Max de Pree Quotations

We cannot become what we need to be by remaining what we are.

The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. In between, the leader is a servant.

We need to give each other the space to grow, to be ourselves, to exercise our diversity. We need to give each other space so that we may both give and receive such beautiful things as ideas, openness, dignity, joy, healing, and inclusion.

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.

The signs of outstanding leadership appear primarily among the followers. Are the followers reaching their potential? Are they learning? Serving? Do they achieve the required results? Do they change with grace? Manage conflict?

In some South Pacific cultures, a speaker holds a conch shell as a symbol of temporary position of authority. Leaders must understand who holds the conch-that is, who should be listened to and when.

In the end, it is important to remember that we cannot become what we need to be by remaining what we are.

The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality.

In addition to all of the ratios and goals and parameters and bottom lines, it is fundamental that leaders endorse a concept of persons. This begins with an understanding of the diversity of people's gifts and talents and skills. Recognizing diversity gives us the chance to provide meaning, fulfillment and purpose, which are not to be relegated solely to private life any more than such things as love, beauty and joy. The art of leadership lies in polishing and liberating and enabling those gifts.

The key elements in the art of working together are how to deal with change, how to deal with conflict, and how to reach our potential...the needs of the team are best met when we meet the needs of individual persons.

We can teach ourselves to see things the way they ARE. Only with vision can we begin to see things the way they CAN BE.

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

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

A whale is as unique as a cactus. But don't ask a whale to survive Death Valley. We all have special gifts. Where we use them and how determines whether we actually complete something.

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

Understanding and accepting diversity enables us to see that each of us is needed.. It also enables us to begin to think about being abandoned to the strengths of others, of admitting that we cannot know or do everything.

We are alone, absolutely alone on this chance planet; and amid all the forms of life that surround us, not one, excepting the dog has made an alliance with us.

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

If you want the best things to happen in corporate life you have to find ways to be hospitable to the unusual person. You don't get innovation as a democratic process. You almost get it as an anti-democratic process. Certainly you get it as an antithetical process, so you have to have an environment where the body of people are really amenable to change and can deal with the conflicts that arise out of change an innovation.

Trust grows when people see leaders translate their personal integrity into organizational fidelity. At the heart of fidelity lies truth-telling and promise-keeping.

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.

The simple act of recognizing diversity in corporate life helps us to connect the great variety of gifts that people bring to the work and service of the corporation.

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

We talk about the quality of product and service. What about the quality of our relationships and the quality of our communications and the quality of our promises to each other?

No question about it: potential is wrapped in great mystery. Like rainbows, which are really circles-we see only the upper halves, the horizon hides the rest-potential never reveals its entirety.

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

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

Trust comes only with genuine effort, never with a lick and a promise.

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

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

The signs of outstanding leadership appear primarily among the followers.

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.

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.

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

There may be no single thing more important in our efforts to achieve meaningful work and fulfilling relationships than to learn to practice the art of communication.

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

Earning trust is not easy, nor is it cheap, nor does it happen quickly. Earning trust is hard and demanding work. Trust comes only with genuine effort, never with a lick and a promise.

Intimacy is at the heart of competence. It has to do with understanding, with believing, and with practice. It has to do with the relationship to one's work.

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

From a leader's perspective, the most serious betrayal has to do with thwarting human potential, with quenching the spirit, with failing to deal equitably with each other as human beings.

Sometimes we think we're a little too gifted to show up, yo uknow. But none of us truly is...By avoiding risk we really risk what's most important in life---reaching toward growth, our potential, and a true contribution to a common good.

Leaders should leave behind them assets and a legacy.

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

A short term view will lead to a partial and perhaps twisted view of the whole picture. A crucial element may be missing. We may not be running the entire race. A friend of mine described a colleague as great at running the "ninety-five yard dash." That is a distinction I can do without. Lacking the last five yards makes the first ninety-five pointless. In fact, serious runners thing of it as a 110 yard dash so that no one will best them in the last few yards. You've got to think beyond the whole.

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

When we think about the people with whom we work, people on whom we depend, we can see that without each individual, we are not going to go very far as a group. By ourselves, we suffer serious limitations. Together we can be something wonderful.

We can go through anything because Jesus goes before us.

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

Without forgiveness, there can be no real freedom to act within a group.

A team of giants needs giant pitchers who throw good ideas but every pitcher needs an outstanding catcher. Without giant catchers, the ideas of the giant pitchers may eventually disappear.

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

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

Above all, leadership is a position of servanthood.

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.

Innovation is the lifeblood of an organization. Knowing how to lead and work with creative people requires knowledge and action that often goes against the typical organizational structure. Protect unusual people from bureaucracy and legalism typical of organizations.

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

Leaders don't inflict pain - they share pain.