Marc A. Pitman > Quotes

“Life's short. Live passionately.”
― Marc A. Pitman

“Fundraising is an extreme sport!”
― Marc A. Pitman, Ask Without Fear!: A Simple Guide to Connecting Donors With What Matters to Them Most

“Trust that as you learn to learn about yourself, you’re developing skills that will catapult your leadership and make you invaluable to your organization and those you lead.”
― Marc A. Pitman, The Surprising Gift of Doubt: Use Uncertainty to Become the Exceptional Leader You Are Meant to Be

“Your hardwiring helps you discover your unique way of interacting with and making sense of the world. And it gives you perspective, an ability to see why other people seem to interpret work so differently.”
― Marc A. Pitman, The Surprising Gift of Doubt: Use Uncertainty to Become the Exceptional Leader You Are Meant to Be

“Leaders need to consider three types of hardwiring—Behaviors, Abilities, Motivations—that work together to describe the unique gifts, talents, and spin that you can bring to work.”
― Marc A. Pitman, The Surprising Gift of Doubt: Use Uncertainty to Become the Exceptional Leader You Are Meant to Be

“Real growth comes only after the dark night of the soul, when they feel they don’t have what it takes and choose to persist, to reflect on themselves, learn from their mistakes, and struggle to apply what they’ve learned.”
― Marc A. Pitman, The Surprising Gift of Doubt: Use Uncertainty to Become the Exceptional Leader You Are Meant to Be

“Most plans or formulas force you to fit into their molds, imposing their structures on you.
You can create your own “curriculum”.”
― Marc A. Pitman, The Surprising Gift of Doubt: Use Uncertainty to Become the Exceptional Leader You Are Meant to Be

“As you work on identity, you will discover clues about yourself in three different types of stories: the stories you tell, the stories you like, and the stories you hear from others. You will be blown away by how much you will learn about the role you can play in your own story.”
― Marc A. Pitman, The Surprising Gift of Doubt: Use Uncertainty to Become the Exceptional Leader You Are Meant to Be

“The motivation is already inside of you, and it has been trying to get your attention for a long time.”
― Marc A. Pitman, The Surprising Gift of Doubt: Use Uncertainty to Become the Exceptional Leader You Are Meant to Be

“Take time for yourself to find out who you are at the core. Knowing who you are apart from a group will make you even more effective in front of a group.”
― Marc A. Pitman, The Surprising Gift of Doubt: Use Uncertainty to Become the Exceptional Leader You Are Meant to Be

“That doubt you are trying to suppress is a precious gift. It is an invitation to become a better, more integrated, and effective leader than you ever imagined possible.”
― Marc A. Pitman, The Surprising Gift of Doubt: Use Uncertainty to Become the Exceptional Leader You Are Meant to Be

“Paying attention to how people react can help you grow your ability to use your strengths without unintentionally slowing your team down.”
― Marc A. Pitman, The Surprising Gift of Doubt: Use Uncertainty to Become the Exceptional Leader You Are Meant to Be

“The secret to growing as a leader is that you have to do some inner work, none of which can be done for you. And there are no guarantees. Your personal work is what will ultimately transform your leadership.”
― Marc A. Pitman, The Surprising Gift of Doubt: Use Uncertainty to Become the Exceptional Leader You Are Meant to Be

“Try to catch yourself going down the rabbit hole of planning for emergencies, especially when planning prevents you from acting. Your desire to explore all potential failures could be coming across as attacking your team’s intelligence.”
― Marc A. Pitman, The Surprising Gift of Doubt: Use Uncertainty to Become the Exceptional Leader You Are Meant to Be

“Be aware that although you do not need interactions with others, your team needs to interact with you.”
― Marc A. Pitman, The Surprising Gift of Doubt: Use Uncertainty to Become the Exceptional Leader You Are Meant to Be

“Your personal style, mission, and values can be found in the overlay of hardwiring, identity, and goals. And when all of these qualities work together in you, you find integrity at your career.”
― Marc A. Pitman, The Surprising Gift of Doubt: Use Uncertainty to Become the Exceptional Leader You Are Meant to Be

