront when needed. Every team needs an enforcer! It is important to remember that actions (or lack of actions) have consequences. Be sure everyone is doing what they said they would.

Do something different

Be creative. Find new ways of doing old things. Collaborate and cooperate. Talk with new people, develop new ideas and strategies, and ask for new input. Try something new.

Take a break and have some fun!

Laugh, smile, and "lighten up." A good sense of humour can go a long way in leading yourself, others, and teams. Have fun, enjoy the journey, and keep leading. 

Great Leaders = Great Teams: Ten Ways to Expand Your Leadership

Positive Leadership's Gavin Hastings and Tiger Woods

If you look closely you will see Positive Leadership's Gavin Hastings on the same green as Tiger Woods yesterday in Shanghai. The Positive Leadership message is certainly travelling far and wide!

Positive Leadership's Gavin Hastings and Tiger Woods

Selling Your Ideas

Regardless of how good it is, no idea sells itself. Before getting commitment to proceed with an idea for a new product, process, venture, technology, service, policy, or organisational change, innovators and leaders must sell the idea to potential backers and supporters, and neutralise the critics. They must find resources, expertise, and support. They must convince colleagues to advance the idea in meetings they don't attend.

People whose ideas get traction — that manage get out of the starting gate — take advantage of this practical advice for selling ideas.

Seek many inputs. Listen actively to many points of view. Then incorporate aspects of each of them into the project plan, so that you can show people exactly where their perspectives or suggestions appear.

Do your homework. Be thoroughly prepared for meetings and individual discussions. Gather as much hard data as possibly to have command of the full facts, and speak knowledgeably from a broad information base. Know the interests of those to whom you're speaking, and customise the message for them.

Make the rounds. Meet with people one-on-one to make the first introduction of your idea. It's always a good idea to touch base with people individually before any key meetings, and to give them advance warning of what you and others are planning to say at the meeting. Then they can be prepared (and coached) in your point of view. And you know theirs, so you can modify your proposal accordingly.

See critics in private and hear them out. One-on-one meetings are especially important when you expect opposition or criticism. Groups can easily turn into mobs. Avoid situations in which critics can gang up on you, or when a group of people leaning positive turn negative because the listen to a few loud voices. Never gather all of your potential critics in one room hoping to hold one meeting to brief everyone all at once. This kind of event mainly helps them discover each other and their common concerns, so they coalesce as a group united in opposition to the idea.

Make the benefits clear. Arm supporters with arguments. You might rehearse them for meetings in which questions about your project will come up. Stress the value that the idea will produce for them and other groups. Remember that selling ideas is at least a two-step process. You sell one set of people so they can sell others. You convince them to back you because you reduce the risk to them by giving them the tools for selling their own boards or constituencies.

Be specific. Make your requests concrete, even while connecting your idea to unassailable larger principles. Wait to approach high-level people until you have tested the idea elsewhere and refined your vague notions. The higher the official, the more valuable and scarce his or her time, and thus the more focused your meeting must be. Use peers for initial broad discussions, then ask top executives for one simple action.

Show that you can deliver. People want to back winners. Early in the process, provide evidence, even guarantees, that the project will work. Later, prove that you can deliver by meeting deadlines and doing what you promised.

Selling Your Ideas

Amir Khan

Amir Khan is an Olympic Silver medallist, a Commonwealth Gold medallist and since July 2009, he has been WBA Light Welterweight Champion.

However, back in September 2008, when he was undefeated and riding on a crest of self-confidence (or perhaps arrogance) he took on little known Breidis Prescott. At the time, Khan was being talked up as the best fighter alive. Khan was knocked out by Prescott in 54 seconds of round 1!

‘After that defeat, my mind was all over the place. All those dreams; suddenly I didn’t know if they were going to come true’, says Khan.

Khan had made a classic fighter’s mistake – he looked lean and mean but inside he was getting soft and comfortable. Defeat brought him to his senses. You only stay sharp by constantly proving yourself.  As a result, Khan decided to change almost every aspect of his working routine. He moved from Bolton to LA.

‘I moved everything. I made sacrifices; being away from home, being away from my family. I came to a place where no one knew me and a boxing gym where you have to earn your respect’, says Khan.

He started to spar with world champion, Manny Pacquaio. Khan quickly realised that the way you see yourself is less important than the impression you deliver to others. That lesson transformed him. After moving to LA, Khan began winning again. He won the world title in July 2009 and defended it in May 2010.

