Top 35 Susan Scott Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “Our work, our relationships, and our lives succeed or fail one conversation at a time. While no single conversation is guaranteed to transform a company, a relationship, or a life, any single conversation can. Speak and listen as if this is the most important conversation you will ever have with this person. It could be. Participate as if it matters. It does.”

— Susan Scott

2. “Never be afraid of the conversations you are having. Be afraid of the conversations you are not having.”

— Susan Scott

3. “Yes, the conversation is the relationship. One conversation at a time, you are building, destroying, or flatlining your relationships.”

— Susan Scott

4. “While no single conversation is guaranteed to change the trajectory of a relationship, any single conversation can.”

— Susan Scott

5. “Our work, our relationships, and our lives succeed or fail one conversation at a time.”

— Susan Scott

6. “The problem named is the problem solved.”

— Susan Scott

7. “There is something within us that responds deeply to people who level with us.”

— Susan Scott

8. “The question is: Who owns the truth about what color the company is? The answer? Every single person in the company, including the entry-level file clerk, owns a piece of the truth about what color the company is. The operative word is piece. No one, not even the CEO, owns the entire truth, because no one can be in all places at all times.”

— Susan Scott

9. “Principle 4: Tackle your toughest challenge today. Burnout doesn’t occur because we’re solving problems; it occurs because we’ve been trying to solve the same problem over and over. The problem named is the problem solved. Identify and then confront the real obstacles in your path. Stay current with the people important to your success and happiness. Travel light, agenda-free.”

— Susan Scott

10. “The great differentiator going forward, the next frontier for exponential growth, the place where individuals and organizations will find a new and sustainable competitive edge, resides in the area of human connectivity.”

— Susan Scott

11. “In any situation, the person who can most accurately describe reality without laying blame will emerge as the leader, whether designated or not. Here’s.”

— Susan Scott

12. “I want us all to stop thinking only in terms of accomplishments, of task and completion, of beating the competition, of gathering income and merchandise, of winning praise, and instead, live our lives forging the deepest relationships we can with ourselves and with one another. i want us to respond to adversity by deepening our engagement in our lives. It isn’t complicated.”

— Susan Scott

13. “I talk about the purposes of fierce conversations. Interrogate reality. Provoke learning. Tackle tough challenges. Enrich relationships.”

— Susan Scott

14. “The point is – if you want something from me, tell me! If you’re upset with me, tell me! If there’s something you want me to do or stop doing, tell me! If I said something that didn’t go down well with you, stop the conversation right then and there and tell me! And if you’re happy with me, tell me!”

— Susan Scott

15. “Ask yourself, “How did I get here? How is it that I find myself in a company, a role, a relationship, or a life from which I’ve absented my spirit? How did I lose my way?”

— Susan Scott

16. “At Sundance, Robert Redford begins meetings by saying, “I am inviting you to influence me. I want to be different when this meeting is over.”

— Susan Scott

17. “If you want to see someone in real pain, watch someone who knows who he is and defaults on it on a regular basis. – PAT MURRAY One.”

— Susan Scott

18. “Authenticity is not something you have – it’s something you choose. In.”

— Susan Scott

19. “I have not yet witnessed a spontaneous recovery from incompetence.”

— Susan Scott

20. “The experience of being understood, versus interpreted, is so compelling you can charge admission.”

— Susan Scott

21. “A leader’s job is to get it right for the organization, not to be right.”

— Susan Scott

22. “The idea I want you to embrace is that our relationships thrive, flatline, or fail, gradually then suddenly – one conversation at a time.”

— Susan Scott

23. “In Henry David Thoreau’s Walden, written during his year in a one-room cabin with few possessions, is this quote: “The cost of a thing is the amount of what I will call life that is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run.”

— Susan Scott

24. “Err on the side of inclusion, rather than exclusion. Send.”

— Susan Scott

25. “We resent being talked to. We’d rather be talked with. So will all of the experts and the terminally self-absorbed please leave the room and close the door behind you? Thanks.”

— Susan Scott

26. “I shared what I feel is the right way to go, the right course of action, and I suspect some of you may see it differently. If you do, I’d like to hear it. I know that my enthusiasm may make it hard to challenge me, but my job is to make the best possible decisions for the organization, not to persuade you of my viewpoint. So please speak up.” This is an unusual and highly appealing way to begin a meeting. At.”

— Susan Scott

27. “Whenever I feel we are being less than we could be, we talk about it. It’s not always a long conversation. Sometimes it’s simply a reminder that we could settle for mediocrity or we could create something truly exceptional. Our relationship is wonderful because it’s a decision we make over and over.”

— Susan Scott

28. “I am reminded of the story of the man who visits a Zen master. The man asks, “What truths can you teach me?” The master replies, “Do you like tea?” The man nods his head, and the master pours him a cup of tea. The cup fills and the tea spills. Still the master pours. The man, of course, protests, and the master responds, “Return to me when you are empty.” The lesson here is that we need to empty ourselves of our preconceived beliefs in order to be open to a broader, more complex reality.”

— Susan Scott

29. “The first thing the attendees saw when they walked in was a poster with the question “What are our mokitas?” – a Papua New Guinea word for that which everyone knows and no one will speak of: the elephant in the room.”

— Susan Scott

30. “A friend who is a high-level executive, intimidating to many, recently promoted a courageous employee who walked into his office with a large bucket of sand and poured it on the rug. “What the hell are you doing?” demanded my friend. The employee replied, “I just figured I’d make it easier for you to bury your head in the sand on the topic I keep bringing up and you keep avoiding.” You.”

— Susan Scott

31. “What has you roaring like a bull with his prick hung in a fence?”

— Susan Scott

32. “Forbidden fruit makes a wonderful wine.” Vazco gave him a leading look. “But leaves a hell of a headache.”

— Susan Scott

33. “Your version of reality is as good as anybody’s.”

— Susan Scott

34. “A friend who is a high-level executive, intimidating to many, recently promoted a courageous employee who walked into his office with a large bucket of sand and poured it on the rug. “What the hell are you doing?” demanded my friend. The.”

— Susan Scott

35. “We resent being talked to. We’d rather be talked with.”

— Susan Scott

36. “Unreal conversations are expensive, for the individual and the organization.”

— Susan Scott