GRE写作素材Section Five: Politics

　　1. Proverbs

　　 The ultimate responsibility of a leader is to facilitate other peoples development as well as his own.

　　 The leaders task, then, is to create an environment that is conducive to self-motivation.

　　 If people are coming to work excited if theyre making mistakes freely and fearlessly if theyre having fun if theyre concentrating on doing things, rather than preparing reports and going to meetings-then somewhere you have a leader.

　　 As a manager, the important thing is not what happens when you are there but what happens when you are not there.

　　 To be a leader means willingness to risk-and a willingness to love. Has the leader given you something from the heart?

　　 A business is a reflection of the leader. A fish doesnt stink just from the tail, and a company doesnt succeed or fail from the bottom.

　　 Perhaps more than anything else, leadership is about the creation of a new way of life.

　　 The world of the 90s and beyond will not belong to managers or those who make the numbers dance, as we used to say, or those who are conversant with all the business and jargon we use to sound smart. The world will belong to passionate, driven leaders-people who not only have an enormous amount of energy but who can energize those whom they lead.

　　 There are countless ways of attaining greatness, but any road to reaching ones maximum potential must be built on bedrock of respect for the individual, a commitment to excellence, and a rejection of mediocrity.

　　 The first and last task of a leader is to keep hope alivethe hope that we can finally find our way through to a better worlddespite the days action, despite our own inertness and shallowness and wavering resolve.

　　 Leadership is a sacrificeit is self denialit is love, it is fearlessness, and it is humidity, and it is in the perfectly disciplined will. This is also the distinction between great and little people. The harder you work, the harder it is to surrender.

　　 The role of the leader is to enhance, transform, coach, care, trust, and cheerlead. The activists of the leader are to educate, sponsor, coach, and counsel using appropriate timing, tone, consequences, and skills.

　　 Leaders know that the higher up you go, the more gently down you reach.

　　 Ill tell you what makes a great manager: a great manager has a knack for making ballplayers think they are better than they think they are. He forces you to have a good opinion of yourself. He lets you know he believes in you. He makes you get more out of yourself. And once you learn how good you really are, you never settle for playing anything less than youre very best.

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

　　2. What Makes a Leader?

　　Practically every human endeavor requires leadership. Zig Ziglar says, Even a two-car parade gets fouled up if you dont decide ahead of time thats going to lead.

　　Once we know who is leading, it is critical for the leader to know how to lead. What qualities do effective leaders possess? How do they go about managing the affairs of the company while maintaining the loyalty of employees? What sets apart the mediocre from the excellent leader?

　　Harold Green, who built ITT from a little company into a massive conglomerate, provides a suitable introduction to this issue of leadership. In his book, Managing, he says this about the art of leadership: Leadership is the very heart and soul of business management. No one really manages a business by shuffling the numbers or rearranging organizational charts or tallying the latest business school formulas. What you manage in business is a person To my mind, the quality of leadership is the single most important ingredient in the recipe of business success.

　　Leaders lead people. A leader is one whom others consistently follow. People follow because they have a brief in the direction, integrity and competence of the one leading.

　　Irwin Federman, president and CEO of Monolithic Memories, one of the most successful of the high-tech companies in Silicon Valley, illustrates this brilliantly in the following quote: If you think about it, people love others not for who they are, but for how they make us feel. We willingly follow others for much the same reason. It makes us feel good to do so. Now, we also follow platoon sergeants, self-centered geniuses, demanding spouses, bosses of various persuasions and others, for a variety of reasons as well. But none of those reasons involves that persons leadership qualities. In order to willingly accept the direction of another individual, it must feel good to do so. This business of making another person feels good in the unspectacular courses of his daily comings and goings is, in my view, the very essence of leadership.

　　Management consultant and author, Joe Batten, wrote: The tough-minded leader always gives high touch primacy over high tech. in short, people firsttechnology second.

　　J. Willard Marriott, chairman of the board of the enormously successful hotel chain, was asked: How do you manage to be fair and nice with people and yet demand excellence from them?

　　Well, its tough-minded management, which basically says that you treat people right and fair and decent, and in return they give their all for you.

　　Leaders love people. They expect the best from them. Sensitivity to employee needs, wants and concerns is at the top of their priorities. The courage to make decisions based on whats right for people governs their day-to-day responsibilities. People respond to such leadership.