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Don't be a bottleneck. If a matter is not a decision for the President or you, delegate it. Force responsibility down and out. Find problem areas, add structure and delegate. The pressure is to do the reverse. Resist it.
Donald Rumsfeld
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Donald Rumsfeld
Age: 88 †
Born: 1932
Born: July 9
Died: 2021
Died: June 29
Author
Businessperson
Diplomat
Former U.S. Secretary Of Defense
Military Officer
Politician
Chicago
Illinois
Donald Henry Rumsfeld
President
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Find
Areas
Bottleneck
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Structure
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Pressure
Delegation
Decision
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Responsibility
Delegates
Force
Resist
More quotes by Donald Rumsfeld
You might be a cunning linguist, but I am a master debater.
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I believe what I said yesterday. I don't know what I said, but I know what I think and I assume it's what I said.
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General Boykin has requested that an inspector general review this matter. And I have indicated that if that's his request, I think it's appropriate.
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Look for what's missing. Many advisors can tell a President how to improve what's proposed or what's gone amiss. Few are able to see what isn't there.
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Control your time. If you're working off your in-box, you're working off the priorities of others. Be sure the staff is working on what you move to them from the President, or the President will be reacting, not leading.
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Napoleon was asked, Who do you consider to be the greatest generals? He responded saying, The victors.
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In our system leadership is by consent, not command. To lead a President must persuade. Personal contacts and experiences help shape his thinking. They can be critical to his persuasiveness and thus to his leadership.
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It's a difficult thing today to be informed about our government even without all the secrecy.
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There's another way to phrase that and that is that the absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence. It is basically saying the same thing in a different way. Simply because you do not have evidence that something does exist does not mean that you have evidence that it doesn't exist.
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Work continuously to trim the White House staff from your first day to your last. All the pressures are to the contrary.
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First rule of politics: you can't win unless you're on the ballot. Second rule: If you run, you may lose. And, if you tie, you do not win.
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When I served as US Ambassador to NATO in the 1970s, the center of gravity in Europe was France and Germany.
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If in doubt, don't. If still in doubt, do what's right.
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Be precise. A lack of precision is dangerous when the margin of error is small.
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The purpose of terrorism is to terrorize. It's to change the behavior of the people that are being terrorized.
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I think we ought to have a new rule: You can ask two questions, and then we can pick the one we want to answer.
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Don't necessarily avoid sharp edges. Occasionally they are necessary to leadership.
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You can have a broad popular democracy movement and have it end being taken over by the most vicious people and the result is you don't end up with free political systems or free economic systems, you end up with a handful of radicals controlling the country.
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