Khan’s training regime is now intense. He trains twice a day. His strength and conditioning trainer Alex Ariza’s philosophy is that ‘Everything is supposed to be hard. If it was easy, I’d have a thousand guys doing it.’ Ariza says his circuit training has a 98% drop out rate. Khan had never trained this way before. He used to train once a day. Now his approach is to ‘train hard, fight easy’.

Khan’s rise, fall and rise again is a testament to his resilience and to the need for hard work if you want to become a winner at anything.

Amir Khan

Do YOU Make Your Team's Problems Worse?

Do YOU Make Your Team's Problems Worse?

The Importance of Core Values

In this Leadership Insights video, Bryson Moore from The Soderquist Centre explains why having core values is so important for small businesses. He also presents a case study and three simple things you can do with values to take your business to the next level.

Leadership Insights - Values and Small Business from Matt Martin on Vimeo.

The Importance of Core Values

Educating for Ethics

The Analects covers most of Confucius' teachings and philosophy. He is at the start of a long literary tradition that assumes that good leadership and good followership can, at least to some extent be taught.

Book 1: 1.4 Circa 475-221 BCE

Confucius said, "Clever talk and affected manners are seldom signs of goodness."

Zeng-tzu said, "I examine myself three times a day. When dealing on behalf of others, have I been trustworthy? In intercourse with my friends, have I been faithful? Have I practised what I was taught?"

Educating for Ethics

A Fighter Pilot's Guide to Effective Communication

Communication in military combat is essential to successfully execute a plan. It ensures safety, keeps everyone focused on their responsibilities, and builds awareness in rapidly changing environments.

In the heat of battle, where effective communication is critical, fighter pilots:

• Brief the mission in order to establish objectives, delegate responsibilities, analyse threats, and review contingency plans.
• Establish a communication ("comm") game plan which confirms when and where to change frequencies.
• Ensure positive two-way communication is established during critical elements of a mission.
• Brief a back-up plan in case communication fails (known as "radio-out" procedures).
• Debrief every mission to review lessons learned and reinforce training.

As a business leader, do you have a "comm plan" with your employees and colleagues? Are you taking the time to brief your missions to ensure all your wingmen are on the same wave length and understand their roles, responsibilities, and objectives? Finally, are you aware of those who might be on the wrong frequency or off course? What's your plan to get them back on target?

Checking in with your wingmen, listening to their questions, and understanding their challenges are fundamental components of teamwork and leadership. They are the cornerstones in building an environment of mutual support and trust.

Here are several communication "wingtips" gleaned from the military that can apply to you as a business leader:

• Have a mass briefing at least once a month. Gather your troops and communicate the latest trends, organisational goals, sales updates, and product upgrades etc. Your wingmen need to hear important news — whether good or bad — from you first. This is also a great time to publicly recognize your top performers.
• Conduct feedback sessions on a regular basis. Sit down with your wingmen and let them know how they are doing. Are they meeting your expectations? Ask them about their goals and challenges and how you can help. Then solicit feedback on you as a leader. What would they like to see from you? Avoid letting your ego get in the way of their feedback.
• Walk the flight line. Get your hands dirty with your wingmen. Spend time with them on the job and observe how they do business. Ask questions. Show them your appreciation by connecting with them as people first and employees second.
• De-brief your missions. Remove your 'rank' and conduct a nameless, blameless, and rank-less de-brief after every critical mission. Find out if objectives were met, and analyse why they weren't. Search for trends and communicate these to the rest of your organization.

Your aim should be to listen as much as possible in order to build what we call situational awareness — a comprehensive understanding of the mission. The greater your situational awareness, the better your ability to handle contingencies and adapt to change. As the flight lead of your team, it's very important that you create an environment where others can come to you for help. This inspires a culture of trust which is mission critical in business.

For more, see: http://ht.ly/30BhL and read, Never Fly Solo: Lead with Courage, Build Trusting Partnerships, and Reach New Heights in Business

A Fighter Pilot's Guide to Effective Communication

Poll Shows Americans Still Disappointed in Leaders

Americans’ confidence in the country’s leaders remains below-average for the third consecutive year, according to National Leadership Index (NLI) poll results released by the Centre for Public Leadership (CPL) at Harvard Kennedy School (HKS). Surprisingly, however, Americans’ predominant emotional responses to their leaders’ ability to handle crises are disappointment and hopefulness—not something much worse, such as anger or fear.

After a steep decline in 2008, confidence in America’s leaders has not returned to the “average” levels identified from 2005–07. Belief that we have a “leadership crisis in America” remained high at 68 percent; 71 percent of respondents believe the U.S. will “decline as a nation” without better leadership.

