Ronald A. Heifetz

Exercising leadership is an expression of your aliveness... But when you cover yourself up, you risk losing something as well. In the…

— Ronald A. Heifetz

And leadership then is about mobilizing and engaging the people with the problem rather than trying to anesthetize them so you can…

— Ronald A. Heifetz

“The person who has a disproportionate need for control, who is too hungry for power, is susceptible to losing sight of the…

— Ronald A. Heifetz

“When you need someone to talk to in difficult times, it’s tempting to try to turn a trusted ally into a confidant…

— Ronald A. Heifetz

I think that notion of leadership is bankrupt.

— Ronald A. Heifetz

Attention is the currency of leadership.

— Ronald A. Heifetz

“What happened has hurt us. Now you have to work this out.”

— Ronald A. Heifetz

But to practice leadership, you need to accept that you are in the business of generating chaos, confusion, and conflict

— Ronald A. Heifetz

“When you lead people through difficult change, you take them on an emotional roller coaster because you are asking them to relinquish…

— Ronald A. Heifetz

“You know best who you really are by watching what you do rather than listening to what you say.”

— Ronald A. Heifetz

Progress on problems is the measure of leadership; leaders mobilize people to face problems, and communities make progress on problems because leaders…

— Ronald A. Heifetz

“Win-win solutions are ideal but not common with strategic choices. When we hear someone talk "win-wins," we wonder if anything really lasting…

— Ronald A. Heifetz

“In the heat of leadership, with the adrenaline pumping, it is easy to convince yourself that you are not subject to the…

— Ronald A. Heifetz

Values are shaped and refined by rubbing against real problems, and people interpret their problems according to the values they hold.

— Ronald A. Heifetz

“Mental health professionals have said for a long time that individuals cannot adapt well to too many life changes at once. If…

— Ronald A. Heifetz

Conflict is the primary engine of creativity and innovation.

— Ronald A. Heifetz

“You stay alive in the practice of leadership by reducing the extent to which you become the target of people’s frustrations. The…

— Ronald A. Heifetz

“you cannot expect people to seriously consider your idea without accepting the possibility that they will challenge it. Accepting that process of…

— Ronald A. Heifetz

“Your goal should be to keep the temperature within what we call the productive zone of disequilibrium (PZD): enough heat generated by…

— Ronald A. Heifetz

“Having listened to people facing the end of their days, we have never heard them say, “I wish I had spent more…

— Ronald A. Heifetz

“The most common leadership failure stems from trying to apply technical solutions to adaptive challenges.”

— Ronald A. Heifetz

“Great athletes can at once play the game and observe it as a whole.”

— Ronald A. Heifetz

Conflict is the primary engine of creativity and innovation. People don't learn by staring into a mirror; people learn by encountering difference.

— Ronald A. Heifetz

“Most people instinctively follow a dominant trend in an organization or community, without critical evaluation of its merits. The herd instinct is…

— Ronald A. Heifetz

“To sustain momentum through a period of difficult change, you have to find ways to remind people of the orienting value—the positive…

— Ronald A. Heifetz