“Personal mission touches into the fundamental ways you operate and your professional and life goals. Developing even a rudimentary sense of your mission helps you navigate the pressures of leading. It acts like a compass, something you can check in on, to see if you’re still on track.”
― Marc A. Pitman, The Surprising Gift of Doubt: Use Uncertainty to Become the Exceptional Leader You Are Meant to Be

“Core values live where identity and goals overlap—they touch into who you are at your depths and how you express what is important to you through your actions. Take the time to start identifying what you value and communicate that and your company’s values through all levels of your organization.”
― Marc A. Pitman, The Surprising Gift of Doubt: Use Uncertainty to Become the Exceptional Leader You Are Meant to Be

“To grow, you must discover what you really want. You need to reserve energy for acting on your priorities, not spending it all on fostering harmony.”
― Marc A. Pitman, The Surprising Gift of Doubt: Use Uncertainty to Become the Exceptional Leader You Are Meant to Be

“Pay attention to intuitional goals. When they appear, they come up for a good reason. They speak to your priorities and they might just support you in ways your more analytical side couldn’t dream of.”
― Marc A. Pitman, The Surprising Gift of Doubt: Use Uncertainty to Become the Exceptional Leader You Are Meant to Be

“Leadership is a journey that includes four stages of development: 1) copying what you see others doing, 2) seeking out experts, 3) listening to your own hunches and gifts, and 4) becoming a whole leader by blending both external and internal sources.”
― Marc A. Pitman, The Surprising Gift of Doubt: Use Uncertainty to Become the Exceptional Leader You Are Meant to Be

“Knowing your personality type helps you slow down your habitual reactions so that you become more aware of living in that space, growing increasingly free from those unexamined habits.”
― Marc A. Pitman, The Surprising Gift of Doubt: Use Uncertainty to Become the Exceptional Leader You Are Meant to Be

“Learn to appreciate others around you. Their ability to enter into the fullness of your individuality doesn’t necessarily mean they are being inauthentic or shallow.”
― Marc A. Pitman, The Surprising Gift of Doubt: Use Uncertainty to Become the Exceptional Leader You Are Meant to Be

“Developing a strategic plan—complete with cascading goals—is hard work. But it can energize you, your team, and provide focus for all your work together.”
― Marc A. Pitman, The Surprising Gift of Doubt: Use Uncertainty to Become the Exceptional Leader You Are Meant to Be

“You’re a high performer. It’s time to shed the doubt.”
― Marc A. Pitman, The Surprising Gift of Doubt: Use Uncertainty to Become the Exceptional Leader You Are Meant to Be

“Weekly planning allows you the flexibility to work around inevitable interruptions and the focus to keep moving your most important goals forward. As you build this habit of the weekly review into your life, the repetition will keep prioritizing your most important goals and relationships.”
― Marc A. Pitman, The Surprising Gift of Doubt: Use Uncertainty to Become the Exceptional Leader You Are Meant to Be

“A leader will always have tasks that aren’t life-giving, but learning your natural abilities frees you to test accomplishing these responsibilities in ways that are more in line with your innate talents. This reduces stress and fill your work with renewed energy and purpose.”
― Marc A. Pitman, The Surprising Gift of Doubt: Use Uncertainty to Become the Exceptional Leader You Are Meant to Be

“Be aware of your amazing ability to reflexively reframe negative experiences into positive ones. Reframing can help people see the good in a situation, but it can also mask a deep-seated need to avoid slowing down or being bored. Many in your team will benefit from periods of slow and steady work.”
― Marc A. Pitman, The Surprising Gift of Doubt: Use Uncertainty to Become the Exceptional Leader You Are Meant to Be

“Be careful of your tendency to blow off other people’s feelings. Emotions can slow down a process, but you will ultimately be even more efficient if you pause long enough to listen to the other person.”
― Marc A. Pitman, The Surprising Gift of Doubt: Use Uncertainty to Become the Exceptional Leader You Are Meant to Be

“Stock plotlines—the themes people tell themselves so that they can build on the positive ones and create alternatives for the negative ones—happen in organizations and teams, and identifying them helps us decide whether we want to keep them or change them.”
― Marc A. Pitman, The Surprising Gift of Doubt: Use Uncertainty to Become the Exceptional Leader You Are Meant to Be