“This survey represents yet another cry from the American public for more effective leadership, not only in politics, but in many other fields,’” said David Gergen, public service professor of public leadership at HKS and director of CPL. “For three straight years, two-thirds or more Americans have said that we have a leadership crisis and a significant majority believe that unless we address this crisis, the country faces a bleak future.”

On a more granular level, only four of the 13 sectors—non-profits & charities, the Supreme Court, and medical and traditionally high-rated military sectors—garnered at or above-average levels of confidence. Leaders of news media, Congress, and Wall Street remained the lowest rated.

For more, see: http://www.hks.harvard.edu/news-events/news/press-releases/pr-cpl-nli-oct10

Poll Shows Americans Still Disappointed in Leaders

Mentor Leadership

Former Super Bowl winning coach Tony Dungy, author of The Mentor Leader: Secrets to Building People and Teams That Win Consistently, talks about how a mentor changed his life.

Mentor Leadership

Failing Successfully

Do you ever feel that half the things you do turn out all wrong? 

One of the reasons leaders are successful is the same reason that Ty Cobb, one of the greatest baseball sluggers of all time, was as good as he was. If you look in the record books, you will find that Ty Cobb's lifetime average was only .367. That means he got a hit once out of every three times at bat. It's the same story for Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron, and for virtually every other successful person in the world.

Successful people are not afraid to try and are not afraid to fail. In fact, for them, the only real failure is not trying at all. It turns out that people really don't remember the times Aaron swung and missed, only the times the ball sailed out of the park. 

The fact is that successful people try more things more often than average folks do. Whether it's playing baseball or building an international business, if you try enough things, you're going to succeed a lot. And if you don't try anything, you are guaranteed to fail. So go for it! What do you really have to lose?

Failing Successfully

How Positive Leadership maximises your opportunity for success in conducting change

'Rebecca came into my office smiling and bouncy. She chuckled to herself as she sat down. I asked her how she was doing.

"I am great. My business just closed out the best year ever. I’ve done three award-winning projects this year. I am finding that I don’t even really need to do any marketing anymore; people are seeking me out to do business. I think part of it is the environment, and part of it is the good job my team does."

Would it surprise you to know that Rebecca then proposed a radical redesign of her business?

I was surprised. Why redesign a business that was so obviously successful? Rebecca explained it this way:

"When things are really good, that’s a great place to make decisions from."

She is right. Consider that recent studies in brain neuroscience confirm that positive emotional and social approaches to work are correlated with creativity, open-mindedness and insight.

It is advantageous to be in a "great place" when facing business decisions. Yet creating that great place isn’t just a coincidence. A positive leadership approach maximises your opportunity for success in conducting change.

Rebecca focused on three things in an effort to create a "great place" in her organisational environment: 

Strengths-focused management. Positive leaders change the nature of the conversations they have with their teams and organisations. Rebecca consistently directed her conversations to discover what strengths could be found in a situation - these can be individual strengths, team strengths or organisational strengths.

Rebecca’s goal is to always work to best align professional tasks with strength-based talent on her team.

Seek solutions. Second, positive leaders encourage solution seeking rather than problem solving. To succeed with solution seeking, Rebecca would encourage her team to envision a problem as already solved. What would be different if it were? What would people be doing differently? What processes would be changed? Once these are identified, Rebecca challenged her team to find ways to begin to act in these new ways now - jumpstarting the change to the solution.

Celebrate successes. Finally, a success orientation means recognising success wherever and whenever it occurs. It makes no difference if the success is small or large.

Leadership is not static, and team members and organisations require feedback. Rebecca’s persistent recognition of true success built a clear pathway to more success.

Rebecca credits her positively-minded leadership with helping her team sustain their vision and goals, which supported them as they weathered the challenges they faced in their radical redesign of the firm.'

You may not be able to wait until the "great place" arrives before making critical decisions about your organisation. Putting some of these positive practices in place, however, may just lead you to a better place and put you and your team in a position to seek successful solutions to your business challenges.

How Positive Leadership maximises your opportunity for success in conducting change

The Big Conversation

The Big Conversation is a cross sectoral movement that is seeking to create unstoppable social change in Australia through values dialogues. Its objectives are simple -- start a broad dialogue, through small group conversations, on values in Australia - what they are currently, what Australians want them to be, and what people need to do to get there. Instead of waiting for someone else to have these conversations, Australians are having them and facilitating a national dialogue. For more, see: http://bigconversation.org.au/?page_id=5

The Big Conversation

Motivation

You won’t find Motivation 101 in most business schools; yet, the ability to motivate one’s team and organisation is one of the most important skills a leader must possess in today’s business climate.

