Max De Pree Quotes

Change without continuity is chaos. Continuity without change is sloth-and very risky.

We can choose to see life as a series of trials and tribulations, or we can choose to see life as an accumulation of treasures.

Everyone in a successful organization must be willing and ready to risk. Risk is like change; it's not a choice.

In most vital organizations, there is a common bond of interdependence, mutual interest, interlocking contributions, and simple joy.

When trust permeates a ministry, great things are possible, not the least of which is an opportunity to reach the ministry's potential.

We do not grow by knowing all of the answers, but rather by living with the questions.

By ourselves we suffer serious limitations. Together we can be something wonderful.

A friend of mine characterizes leaders simply like this: Leaders don't inflict pain. They bear pain.

Leaders should be able to Stand Alone, Take the Heat, Bear the Pain, Tell the Truth, and Do What's Right

Leaders don't inflict pain - they share pain.

Above all, leadership is a position of servanthood.

Trust cannot be bought or commanded, inherited or enforced. To maintain it, leaders must continually earn it.

Leaders should leave behind them assets and a legacy.

Leaders who keep promises and followers who respond in kind create an opportunity generate enormous energy around their commitment to serve others.

We can go through anything because Jesus goes before us.

We see a decline of civility, and, sadly, it's often modeled by the very people from whom we have the least right to expect it.

The leader is the servant who removes the obstacles that prevent people from doing their jobs.

We cannot avoid growing old; but we can avoid growing cold.

Integrity in all things precedes all else. The open demonstration of integrity is essential.

Leadership is much more an art, a belief, a condition of the heart, than a set of things to do.

Jazz, like leadership, combines the unpredictability of the future with the gifts of individuals.

When things go awry, trust powers the generators until the problem is fixed.

Leadership is liberating people to do what is required of them in the most effective and humane way possible.

History can't be left to fend for itself. For when it comes to history and beliefs and values, we turn our future on the lathe of the past.

The greatest thing is, at any moment, to be willing to give up who we are in order to become all that we can be.

Leadership is like third grade: it means repeating the significant things.

Understanding the diversity of our gifts enables us to begin taking the crucial step of trusting each other.

To be a leader means, especially, having the opportunity to make a meaningful difference in the lives of those who permit leaders to lead.

We can accomplish more together than we can alone.