Skip to content

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 in in the depths of an organization where small things reside. The more senior you become, the more you are isolated by pomp and staff, and the harder and more necessary it becomes to know what is going on six floors down. One way is to leave the top floor and its grand accoutrements and get down into the bowels for real. Don't tell anyone you are coming. Avoid advance notices that produce crash cleanups, frantic preparations, and PowerPoint presentations.

— Colin Powell It Worked For Me (2012)

Another quote →

Topics

Leadership

More quotes by Colin Powell

I don't think I have anything to be ashamed of or apologize for with respect to what America has done for the world.

There can be no doubt that Saddam Hussein has biological weapons and the capability to rapidly produce more, many more.

Our strategy in going after this army is very simple. First we are going to cut it off, and then we are going to kill it.

I may be down, but never out. An infantry officer can do anything.

It Worked For Me (2012)

But there comes a time when soft power or talking with evil will not work where, unfortunately, hard power is the only thing that works.

All Colin Powell quotes →

You may also like

Political leaders are never leaders. For leaders we have to look to the Awakeners! Lao Tse, Buddha, Socrates, Jesus, Milarepa, Gurdjiev, Krishnamurti.

Henry Miller My Bike & Other Friends (1977)

It's simply to say that managers and investors alike must understand that accounting numbers is the beginning, not the end, of business valuation.

Warren Buffett Letters to Shareholders (1957)

Wars may be fought with weapons, but they are won by men. It is the spirit of the men who follow and of the man who leads that gains the victory.

George S. Patton

Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do, and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.

George S. Patton War As I Knew It (1947)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Colin Powell (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.