"Leadership is the ability to hide your panic from…

“Leadership is the ability to hide your panic from others” is a popular saying meaning that leaders must remain calm while making tough decisions. “The greatest quality of leadership is the ability to hide your panic from the others” has been cited in print since at least 1984, but the authorship is unknown.

Google Books indicates that the saying is in the book Leadership (1975) by Warren G. Bennis, but there is no preview.

OCLC WorldCat
Leadership
Author: Warren G Bennis
Publisher: Cincinnati : University of Cincinnati, [1975]̉
Edition/Format: Book : English

Google News Archive
27 October 1984, The Blade (Toledo, OH), “In A Nutshell,” pg. 8, col. 2:
The greatest quality of leadership is the ability to hide your panic from the others.

Google News Archive
26 May 1985, Spartanburg (SC) Herald-Journal, “The Stroller” by Seymour Rosenberg,
Leadership is the ability to hide your panic from others.

Google Books
Illustrations Unlimited
By James S. Hewett
Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers
1988
Pg. 313:
Leadership is the ability to hide your panic from the others.

Google Books
The Key to Great Leadership:
Rediscovering the principles of outstanding service: Lessons from the front lines of the world’s best service companies
By Peter Burwash
Badger, CA : Torchlight Pub.
2007
Pg. 153:
And to end on a more humorous note: I recently read a great definition of leadership which said, “It’s the ability to hide your panic from others.”

Google Books
Bulletproof Your Business Now:
Essential advice you need to survive tough times in business
By Andrew Griffiths
Crows Nest, N.S.W.: Allen & Unwin
2009
Pg. 36:
Leadership has been defined as the ability to hide your panic from others.
Unknown

GaryWinters.com
Leadership: The ability to hide your panic from others…
Posted on February 9, 2010 by Gary Winters
I came across some thought-provoking quotes on leadership today that I hadn’t seen before, so I thought I’d share them with you.

“Leadership has been defined as the ability to hide your panic from others.”
Anonymous
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COMMENTS
Gary Winters says:
February 13, 2010 at 2:43 am
Don, on one level I don’t agree with the first quote either, but here’s where it makes sense. Suppose you’re a leader about to launch a new product, or marketing campaign, or call for an onside kick to start the second half of the SuperBowl. Inside, you may be “quaking in your boots,” but for the staff, or the team, you want to appear to be confident and calm. You might feel “panic” inside but you don’t want to rattle the others, and you certainly don’t want them catching your “dis-ease.” So…you hide your panic, and with quiet confidence, you launch the product or campaign or second half of the SuperBowl.