The fact is the great recession has left its mark: employees are de-motivated. They are fearful, overworked, distrustful, and have less enthusiasm and passion than ever. And many leaders are continually frustrated by their team’s performance and low morale and engagement. The answer, doesn’t involve fancy technology, a new piece of equipment, or extensive R&D. The answer lies in a basic human emotion: motivation.

Now, more than ever, a leader’s job is to motivate and rally his or her team through challenging times. You can’t outsource motivation. It is the leader and manager who must motivate. That’s why motivational speeches don’t work by themselves but leaders who motivate do. 

Many leaders want to take the emotion out of business but that is a huge mistake. When fear and negativity are the primary emotions people in your organisation are feeling, you have to counter that with an even more powerful emotion, like faith, belief, and optimism. And your success in that depends on your ability to motivate.

In this spirit here are five strategies to motivate your team:

1. Don't be too busy to communicate. Recovery or no recovery, these are uncertain times. Employees are wondering what's going to happen next, whether their job will be impacted and what action to take. Unless managers and leaders fill that void with clear and positive communication, people will assume the worst and act accordingly. Don't let your busy schedule get in the way of taking the time to talk with your team.

2. Lead with optimism. The engine for an economy's growth and prosperity has always been a 'can-do' attitude and spirit. Unfortunately, in the past year, optimism has been in short supply. The most important weapon against pessimism is to transfer your optimism and vision to others. Leadership is a transfer of belief and your belief inspires others to think and act in ways that drive results.

3. Share the vision. It’s not enough to just be optimistic. You must give your team and organisation something to be optimistic about. Talk about where you have been, where you are, and where you are going. Share your plan for a brighter and better future, talk about the actions you must take, and constantly reiterate the reasons why you will be successful. Create a vision statement that inspires and rallies your team and organisation. Not a page-long vision statement filled with buzzwords, but a rallying cry that means something to the people who invest a majority of their day working for you. This vision statement can’t just exist on a piece of paper. It must come to life in the hearts and minds of your team So it’s up to you to share it, reinforce it, and inspire your people to live and breathe it every day. A positive vision for the future leads to powerful actions today.

4. Relationships build real motivation. It's much easier to motivate someone if you know them and they know you. After all, if you don't take the time to get to know the people who are working for you, then how can you ever truly know the best way to lead, coach, and motivate them effectively?

5. Create purpose-driven goals. Real motivation is driven by purpose and a desire to make a difference. When people feel as though the work they do is playing an integral role in the overall success of the organisation and the world, they are motivated to work harder.

Motivation

What Makes Teams Smart?

What makes some groups perform better than others?

A new study published in Science  found that three factors were significantly correlated with a group’s collective intelligence — in other words, its ability to perform a variety of tasks collectively, from solving puzzles to negotiating. 

The three factors are: the average social sensitivity of the members of the group, the extent to which the group’s conversations weren’t dominated by a few members, and the percentage of women in the group.  (The women in the study tended to score higher on social sensitivity than the men.) In other words, groups perform better on tasks if the members have strong social skills, if there are some women in the group, and if the conversation reflects more group members’ ideas. The groups studied were small teams with two to five members.

Interestingly, the researchers from MIT found that collective intelligence wasn’t strongly correlated with the average intelligence of the  individuals in the group — or with the intelligence of the smartest person in the group. They also found, as they wrote in Science,  ”that many of the factors one might have expected to predict group performance — such as group cohesion, motivation, and satisfaction — did not.”

For more, see MIT Sloan Management Review’s Spring 2010 interview with Malone.

What Makes Teams Smart?

Lombardi

Earlier this month, a new play based on one of our heroes, former Green Bay Packers coach Vince Lombardi, premiered on Broadway. Our first reaction to this news was utter surprise. It doesn’t seem like Vince’s life would lend itself easily to the Broadway stage.

But, as we began to think about it, we realised that his life really was the stuff of good theatre. His no-nonsense determination to win, his endless ability to inspire, and his penchant for delivering pitch-perfect motivational wisdom are all characteristics that have the potential to create great theatre.

It’s great to know that, even 40 years after his death, there’s no shortage of enthusiasm about this inspirational character.

Here’s a taste of vintage Lombardi:

"Coaches who can outline plays on a black board are a dime a dozen. The ones who win get inside their player and motivate."

"Confidence is contagious. So is lack of confidence."

"The dictionary is the only place that success comes before work. Hard work is the price we must pay for success. I think you can accomplish anything if you're willing to pay the price."

"Football is like life - it requires perseverance, self-denial, hard work, sacrifice, dedication and respect for authority."

"The real glory is being knocked to your knees and then coming back. That's real glory. That's the essence of it."

Lombardi