Quote

You have to create circumstances where your first-tier leader knows what you are trying to accomplish, because he is the one who's going to get it done.

Colin Powell

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Colin Powell
Age: 87
Born: 1937
Born: April 5
Diplomat
Former United States Secretary Of State
Politician
Soldier
New York City
New York
Colin Luther Powell
Firsts
First
Done
Trying
Tier
Going
Accomplish
Circumstances
Leader
Create

More quotes by Colin Powell

Image
Don't just count your days, make your days count.
Colin Powell
Image
Always be looking for the opportunities, and always be optimistic about what you can do with that opportunity.
Colin Powell
Image
President Kennedy didn't negotiate out of the Cuban missile crisis simply because he and Khrushchev got along well. Khrushchev didn't have the cards.
Colin Powell
Image
With vision only, you get no follow-through. With enforcers only, the vision is realized but leaves a lot of wreckage.
Colin Powell
Image
Organization charts and fancy titles count for next to nothing.
Colin Powell
Image
One important element of leadership is taking care of the troops.
Colin Powell
Image
Look for intelligence and judgment and, most critically, a capacity to anticipate, to see around corners. Also look for loyalty, integrity, a high energy drive, a balanced ego and the drive to get things done.
Colin Powell
Image
War is never a happy solution, but it may be the only solution. We must exhaustively explore other possible solutions before we make the choice for war. Every political and diplomatic effort should be made to avoid war while achieving your objective.
Colin Powell
Image
There is no suggestion of regime change quite the contrary, this is an initiative to help people and to help governments who are inclined toward change.
Colin Powell
Image
It's nice to say let's be bipartisan. But we're a partisan nation. We were raised as a partisan nation.
Colin Powell
Image
Nobody is ready to leave Iraq to be interviewed.
Colin Powell
Image
Leadership is solving problems. The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help or concluded you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership.
Colin Powell
Image
We want to approach this in a multilateral way, talking with our friends, consulting with our security council colleagues in the United Nations, hoping to find a way to solve this peacefully, but at the same time recognising that unless the threat of military force is there, Iraq will not disarm.
Colin Powell
Image
But just as they did in Philadelphia when they were writing the constitution, sooner or later, you've got to compromise. You've got to start making the compromises that arrive at a consensus and move the country forward.
Colin Powell
Image
Economy's got to get moving, we've got to get the unemployment rate down. That may be the defining issue of the campaign.
Colin Powell
Image
It ain't as bad as you think. It will look better in the morning.
Colin Powell
Image
We need to understand that we as citizens and as a government in any community throughout this country have no more important obligation than to educate those who are going to replace us.
Colin Powell
Image
Don't just show kindness in passing or to be courteous. Show it in depth, show it with passion, and expect nothing in return. Kindness is not just about being nice it's about recognizing another human being who deserves care and respect.
Colin Powell
Image
We view Egypt as a good friend of America. We are in constant touch with them. We provide them economic and military assistance as part of our relationship.
Colin Powell
Image
No war on the face of the Earth is more destructive than the AIDS pandemic.
Colin Powell