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The CEO Quote Collection
Everyone likes a good inspirational quote, but the message can get old quickly, especially when it comes to leadership or developing into a CEO.
That’s why this career conversation collection has some of the best advice cherry-picked from quotes by CEOs and executives on leadership, strategy, teamwork, and essential skills. Quotes condense learning and experience into memorable, bite-sized sentences and, coupled with the context of these figures, they’re reminders of lessons worth remembering.
The greatest leaders convey their wisdom through words which inspire their teams, as well as other leaders, to develop their careers and grow their organizations. Good CEOs are able to create a daring vision that keeps their company ahead of the competition with constant innovation through their leadership style and business approach, as well as an understanding of what inspires people and drives profits. They’re also valuable mentors as they can partner with aspirant leaders on their career journeys and share invaluable skills. Find out how to ask for one here.
Get CEO advice:
1. On taking risks
Don’t be intimidated by what you don’t know. That can be your greatest strength and ensure that you do things differently from everyone else.
– SARA BLAKELY, Founder of Spanx
Opportunities, the good ones, they’re messy and confusing and hard to recognize. They’re risky.
– SUSAN WOJCICKI, CEO, YouTube
It is not the manager’s job to prevent risks. It is the manager’s job to make it safe to take them.
– ED CATMULL, Co-founder of Pixar Animation Studios
Ask yourself
Are you playing it too safe?
If you threw caution to the wind today, what would you commit to?
2. On leadership
Creating the culture of burnout is opposite to creating a culture of sustainable creativity. This mentality needs to be introduced as a leadership and performance-enhancing tool.
– ARIANNA HUFFINGTON, Co-founder of The Huffington Post
Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.
– JACK WELCH, Former CEO, General Electric
Just because you are a CEO, don’t think you have landed. You must continually increase your learning, the way you think, and the way you approach the organization.
– INDRA NOOYI, Former CEO, PepsiCo
Ask yourself
Who deserves acknowledgment today? How could you most effectively give that to them?
3. On productivity
The way to get started is to quit talking and start doing.
– WALT DISNEY, Co-founder of The Walt Disney Company
If there are nine rabbits on the ground, if you want to catch one, just focus on one.
– JACK MA, Co-founder of Alibaba Group
You can only do so much. There are five more projects you want to do, but you pick the three that are really going to matter, and you try to do those really well, and you don’t even try to do the others.
– SHERYL SANDBERG, COO, Meta Platforms
Ask yourself
Where’s the most meaningful place you can focus your efforts right now? If you had ONE metric to define your success today, what would it be?
4. On relationships
Find the smartest people you can and surround yourself with them.
– MARISSA MAYER, Former CEO, Yahoo!
The way you build trust with your people is by being forthright and clear with them from day one.
– DICK COSTOLO, Former CEO, Twitter
Relationships are personal, even in business, so sharing some of yourself and taking an interest in others helps to build trust and break down walls.
– DINESH PALIWAL, Former CEO, Harman International
5. On learning
As entrepreneurs, we must continue to ask ourselves ‘What’s next?’ It takes humility to realize that we don’t know everything, not to rest on our laurels, and to know that we must keep learning and observing.
– CHER WANG, Co-founder and chairperson of HTC Corporation, VIA Technologies
Always keep learning. You stop doing useful things if you don’t learn.
– SATYA NADELLA, CEO and executive chairman, Microsoft
I learned to always take on things I’d never done before. Growth and comfort do not coexist.
– GINNI ROMETTY, Former CEO, IBM
Ask yourself
On a scale of 1 to 10, how much do you prioritize learning right now? What could you do today to broaden your perspective?
Inspired to develop your skills, further your career, and become a great leader yourself? Browse over 200 online short courses from the world’s leading universities.