Colin Powell Quotes About Decisions

Quotes about: Decisions

• 1. It ain't as bad as you think. It will look better in the morning.
  2. Get mad, then get over it.
  3. Avoid having your ego so close to your position that when your position falls, your ego goes with it.
  4. It can be done!
  5. Be careful what you choose. You may get it.
  6. Don't let adverse facts stand in the way of a good decision.
  7. You can't make someone else's choices. You shouldn't let someone else make yours.
  8. Check small things.
  9. Share credit.
  10. Remain calm. Be kind.

  Colin Powell

  Morning, Fall, Thinking

  Colin L. Powell, Joseph E. Persico (2010). “My American Journey”, p.886, Ballantine Books

• When we are debating an issue, loyalty means giving me your honest opinion, whether you think I'll like it or not. Disagreement, at this state, stimulates me. But once a decision is made, the debate ends. From that point on, loyalty means executing the decision as if it were your own.

  Colin Powell

  Loyalty, Mean, Thinking

• Being kind doesn't mean being soft or a wuss. Kindness is not a sign of weakness. It is a sign of confidence. If you have developed a reputation for kindness and consideration, then even the most unpleasant decisions will go down easier because everyone will understand why you are doing what you are doing. They will realize that your decision must be necessary, and is not arbitrary or without empathy. As the old saying puts it, 'To the world, you may be one person, but to one person you may be the world.'

  Colin Powell

  Kindness, Mean, Empathy

• Our failure was that our intelligence community thought [Saddam Hussein ] had stockpiled weapons of mass destruction. That was a mistake. There is fallibility in human intelligence and in human decisions.

  Colin Powell

  Mistake, Mass Destruction, Community

  Source: www.egonzehnder.com

• So has the strategic decision been made to disarm Iraq of its weapons of mass destruction by the leadership in Baghdad? I think our judgment has to be clearly not.

  Colin Powell

  Thinking, Iraq, Wmd

  Colin Powell Response to reports from U.N. weapons inspectors to the U.N. Security Council, edition.cnn.com. March 7, 2003.

• Don't let adverse facts stand in the way of a good decision.

  Colin Powell

  Adversity, Decision, Way

  Colin L. Powell, Joseph E. Persico (2010). “My American Journey”, p.886, Ballantine Books

• I always like to take my time and examine the two candidates, see not only the two candidates but the policies they will bring in, the people they will bring in, who they might appoint to the Supreme Court, and look at the whole range of issues before making a decision.

  Colin Powell

  Two, Issues, People

  "The Tavis Smiley Show" with Tavis Smiley, www.pbs.org. June 11, 2012.

• Nobody has ever said in the United States government that we are going to war next month. No decision has been made by the president because, as he said to the United Nations, he wants the United Nations to live up to its responsibilities and he wants Saddam Hussein to cooperate.

  Colin Powell

  War, Responsibility, Government

  Source: www.theguardian.com

• Decision-making is lonely.

  Colin Powell

  Lonely, Decision, Decision Making

  Source: www.egonzehnder.com

• Good and solid analysis and a formal way of looking at a problem [are the core ingredients of good decisions].

  Colin Powell

  Decision, Analysis, Way

  Source: www.egonzehnder.com

• If everybody trusts one another, then the person who didn't prevail will faithfully execute the decision as if it was their idea.

  Colin Powell

  Ideas, Decision, Persons

  Source: www.egonzehnder.com

• Always find different ways to accomplish the mission. Then run a counter-analysis and list the advantages and disadvantages. When you have done that, you are ready to make a decision.

  Colin Powell

  Running, Decision, Way

  Source: www.egonzehnder.com

• In the army we are drilled into execution and then supervision, to make sure everything goes the way you planned it. But there is another thing that we do in the military, that I think perhaps isn't done enough in corporate life: As soon as you have made that decision, you start on the contingency planning. Because there is, as we like to say, a thinking, breathing enemy out there, who is not going to let you do just what you want.

  Colin Powell

  Military, Army, Thinking

  Source: www.egonzehnder.com

• Generally you should act somewhere between P40 and P70, as I call it. Sometime after you have obtained 40 percent of all the information you are liable to get, start thinking in terms of making a decision. When you have about 70 percent of all the information, you probably ought to decide, because you may lose an opportunity in losing time.

  Colin Powell

  Opportunity, Thinking, Decision

  Source: www.egonzehnder.com

• In the military, we are also taught to only use one third of the available decision-making time, so that our subordinates have time to go through their own decision processes when they learn what we want them to do.

  Colin Powell

  Military, Decision, Use

  Source: www.egonzehnder.com

• Everybody makes bad decisions. I am sure I have made my share of them over 40 years of service. Or I have made good decisions and have been overruled. The real challenge, when you are overruled, is to remember who the boss is and don't take it personally.

  Colin Powell

  Real, Years, Decision

  Source: www.egonzehnder.com

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